A determined 85-year-old woman, Christiana Akpunonu, has defied the odds to achieve one of the highest academic milestones, earning a PhD after decades of setbacks and sacrifice.
She earned her doctoral degree in Media and Arts from the University of Abuja, Nigeria. Her story is a powerful reminder that it is never too late to achieve your dreams, no matter how long the journey takes.
Christiana's Story and How She Did It
Christiana’s journey began in the early 1960s, when she was forced to drop out of school because her parents could not afford her fees.
Her father, a poor farmer, struggled to keep her education going, and at one point, it seemed her academic journey had come to an end. She was chased home from school.
But her father did not want her education to end there. To find a solution, he walked into a church he had helped build and made a bold promise that, whether he was alive or not, his daughter would complete her education.
That promise stayed with her, and the church helped to sponsor Christiana’s secondary school education.
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After leaving school, while her classmates moved on to university, Christiana had to find work, not to build a career, but to repay the debt her father had taken on her behalf.
She joined the Nigerian Police as a cadet and, month after month, worked tirelessly to pay back what was owed. By the time she finished, many of her peers had already gone far ahead.
“It looked like they were running, and I was just crawling,” she recalled. Still, she made a quiet but powerful decision: wherever they got to, she would get there too.
Her journey was anything but easy. At every stage, financial challenges resurfaced. She combined work with study, borrowed money when necessary, and repaid it bit by bit, all while pushing forward.
“It has always been like that, borrowing, paying back, and still moving forward,” she said. Years later, her persistence paid off.
At 85, Christiana earned her PhD in Media Arts from the University of Abuja, a moment that represents far more than an academic achievement.
For her, it is the fulfillment of a promise made many years ago in a small church—a promise carried through hardship, delay, and unwavering determination.
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