Hope Imoh Monday. from Ika Local Government Area of Akwa Ibom State, is 22 years old. Her parents, who are both palm oil traders, live in the village with four of her siblings.

Hope, a relentless university admission seeker, finished her secondary school education in 2016. Between 2017 and 2018, she became a fashion design apprentice in Port Harcourt, after which her uncle bought her a sewing machine to trade with. The story of Hope, who sells curtain materials near the campus of the University of Uyo, for survival and to become useful to herself, her parents, and society, mirrors the existential struggles an average Niger Delta girl from villages in Akwa Ibom goes through.

Hear her story: “In 2019, I left the village to Uyo to take my first JAMB. I scored 222, but UNIUYO did not give me admission into English Education. “I was learning interior decoration then.

So, after that, I had to learn how to sew wears between 2019 and 2021. “I took JAMB again in 2021 but I didn’t meet the cut-off mark. I scored 180.

So, I didn’t get admission. “At that point, I was fed up. I started a shop at Abak Local Government Area.

“After some time, I heard about the Joint Universities Preliminary Examinations Board (JUPEB). When I took the exam, and in the period of waiting for my admission, I started schooling at Abak Campus, University of Uyo. “I later checked my JAMB status and realised that I wasn’t admitted.

I stopped. I scored 10 points instead of 16 points. I didn’t ge.