“What an old man can see sitting down, a young man cannot see even if he climbs the highest iroko tree.”

For some strange reason, the aforementioned proverb was the first thing that flashed through my mind when I saw David Olomukoro walking toward me with his massive 6’7”-plus frame for his interview. David is a Master of Business Administration student (degree in view) and B.Sc. Computer Science graduate at Nile University of Nigeria and one of the best players and leaders of the university’s nationally renowned and successful basketball team, Nile Spartans.

I had scheduled the interview with him to understand how sports scholarships inually excel in sports and academics simultaneously – he graduated top of his class at the undergraduate level (B.Sc. Computer Science), looks poised to achieve a similar feat at the postgraduate level with his MBA programme, and, in between, received a number of sports scholarship offers to play College/University basketball in the United States of America, which he turned down.

As David approached me, the closer he got, the taller he appeared to become. By the time he was standing in front of me, I was almost straining my neck to see his face. Thank goodness for metaphorical sight, I thought to myself, because, literally speaking, it was hard to imagine this young man not seeing whatever any old man could see sitting down.