11-year-old emerges winner in quiz competition, bags scholarship in Delta

AN 11-year-old Junior Secondary School 2 student of Tsekelewu Secondary School in Warri North Local Government Area of Delta State, Miss Success Dariji, has won the fourth edition of Comrade Sheriff Mulade Inter Local Governments Quiz and Essay Competitions for Rural Secondary Schools in Warri North, Warri South and Warri South-West Local Government Areas of Delta State.

By emerging first in the 2019 quiz competition, Miss Dariji, besides winning N100,000 cash prize, bagged an annual scholarship of N20,000 for the rest of her secondary school programme from the organiser, Mr  Sheriff Mulade.

In the essay competition, with the topic: “Environmental Degradation: Effects and Solution,” Ojiko Ebiye of Gbaraun Grammar School, Oporoza in Gbaramatu, Warri South-West Local Government Area, came tops, winning N50,000 cash prize.

The annual event is part of efforts by Mulade, a peace and environmental ambassador, to improve the quality of education in the three local governments, as well as to foster a congenial atmosphere among the Ijaws and the Itsekiri and other ethnic nationalities.

Sponsor of the annual competition, Comrade Mulade, who is the national coordinator, Centre for Peace and Environmental Justice (CEPEJ), remarked that only quality education possesses the driving force to eradicate conflicts among various ethnic groups in Nigeria, especially Ijaw and Itsekiri brothers.

He observed that the absence of early education privileges in rural areas, of which he was a victim, had robbed many children of several opportunities that could have translated to the development of the areas.

Mulade, therefore, disclosed that the essence of the quiz and essay competitions was to bridge the academic gap between pupils and students of riverside/rural schools and their urban counterparts.

The global peace ambassador, who charged the students to be committed to their studies and shun vices so as not to eclipse their educational pursuit, appealed to government at all levels, local organising committees, non-governmental organisations and well-meaning individuals to pay closer attention to education.

The quiz competition had participants from three schools in each of the three Warri LGAs, including St. Kabe Secondary School, Tsekelewu, Warri North; Tsekelewu Secondary School, Warri North; Alema College, Abigborodo, Warri North and Obodo College in Warri South.

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Others are Erejuwa 11 Grammar School, Ode-Itsekiri, Warri South; Egbokodo-Itsekiri Secondary School, Warri South; St. Cletus Secondary School, Naifor Island, Warri South-West; Gbaraun Grammar School Oporoza, Warri South-West and Kokodiagbene Secondary School, Kokodiagbene also in Warri South-West.

In the junior quiz competition, apart from the star prize which went to Miss Dariji of Tsekelewu Secondary School, Gbaraun Grammar School, Oporoza and Kokodiagbene Secondary School, which came second and third got cash prizes of N70,000 and N50,000, respectively.

The two runners-up in the Senior School Essay Competition, Divine Princewill of Obodo College, Warri and Eke Akachukwu of Egbokodo Secondary School, got cash prizes of N30, 000 and N20, 000 respectively.

Dignitaries, who graced the event, included Chief Inspector of Education (CIE) for Warri South-West, Mrs. Okerie Christiana, CIE, Ika South, Mr. Eze Ariwojo, as well as teachers and students.