Dr. Aminat Ige-Ariyibi speaks on winning UNILAG’s overall best PhD. thesis

*I divorced, remarried during my programme

*I played around Christianity, reverted to Islam, my root

*Mathematics is not the end but the beginning of another journey

History was recorded on Thursday, January 18, 2024, at the University of Lagos’ 54th convocation ceremony as a beautiful Muslimah, Dr. Aminat Olawunmi Ige-Ariyibi was formally announced as the Overall Best Doctoral (PhD) Thesis award winner.

Ige-Ariyibi is a Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) candidate from the Department of Mathematics, Faculty of Science, with her winning thesis, titled: “O-Metric Spaces: A Novel Unification and Generalisation of Metric-Type Spaces With Applications In Fixed Point Theory.”

The University of Lagos on her social media handles congratulated Dr. Ige-Ariyibi, describing her as a “woman who is an epitome of resilience, grit and manifestation of miracles”, and “A trailblazer, Dr. Ige has recorded many feats and given back to her community through diverse activities of mentoring, knowledge sharing etc.”

LASU Lecturer wins UNILAG’s overall best PhD thesis at 54th Convocation

Dr. Aminat Ige-Ariyibi, a Mathematics lecturer at Lagos State University (LASU) has been awarded the Overall Best PhD Thesis of the University of Lagos (UNILAG) for the 2022/23 session.

Proud Muslimah pic.twitter.com/vwg5Xrx2dJ

— Muslim News Nigeria (@muslimnews_NG) January 8, 2024

Cladded in red hijab, Muslim women’s headgear, which symbolises courage; and her graduation gown, the Alimosho, Lagos-born scholar was a cynosure of all eyes and her name became an anthem in the auditorium, the venue of the convocation, as she received five awards, including Prof. Sofoluwe’s price for Best Thesis; PhD Certificate; Best PhD Thesis in the Sciences; Overall Best PhD Thesis in the University and the Alumni Merit Award of Excellence for Best in Sciences.

Dr. Ige-Ariyibi, a Mathematics lecturer at Lagos State University, LASU, held the dignitaries including the institution’s Vice Chancellor, Prof Folasade Ogunsola, members of the Senate, among others, spellbound with her emotion-laden valedictory speech.

“Last year, in this auditorium, I watched Ahmed Yunusa deliver his speech as the best PhD. thesis and I imagined myself on the same stage. I probably said to myself subconsciously, emi lo kan (sic)

“And today, Thursday, January 18, 2024, Aminat, the prestigious daughter of Lagos State; the Lagos of Babajide Sanwo-Olu, Omo Baba Aminat, from Alimosho Local Government, I stand before you all as the winner of the (overall Best PhD. thesis) award,” said the celebrated Muslimah as she received a resounding round of applause from the audience in the auditorium.

And yesterday was the day! Award officially conferred!

My Valedictory speech was emotional. Many people shed tears. I just had to inspire someone out there. Cancer, Depression and whatever should not stop your dream. I did it! You can!
Best PhD Thesis Award Winner! UNILAG! pic.twitter.com/5Jm4nKwPcu

— Aminat Olawunmi Ige-Ariyibi (@IgeOlawunmi) January 19, 2024

Married to a physician, Dr. Nasir Ariyibi, the awardee narrated her ordeal, adding that she battled health challenges, but survived all during her pursuit of her Ph.D. degree, thanking her supervisors for their support.

According to her, “On this PhD journey, I got divorced, suffered depression, two armed robbery attacks, surgeries and several bouts of malaria. However, for every step backwards, I took three forward steps of recovery.

“While the programme was winding up, I started a mentorship community and the beautiful part of it all, while on the programme I got married. This time around to the adorable man I think of. A man who supports my dreams and ambitions.

“Well, it was not all gloomy while on the programme. Amidst the trials with this nature of I no gree for failure, I started an NGO, and during these trying periods, my supervisor stood rightly by me,” she added.

However, Omo Baba Aminat as she is fondly called urged the federal and state governments to support the education sector, calling for the proper welfare of university lecturers.

“It is not unpopular that university lecturers are poorly rewarded and students don’t want to be like us when they grow up. I, therefore, appeal to President Bola Tinubu and the governor of my state, Babajide Sanwo-Olu and other state governors to look into the state of their academics and bring us renewed hope.

“The private sector is not left out. They are the highest beneficiary of the products of our institutions,” she added.

Dr. Aminat Ige-Ariyibi later spoke with Muslim News where she shed more light on her winning thesis, challenges during the programme and her Muslim background, among other interesting discussions

MN: Your PhD thesis has been adjudged as the overall best. How do you feel being celebrated, especially seeing your pictures everywhere?

Dr. Ige-Ariyibi: I feel good, I feel great, Alhamdulillah. I actually worked for it. It’s not like I didn’t wish, I was hoping for it but I did not know it was coming and the euphoria was on high because I did not even get any official communication. I was just waiting and hoping for the press conference and for my name to be mentioned. My uncle earlier saw the picture of a celebrated undergraduate and asked me where’s our own. I said he should keep praying, there’s no announcement yet and I don’t know who won, only for people to send me pictures that they saw my picture on the convocation banner on campus, flying high. Before I knew it, I saw it on the status of an undergraduate and I called another one to please check if I’m actually the one and then he snapped and sent to me. I’m very happy because I went through a lot. I think this is just Almighty Allah’s way of saying “I’m still here for you and I’ll always be here for you.”

Dr Aminat, a Doctorate in mathematics, same discipline where she had both her Bachelors and Masters Degrees.

Her Thesis won the prize for the best Thesis of the year.

Dr Aminat Ige.
Ph.D Mathematicshttps://t.co/9kSWcydXNY Mathematicshttps://t.co/BhVLYuJNvY Mathematics pic.twitter.com/cZ3hnx6Cxs

— Dogo M Shettima (@ShettimaDogo) January 20, 2024

MN: When exactly did you start your PhD programme, and why the choice of UNILAG since you had your first degree at LASU?

Dr. Ige-Ariyibi: My first date of registration was June 2018. I bought the form in 2017. I started the programme in June 2018 officially. Why UNILAG? I did my first degree at LASU but my Master’s degree at UNILAG. It just went on fine to start my PhD here, because I had my MSc here. I enjoyed working with my MSc supervisor, Prof. Olaleru and besides, I am still in the same field, the same department. It would do a lot good for me to just continue with the Mathematics or in the same field. So, I had to continue Functional Analysis. My MSc Supervisor is good at the job. Why go elsewhere? There are different fields in Mathematics and in each field, there are professionals. When it comes to functional analysis, my supervisor is one of the leading specialists in that field in the whole of Africa. Even when I went into Banking after my Master’s, he continued to remind me not to forget my research interest.

Watch Dr. @IgeOlawunmi, the Overall Best PhD Thesis Award Winner for the #UNILAG2022Convocation Ceremonies tell the audience about her “No ‘Gree For Any Failure” mantra that pivoted her to success!

Click here 👉🏽 https://t.co/0WoZY6C15q for the full video.#UNILAGNigeria

— University of Lagos (@UnilagNigeria) January 21, 2024

MN: Why the choice of a Ph.D. in Mathematics when you can explore other courses?

Dr. Ige-Ariyibi: I had made up my mind that I was going to have a PhD in Mathematics because for me to have a PhD in another field, I must have a Masters degree in that course or related course and my first degree in a related course as well. So, it’s Mathematics for now, and that’s my course.

Although I tried taking other exams when I was exploring the Banking sector, I suspended them due to some circumstances.

When I came to UNILAG in 2011, I wanted to take a Masters in Statistics but then the rule was that you can’t take a Masters in Statistics with a BSc in Mathematics. But now, the rule has changed. You can take your Masters in Statistics with your BSc in Mathematics. Probably I would have studied Statistics. However, Mathematics isn’t the end of the road but the beginning of the journey. There are several other courses one can take. Such as actuarial science, data science, etc.

MN: How many years did it take you to complete your PhD? Was there any delay, perhaps due to strike or other challenges, or was it smooth?

Dr. Ige-Ariyibi: If we are to count from June 2018, It took me like five and a half years to complete my PhD. But I did not spend five and a half years on the programme and that leads us to the second part of your question about any delay. So, there was strike, I remember that between February and November 2022, there was no activity on campus due to the strike. I was supposed to present a seminar in February 2022. In fact my seminar was supposed to be held on a Thursday but the strike began earlier on a Monday and I thought it would be over in two or three days and I’ll have my seminar. However, I was not able to present that Seminar until November 2022. Also, there was COVID-19, UNILAG shutdown during the pandemic. Hence, UNILAG had to merge two sessions at some point. If you ask me to count the years I spent in the university, I spent less than 4 years. That’s the 18/19 session, 19/20 and 21/22 sessions were merged. I’ll say four sessions even though there were breaks in between those sessions.

MN: Was there a time you felt like abandoning the programme or changing the topic?

Dr. Ige-Ariyibi: I will tell you that a lot of PhD students always get to that point when they feel like, what is happening? There was a day I told someone that this stress is becoming too much. I can’t even have a life of my own anymore, no social life. So, I told the person, my mates are at Balogun market, they have shops, sell fabrics and they are making money. But, I am getting tired, from morning till night, I will sit down to work, work and at the end of the day you will realise that your results are wrong.Your supervisor will look at your results, just pick one line from the beginning that nullifies everything you have done from beginning to end.

So, yes, there was a time (when I felt like abandoning the PhD. or changing my topic). But, with the help of Almighty Allah, with encouragement from my supervisor and with motivation from my family, I kept on and I was able to finish (the PhD program).

MN: Let’s talk about the award winning thesis. What is the title? What informed the choice of topic and the contribution it made to knowledge?

Dr. Ige-Ariyibi: The title of my thesis is “O-Metric Spaces: A Novel Unification and Generalisation of Metric-Type Spaces With Applications In Fixed Point Theory. And what informed the choice of the topic? Metric Space is a concept in Functional Analysis. It is related to space. You can call it a domain in real life. The word ‘metric’ itself is used in the measurement of distance. You can give any value to your metric.

So, there are different types of metric spaces, such as multiplicative, classical, partial, ultra and controlled, to mention but a few.

There are four axioms with which you distinguish between your metric spaces, but two among them are very key; self distance and triangle inequality. Let me not bother you with too many mathematical terms.

DR. (MRS.) AMINAT IGE RECEIVES AWARD OF OVERALL BEST GRADUATING DOCTORAL THESIS AWARD WINNER AND BEST IN SCIENCES

The Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Ibiyemi Ibilola Olatunji-Bello, mni, NPOM, on behalf of the University Community, congratulates you on this new feat.@IgeOlawunmi pic.twitter.com/KmHsIrI54F

— Lagos State University (@LASUOfficial) January 19, 2024

There’s a problem; you need to model it and get it solved. So, when the problem is on the high side, you know what tool to use and vice versa. There are different tools to use for problems of different sizes and forms. Interestingly, the tools have some similarities and there are a number of them.

You must always use a different tool when the problem is presented in a different way.

My thesis made an inquiry into using a universal tool in problem-solving regardless of the way it is presented. Is it possible to have just one metrical type space that can do almost all what other metrical type spaces can do, with its defined axioms.

That is what informed my thesis. So, all the results that exist in literatures from other metric spaces would be generated by my own metric space without using the axioms differently.

The ‘O’ from the first letter of my middle name, Olawunmi, and those of my supervisors; Olajire and Oludara.

Since there has never been an O-metric space before in Mathematical literature, it is a novel idea with different result and it has contributed to knowledge in its own way.

MN: Islamic background

Dr. Ige-Ariyibi: I was born a Muslim and my parents are Muslims but at some point, due to youthful exuberance, I played around with Christianity and alhamdulillah, reverted to Islam, my root.

Islam means peace. It also means humanity. It means helping people, motivating them and guiding them towards righteousness. Islam means being fair to people and that is how I have been living my life, following my understanding of what Islam means. That’s why my husband always says I am always doing Da’wah (Islamic propagation) even though I am not particularly preaching. Anytime there are Islamic activities on campus, being organized by MSSN, I still contribute my quota in my little way. Outside the university, I have related with some Islamic organisations and most recently, the Guild of Muslim Professionals (GMP) and do little I can.