RCCG pastor breaks academic record at Princeton University, USA Completes a-5-year Ph.D in 2 years with distinction after best MBA result, First Class degree in Economics

United States, as the first student to complete a-five-year Ph.D programme in two years with distinction. OLUWAYINKA DADA, in this piece, takes a look at his background and rise to academic excellence.

SOME Nigerians abroad have now become global celebrities as a result of their distinct academic performances.
One of such is Dr Nimi Wariboko, who his contemporaries said has been an epitome of success right from his youthful age.
Again, recently, he added another feather to his cap at the Princeton Theological Seminary, United States, when he completed a-five-year Ph.D programme in two years with a distinction.
Wariboko, from Rivers State and currently a US-based Nigerian, at the college completed a thesis entitled:  “Money and Relations: Toward a Triune Model of the Global Monetary System,” in just two years, instead of the average of four to five years slated for it.
Consequently, his thesis was given the Summa Cum Laude award. The award is the highest of three degrees of honour in his programme.
Before he travelled abroad, Wariboko attended the University of Port Harcourt, between 1980-1984 and graduated with a first class degree in Economics, which later fetched him the Federal Government of Nigeria’s Merit Award for Outstanding Academic Achievement.
Two years later, in 1986, he won African Concord International Essay award and was consequently recruited by the Chairman of African Concord magazine, the late Chief M.K.O Abiola, as a Business staff writer.
After relocating to the US, he continued a graduate studies, where, in 1992, he got an MBA in Finance and Accounting from another US Ivy-league College, Columbia University.
Thereafter, he was ordained a pastor by the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG) in the US, after which he progressed to Oral Roberts University in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and in 2003, he got his Masters of Divinity with a special accomplishment, completing the programme in 18 months with ‘A’s in all the 93 credits he took, but one. Also, he recently got promoted as a full tenured professor of Christian Ethics.
To accomplish his doctorate, Wariboko was awarded a doctoral fellowship by the Princeton Theological Seminary. There, he was described as a trained social ethicist in Religion and Society.
When invited to Yale University, July, 2012, to give a talk on his thesis, Professor Mark Lewis Taylor of Princeton Seminary said he was proud of Wariboko.
“All who know him and support him must be proud. I am certainly very proud of him, and proud to count him as a colleague and friend,” Taylor said.
Already, Wariboko, now a full-time pastor in one of the biggest Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG) branches in New York, is filing for offers from reputable universities to teach and research, including offers of chair endowments.