The 6th Annual Literacy Competition of the iRead To Live Initiative has been concluded on the 12th Day of March in Ogbomosho, Oyo State. Executive Director of the initiative, Barrister Jacob Sule had earlier made the announcement in Washington DC. Jacob said that this year’s event – The Oluseun Onigbinde Literacy Awards, is in honor of the Global Director of BudgIT,Oluseun David Onigbinde who is a civic society leader, and indigene of Ilé Asípa, Másìfá in Ogbomosho whose work transcends the borders of Nigeria, and seeks to educate Nigerians in understanding government budget,and how to hold government accountable.
Jacob added that the Annual literacy competition is aimed at raising awareness in rural communities in Nigeria and to support children’s commitment to the values of education. According to Jacob, ”it is our shared values to ensure that through our literacy interventions, we reach out to children living in rural communities and to provide them with school supplies and other basic needs for learning.”
The iRead Chief noted that Oluseun Onigbinde remains a distinguished Nigerian who has consistently used his organisation to raise awareness and engage the citizenry to understand and know how to engage with the government.
The Literacy competition featured 26 students from public and private school, who went through a Spelling bee competition during preliminary round on Thursday, 3rd day of March held at the Baptist Secondary Grammar School, Ahoyaya in Ogbmosho to qualify for the grand finale. At the end of the preliminary round, 11 students emerged as winners to compete in the final round for prizes worth 1million naira.
Following the theme of the event, “Enhancing literacy through civic education”, Jacob Sule during his opening remarks thanked the Oyo State Government for its continued interventions and support for education and literacy in Oyo State, He also commended the Governor, Seyi Makinde for enacting laws to keep school age children out of the streets during school hours and raising government budget to the UNESCO recommended standard in the State.
Oluseun Onigbinde while addressing the participants and contestants said, “11 years of my life has been dedicated to civic education. I am starting something beautiful to be deliberate about the brightest young minds in Ogbomosho, we will nurture these young minds and I am happy to do this in my community here. Oluseun charged the students to be of good cheer and wished them a happy competition”.
After several rounds of slugging it out through quiz sessions with questions on mathematics, English language and current affairs, 5 students subsequently made it to the final stage and participated in a debate contest. The 5 students spoke for and against the motion on the importance of civic education, and formal education as a necessity for community development.
At the end of the competition, Seun commended all the speakers and reiterated the importance of civic education, according to Oluseun, “the importance of civic education cannot be overemphasized, as long as we continue to have a democratic system of government of Nigeria, citizens must embrace civil education. Whatever skills you all have as high school students, ensure that you continue to develop yourselves and pay very keen attention to your studies. I am confident that you all here today will become future leaders of our dear country, Oluseun added”.
The panel of judges headed by Omotara James, Adegboye Oluwarantimi, Sule Joy and Omotoso Oladotun announced the results and winners of the competition.
Olorode Eniola who represented the Federal Government College, Ogbomosho emerged as the overall best and won the First-place prize, BolarinwaAbeedah, representative of Rodab International schoolemerged the 1st Runner Up, while Oladiti Best from Federal Government College Ogbomosho emerged the 2nd Runner Up.
Barrister Abiona Ayisat , Programs Manager, iRead To Live Initiative and Oluwafisayomi Adeoti , Team Lead for Ogbomosho while responding to questions said that the initiative is focused on empowering the next generation of leaders by strengthening literacy and civic leadership by investing in a society where every child has equal access to quality and equitable education.
