Boy,9, becomes Nigeria’s youngest Microsoft certified professional

A primary six pupil of Role Model
School, Oregun, Ikeja, Lagos, has
emerged one of the youngest pupils to
obtain the Microsoft Certified
Professional certificate, SAMUEL
AWOYINFA reports
A nine-year-old pupil of Role Model
School, Oregun, Ikeja, Lagos, Jomiloju
Tunde-Oladipo, has emerged the
youngest Nigerian Microsoft certified
professional.
He came tops among 21 pupils who sat
for the professional examination in
Lagos.
He is now a Microsoft office specialist in
office word 2010.
Jomiloju scored 769 out of 1,000 in the
examination held in August.
In his examination score report, the
slim-built boy performed well in Sharing
and Maintaining Documents, Formatting
Content, Applying Page Layout, and
Reusable Content, among other
subjects.
By the feat, Jomiloju has joined the
league of young Microsoft certified
professionals, including Nigeria’s 10-
year-old Anjolaoluwa Seyi-Ojo; an
eight-year-old Indian, Lavishnashree,
and two Pakistanis, named Arfa and
Thobani.
Microsoft Certified Professional is a
certification programme provided by
Microsoft Corporation. The certification
is tailored towards building skills on
Microsoft business solutions, focusing on
client-end operating systems such as
windows XP, Vista, Windows7 among
others.
Jomiloju, whose certificate was signed
by the Chief Executive Officer, Microsoft
Corporation, Steven Ballmer, says he did
not achieve this feat easily, but through
persistence and hard work.
He says, “It was not all that easy,
because I had attempted the
examination last year, I did not make it
then. But I remained focused and I put
in a lot of hard work.
“At home and in the school, I am always
on the computer. After school hours, if
am not doing anything, I will go to my
Information Communication Technology
teacher, to learn more.”
Jomiloju sat for the examination when
he was in primary Five.
Relating his experience, Jomiloju says,
“In all, I answered 20 questions, after
answering a question, the computer
takes you to another one. And at times,
there will be an instruction to skip the
next question. But the programme still
directs one to come back to those
questions one had earlier skipped.”
But was he really scared having failed
once to meet the cut off mark? He
stresses that he was really afraid due to
his earlier experience but he was
optimistic of having success, because
according to him, he has prepared well.
He also gives kudos to his parents, Mr.
and Mrs. Tunde-Ladipo, for their
support and imbuing in him the ‘can do’
spirit in achieving the success.
He says, “My mum and dad were very
supportive. They always tell me never
to give up and eventually it paid off.
Moreover, they had bought the latest
Dell laptop. Again, I am always
fascinated about computer. The way it
works and the process, and the way it
organises data.”
Jomiloju who is a left-handed writer,
according to his parents, has been a
gifted child. He has always been in love
with gadgets. His mum, Toyin, says,
“Jomiloju since he was baby had loved
playing with gadgets, he was never
interested in toys. He would pick up
remote controls for both TV and air-
conditioner, and he would correctly use
them for their specific functions.”
His father adds, “It is not that we are
unnecessarily indulging him but he is
such a brilliant child. He’s multi-
talented. He plays the saxophone, he’s
good on keyboard, he acts very well and
he’s a good swimmer.
“Each term, he participates in school
drama and quiz. He also gets prizes in
other subjects, apart from ICT.”
Does Jomiloju want to pursue a career in
software/hardware project like Bill
Gates and Steve Job? Spotting an
innocent smile, the youngster nods his
head in affirmative.
His school administrator, Mrs. Adesimbo
Banjo, who speaks glowingly about
Jomiloju, says the feat recorded by her
pupil is a tonic for other pupils.
His ICT teacher, Mr. Mathew Alo, also
commends Jomiloju for the feat.
He adds, “Jomiloju was taught all the
necessary things he needed to know and
he came out as the most outstanding
among  20 others from different schools
in Lagos.
His class teacher, Mrs. Elizabeth
Ogunrinola, says Jomiloju takes his
studies seriously. She states, “He is not
only good in ICT, but in other subjects.
He is hard working and well behaved.”
For Jomiloju, he’s not resting on his oars
yet, as he says he is still going to seek
more Microsoft certifications.
“I still want to sit for more
examinations. I will still do excel and
power points,” he says.