Lovely! Meet the world's latest perfect performer

A Nigerian, Ifesinachi Nelson Ezeh, has won international acclaim for finishing his Master’s degree at Saint Petersburg Agrarian University in Russia with distinction and for his edge-cutting research in Agronomy. His feat earned him a Ph.D scholarship. HANNAH OJO writes on the exploits of the youngster whose aim is to tackle the food crisis in his fatherland.

Ifesinachi Nelson Ezeh, a 26-year-old Nigerian, has dazzled Russia with his brilliance. The Nsukka, Enugu State-born student finished his Master’s degree in Agronomy at Saint Petersburg State Agrarian University, graduating with a Cumulative Grade Point Average (CGPA) of 5.0 – the highest Russia has ever recorded.

Ifesinachi’s feat was celebrated by Russians during the university’s graduation. Russia’s Ministry of Agriculture and the school leadership showered encomiums on him, praising his dedication to quality research and academic excellence.

His journey to success started from a newspaper in 2008, when he read about a scholarship scheme to study in Russia. Then, he had just enrolled at the Nigerian College of Aviation Studies in Zaria, Kaduna State. But, Ifesinachi forfeited the admission for the scholarship.

According to him, his father got the information about the scholarship and encouraged him to apply. The scholarship is a bilateral agreement between Nigeria and other countries, including Russia, Cuba, China and Libya.

He said: “I was among the top five students selected at the College of Aviation after the scholarship examination. This got my dad excited. I was waiting to resume at the college when I received a call from Abuja, inviting me to come for the scholarship interview. The urgency of the information gave me no room for preparation. But, I went for the interview and travelled to Russia for study.”

In November 2008, Ifesinachi arrived in Russia with 40 other students from Nigeria for his Bachelor’s degree. Since Russian language is a prerequisite for study in the country, he enrolled at Don State Technical University, where he learnt the language for one year. Afterwards, he was transferred to Saint Petersburg State Agrarian University to study Agronomy.

Ifesinachi’s brilliance was discovered in his sophomore year when he was assigned to Prof Lev Gennadievich Tyryshkin as his thesis supervisor. Also a researcher at the Russia Institute of Plant Industry, Prof Tyryshkin exposed Ifesinachi to academic and industrial research methodologies.

“That was when my journey in scientific research started,” Ifesinachi said, adding: “The professor is an atheist and for the time I spent with him in the laboratory, I literally became an atheist too, because my mind was preoccupied with research work.”
Ifesinachi’s research on species of Aegilops won him recognition from the Science Community in the Europe.

The research, he said, was to re-study six species of Aegilops (a wheat variety) and bread wheat that were said to have effective LR23 gene for resistance at juvenile stage. In the course of the study, Ifesinachi discovered inadequacies in the previous researches carried out by scholars in the field.

He said: “It was during the comparison of results of the DNA markers and phytopathological tests that I discovered there were possible errors in the previous studies. After that, we reset the conditions that were recommended nationally for phytopathological study. Our results were narrowed down to the large collection of specimens that have been approved for hybridisation with bread-wheat nationally from 15 specimens (six species of Aegilops) with effective LR23 gene for resistance at the juvenile stage.”
After his research, it was discovered that previous researchers falsified records and gave the Russian government wrong information about the Aegilops species. Ifesinachi’s results enabled the Russian government to update plant bank gene collections with effective genes.

The student said his closeness to Prof Tyryshkin contributed to his success, because he