I’ll Cure Sickle Cell Disease – Female Pharmacy Graduate

Maryam Salahuddeen, who hails from Kwara State, recently bagged a first class degree in Pharmacy from the Ahmadu Bello University (ABU) Zaria. She spoke to Daily Trust shortly after the 38th Convocation of the university on Saturday, 30th January, where she received the prize for the best graduating student of the Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences.

How do you feel obtaining a first degree in pharmacy and receiving the best graduating student prize?
I feel very delighted, and I express gratitude to Allah  for making it possible for me to achieve this feat. It has always been my dream. I have achieved that dream now and I feel humbled. It has strengthened my faith in Allah. With Allah everything is possible.

What motivated you to study pharmacy?
Actually, I never applied to study pharmacy, and it did not even occur to me that I would go near it. A teacher of mine chose the course for me. But when I started studying it, I developed so much love for it; especially because of the fact that it afforded me the opportunity to venture into very exciting fields of drugs and cure. It has been a very exciting and significant experience indeed. It is my belief that pharmacy is more of a female area of study than a male’s. We do better in it than the males.

Does this mean you intend to venture into manufacturing drugs?
That is actually the most interesting part of it. I very much wish to manufacture drugs, so I very much intend to venture into researches on drugs and cure for certain ailments, especially those that have proved very deadly and resistant to treatments in our clime.

Considering the prevalence of such ailments in Nigeria, which ailment would you like to immediately venture into researching on for the manufacture of the effective drug for its cure?
Very importantly, I will start with sickle cell anaemia. It is my first area of visit in this regard. Sickle cell anaemia will attract my wrath because it is shattering the dream of many prospective couples. They could be very much in love, sufficiently in love for the life of matrimony, but one of them, especially the lady, will be found to have sickle cell. As a sickle cell patient, you wouldn’t want to marry another SS, however much he or she loves you. The consequence of this finding is so traumatizing and disastrous. So, I will do my best towards killing sickle cell anaemia, because it is killing the dreams of true lovers. It is killing what could have been blissful and fruitful marriages.

As the only female graduate who received a best graduating prize today, how would you spur other young ladies to follow your footstep?
I would urge them to stand up and square up to the males. They shouldn’t see themselves as inferior to the males. What a woman cannot do, can never be done. Whatever it is, if a woman cannot do it, then no one else can. Opposite sex doesn’t mean inferiority. Females should willingly, without any fear or shyness, venture into all fields of study which their male counterparts believe only them can venture into.

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