Group Institutes N10m Prize For Book Reading Competition In Rivers

A private forum, ‘The Rivers August Meeting’, has instituted a N10 million prize money for book reading competition among secondary schools, tagged ‘Education Champions League (ECL), in Port Harcourt, Rivers State.

Unveiling the competition in Port-Harcourt during the 4th edition of the quarterly August Meeting book reading sessions, the convener of the forum, Mr Kingsley Wali, said the N10m prize would be split into two with 50% for the winning student, 25% for the participating students from the winning school, and remaining 25% would be set aside for stocking the Library of the winning school.

Wali said: “The monies would be paid to the accounts of the winners as advised by their parents.”

He wondered that in Nigeria, non-educational related programmes like BBN and others, attract huge mouth-watering prize money for winners, including sponsorships, but educational competitions, like science and mathematics were not attracting motivating rewards.

Wali said: “We think that in encouraging our children to read books in this Educational Champions League Competitions, we are helping to build the society, ignite confidence and improve their education.”

The 4th edition of the book reading session featured presentation of the book ‘On a Platter of Gold’ written by Bolaji Abdulahi, as well as two other books written by two Port Harcourt-based practicing Journalists, Mr China Acheru, and Chioma Ezenwafor.

Speaking at the event, one of the authors, Mr. Bolaji Abdulahi, observed that exposure to books helps to bridge the gap amongst persons from diverse backgrounds.

He stated that in writing about the times of President Goodluck Jonathan, he had knowledge to the worldview that influenced the Jonathan presidency.