70-year-old Ben Duamlong bags PhD degree from University of Jos with first-class
An exceptional 70-year-old Nigerian man named Ben Duamlong has graduated from the University of Jos, Nigeria with an outstanding first-class Bachelor’s degree.
Ben Duamlong had a lifelong career as a football coach, leading the Nigerian U-20 team to several world tournaments and served as an assistant coach for the Nigeria Super Eagles Football team during Korea/Japan 2022 World Cup.
He, however, retired from coaching in 2016 and decided to enrol for a university degree. Speaking about his journey to success, Ben Duamlong said he discovered his love for arts right from the time when he was a footballer.
“I have always loved the arts. Like I wrote in the handbook of my first and only exhibition, ‘football and arts, to me, are one and the same. While football is performing arts, what I am doing now… painting is abstract arts. They all form the creative. Art to me is everything. Art is life,” he said.
He always wanted to study Philosophy but later choose to pursue his true interest in Arts.
“I enrolled for a course to study arts with a correspondent College in England. They were sending me tutorials and assignments on drawing and arts. I then said, why don’t I try my hands on this? Even as a kid I used to draw but I had never painted,” Ben Duamlong stated.
He enrolled for a degree in painting at the University of Jos and at the age of 70, he graduated with a first-class degree and was also the best-graduating student in his set.
