A brilliant Nigerian man named Tunde Alawode who once sold sachet water and achieved a remarkable 4.93 cumulative grade point to emerge the best-graduating student of the University of Lagos has bagged his Ph.D. from Massachusetts Institute of Technology, United States within two years.

Tunde Alawode who narrated his story on Twitter stated that he grew up in Lagos, Nigeria selling sachet water and grinding pepper as a salesboy to survive. Despite his poor upbringing, he remained excellent in his studies scoring 8As of distinction in the 9 subjects he sat for in his West African Senior Secondary School Certificate examination.

Tunde also achieved a score of 298 over 400 points in his Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination which enabled him gain admission into the University of Lagos, Nigeria. He bagged his bachelor of science degree in Mechanical Engineering from the university with a 4.93 over 5.00 possible cumulative grade point.

He was awarded the overall best-graduating student of the 2009/2010 academic year. After graduation, Tunde said he wrote the Graduate Record Examination, a multiple-choice, computer-based, standardized exam that is often required for admission to graduate programs and graduate business programs (MBA) globally.

He said he took the exam while serving in the National Youth Service (NYSC) and also had a full-time job, traveling weekly between Lagos and Abuja. Even with all the challenges, Tunde achieved a remarkable score of 333 out of 340 in the rigorous test.

Furthering on, Tunde proceeded to bag his first master’s degree in Mechanical Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 2012. He then obtained another Masters’ degree in Material Science and Engineering at the same university the following year.