The Federal College of Forestry, Ibadan, has been in existence for over 85 years. Never in its history has it organised and hosted a board games tournament like it did on Saturday, May 9, for children.
On that day, boys and girls, aged 9 to 13, selected from 20 different public and private schools in Ibadan metropolis gathered for five hours to play for championship at the maiden Federal College of Forestry board games tournament.
The tournament is an initiative of the Provost of the college, Dr Ibrahim Lawal, aimed at bringing young children together to stimulate mathematical and logical reasoning skills, as well as life skills that can be gained from playing chess, scrabble, draft and the traditional game of ayo olopon.
“These games will help them in things like computer coding and general reasoning. This is the premier edition, we tagged Fedcofor 2025. By God’s grace next year, we are going to do it again with more sponsors,” Dr Lawal said.
Up to 20 schools were invited for the tournament drawn from both public and private secondary schools.
The schools include: Mount Zion International School, Wesley College of Science, Lead City International School, Oba Akinbiyi High School 2, Urban Day Secondary School, Blissful International College, St Peters Catholic College and Valencia College.
Also invited were: Loisem Private School, Queen’s School Apata, Apata Grammar School, Methodist Grammar School Bodija, International School Ibadan (ISI), Broadmind Model College, and St Anne’s School.
Not left out were: Victory Christian College, Ikolaba High School, Government College Ibadan (GCI), St Catherine’s College and Headquarter International College.
For hours, male and female players for scrabble, draft and ayo went through several rounds leading up to quarter final, semi-final and final stages for the winners to emerge. While for chess players a leaderboard was used to select the finalists and eventual winner.
At the end the following students emerged winners: In chess, Jeshurun Oluwadunsin of Valencia College won; Adedeji Adeboye of Lead City College and Aderinto Adedoyin, were first and second runners up respectively. Each of them are aged 13.
For draft, the top three, also all aged 13, were: David Olusegun of Apata Community Grammar School, Quadri Olaniyan of Oba Akinbiyi High School 2, and Joshua Aliu from Oba Akinbiyi High School 2.
For ayo olopon, Oluwatobi Olakunseyin of Methodist Grammar School Bodija, Rachael Olatunde of St Anne’s School and Simeon Bamowu, came first, second and third, respectively.
However, for scrabble it was an all-female top-three with Ahmidah Ibrahim Lawal, 13, of ISI, coming first; Victoria Olayemi of Mount Zion International School, coming second and in third place was Opemipo Adegbite of St Catherine’s College.
The provost added that the tournament was also an opportunity for children to acquaint themselves with the college and what it has to offer.
“This is also an opportunity for the students to see this citadel of learning with a better perspective. This college has been in existence since 1939. It was 85 years old last year. With this event, we can encourage the students with prospects of attending this kind of college. We have nine departments, including Computer and Statistics, Forestry and Environmental Technology among others.”
He added, “We are trying to catch them young so that they can do better for themselves, the state and the country at large. We mixed both public and private schools because we want to bring out the best in them.”
Dr Lawal added that he and the committee he set up to organise the tournament recognised that extra-curricular activities in schools which used to be part of secondary school learning in Nigeria in the past have gone down.
“We recognise that children leave school and don’t have a real interaction with their colleagues. This hampers their ability to relate properly. But when you bring them together, they relate with one another and network. They will see one another as equals be they from public or private schools.”
He added that he represented Oyo State at the National Scrabble Festival in 2005, noting that he greatly benefited from that experience. “I believe the students will form meaningful relationships for the future from this event.”
Dr Lawal advised government and policymakers to encourage tournaments that stimulate brain development. “We are in the age of AI. I want the government and companies to support ‘brain games’ like this one.”
Representing the Director-General of Forestry Research Institute of Nigeria (FRIN) at the event was Dr Benson Isikabor, Director of ICT, who conveyed the DG’s excitement and support for the tournament.
“The DG was a student of this college and he is so glad about the innovations the provost has brought. Bringing the youth together is so important. The DG loves the youth so much and he wants them to pick a career in forestry and study in this college. In so doing, they can specialise and handle issues that deal with climate change, environmental pollution, carbon sequestration and other issues that are the front burner today. The DG will give the required support for this to be an annual event subsequently.”
Mrs Alade Moturadun, chief education officer of the Oyo State Ministry of Education who represented the Commissioner for Education, while expressing support for the initiative said that the games were of significant benefit to the students and could bring out the potential for greatness within them.
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