Sarki Abba: a boy who scored 9As in WASSCE but was forced to rewrite

Social media users cannot believe it when news emerged that a Nigerian boy, Sarki Abba at age 16 made the examinations of WAEC look like kids play and was ‘punished’ for it. In a post shared on Facebook, a Nigerian blogger broke the news. Bizarrely, this happened nearly four decades ago in 1984.

Partaking in the 1984 WASSCE in Nigeria was 16-year-old Sarki Abba from Kano State. When the results were released, Sarki scored 9As in the examination. That performance prompted the council to suspect foul play and made the boy rewrite the papers. However, differently from the first, the boy wrote under strict supervision. And if your guess is right, he got the same thing; 9As.

Shockingly, he even bettered his scores in the exam which he retook in Lagos. In the first exam, he had an A2 in English, but following the retake, he got an A1, making his score even perfect. Authorities apologized to Sarki for doubting his intellect.

Well, six years after Sarki’s performance, he graduated from medical school at Ahmadu Bello University as the Overall Best Medical Student and the Overall Best Graduating student in the 1989/90 session. He was just 21 years old.

Read the full post about Sarki Abba

Meet Sarki Abba from Kano State, the genius that was made to rewrite WASCE after scoring 9 distinctions In 1984, 16-year-old Abba, a student of Science Secondary School Dawakin Tofa, scored 9 distinctions (8 A1 and 1 A2) in his West African Senior School Certificate (WASCE) Exams.

Examination authorities in Lagos didn’t believe Abba made those excellent scores without cheating. The authorities provided a car that took Abba to Lagos in order to retake the exam. Abba was made to take the 9 exams in a duration of 3 days, under heavy supervision.

After marking the rescheduled exams, he scored 9 A1 (the only ‘A2’ he had in English Language before the retake, became ‘A1’ resulted to 9 A1) Faced with shock, the authorities apologized and instituted the National Merit Award. And, rightfully, Sarki Abba was the first recipient of the award.

In 1989/90 school session, 21, Sarki Abba graduated as OVERALL BEST Medical Student, and OVERALL BEST Graduating Student at ABU, Zaria— he was just 21.

These are the kinds of stuff our sons and daughters should be inspired by, not rubbish like BB Naija. O Lord, please, save our country!

Now known as Sarki Abba Abdulkadir, he is the John T. Grayhack Professor of Urological Research, Vice Chair for Research, and Professor of Urology and Pathology at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, Chicago. His research area is in cancer with particular interest in prostate cancer.