A 10million Prize money is up for grabs in Port Harcourt, in a Book Reading competition, tagged ‘Port Harcourt Education Champions League’ .(PECL)
The competition which is open for Secondary Schools within Port-Harcourt is the initiative of a private Forum tagged *The Rivers August Meeting*
Unveiling the competition in Port-Harcourt at 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 50% for the winning student, 25% for the participating students from the winning school, and 25% would be set aside for stocking the Library of the school. The same formula will be used for the second and third prizes of #5m & #2.5m respectively. “The 50% would be paid to the accounts of the winners as advised by their parents” Mr Wali said.
He wondered that in Nigeria, non-educational related programmes like BBN attracted huge Prize money for Winners, but educational competitions, like Mathematics, or Science competitions for students were not attracting motivating rewards. “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” Kingsley Wali declared.
The 4th Edition of the Book Reading session featured Presentation of the book ” On a Platter of Gold” written by Bolaji Abdulahi, plus two other books written by two PH based practicing Journalists, Mr China Acheru, and Chioma Ezenwafor.
Speaking, one of the Authors, Mr. Bolaji Abdulahi observed that exposure to books help to bridge the gap amongst persons from diverse backgrounds.
According to him, in writing about the times of President Goodluck Jonathan he had knowledge to the worldview that influenced the Jonathan Presidency.
Reviewing the Book, Dr Tombari Sibe noted that the greatest beneficiary in a book reading environment is the society.
Dr Sibe, who is a Digital Forensic Cyber Expert urged all to reignite a reading habit.
In her contribution at the forum, Mrs Ifeoma Okocha emphasized that there are much more benefits to the society, when children are exposed more to books, rather than to phones and gadgets.
She advised the organisers of the Book Reading Fora to consider making the competition for younger kids as well, noting that by the time the kids had grown to Secondary schools that we may had lost the import of early exposure to book reading. “As a mother, and grand mother, I ensure that a book is part of the birthday presents I send to my children and grandchildren” Mrs Okocha said.
The Port-Harcourt August meeting is a Forum of people and persons from all walks of Life and strata of the Society.
The forum had in previous meetings, presented books by Authors across the country, including Simon Kolawoles “Fellow Nigerians, it’s all Politics” and Waziri Adio’s “The Arc Of The Possible”
Mr Blessing Wikina is former Chief Press Secretary of Rivers State Govt House.
