Groups Partner Bayelsa to End Cultism in Schools
Emmanuel Addeh To discourage the rising trend of cultism among youths, the Robert Sunday Iworiso Foundation (RSIF), in collaboration with the Association of Nigerian Authors (ANA) Bayelsa State and the state Ministry of Education, said it has concluded plans to organise an essay competition for senior secondary schools in the state.
Speaking during the launch of the competition in Yenagoa recently, the Chairman of the Organising Committee, Mr. Michael Afenfia, the immediate past ANA Chairman in the state, who was accompanied by the current chairperson, Mrs. Bina Nengi-Ilagha, announced that the star prize for the competition would be N1 million. He said the programme would promote and reward intellectual prowess, rather than the celebration of people with questionable character.
“The Robert Sunday Iworiso Foundation prize would be awarded the boy or girl with the winning essay on August 23, 2017. The winner will be rewarded and celebrated openly because we want to reverse the horrendous poetry that celebrates cultists and criminals above those that are studious and focused on changing the perception of the state.”
Afenfia added that the competition is another means to tell the world that in Bayelsa, there are abundant talents and not the frequent negative narrative being ascribed to the people.
The foundation was founded over a year ago by Daniel Iworiso-Markson, the Chief Press Secretary to the Bayelsa State Governor and it is named after his late father.
A Director of the foundation, Chief John Iworiso explained that the essay competition was part of a series of activities to engender meaningful change and development in the society.
He stressed that the aim is to discover talented pupils from the state with untapped potential that would replace the likes of Prof. Wole Soyinka, Prof. Pepper Clark and Dr. Gabriel Okara, three renowned writers. He thanked Governor Seriake Dickson for the “huge investment” he has made in education, human capacity and critical infrastructure, stressing that in a few years, the state will benefit from the current investment.
According to him, the foundation would soon commence book clubs in all secondary schools in the state with the aim of impressing on students the need to develop a culture of reading.
“As you all know, readers are ultimately leaders and as such, in our quest to raise a new generation of leaders for our region, the concept of a book club will go a long way to instil in our students the importance of reading.”
He added that the competition which would attract 100 contestants for the first round and 10 essayists for the second round, would take place on August 22 and 23 at the Ijaw National Academy in Kaiama.