The Country director, Dr Ogah Emmanuel, of, StandTall Africa Initiative (STAI), a Non-Governmental Organisation, said on Thursday, in Sokoto, that he intends to refurbish 5,000 libraries with books and other materials across the country.
He further said that the project was part of the NGO’S effort towards reviving the reading culture in Nigerian schools.
Emmanuel said, the organisation was in Sokoto for a presentation of N3 million cash awards to 18 Lecturers from northern Nigerian tertiary institutions in its ” 2019 Readers Award Competition”.
He said the initiative was to arouse public interest in education and encourage efforts aimed at restoring Nigeria’s past reading culture.
Emmanuel said about N15 million had so far been disbursed to competitors across the country at different levels in 2019.
He said interest forms were being distributed by the organisation to lecturers to compete in their respective areas of research.
He explained that proposals and contents submissions were also being forwarded to a scholars’ team, which was being scrutinised by a special team of examiners.
According to him, the examiners team selects the best performing presenters and recommends them for the awards.
He enjoined scholars to seize the opportunity to develop their work while also contributing to educational development.
Emmanuel said winners would take part in the “2020 African Reader of the Year Competition”, scheduled to hold in Senegal, where scholars from 25 African Countries would be participating.
According to him, the competition is organised by UNESCO and UNICEF, in collaboration with STAI, and the winner will get about N15 million as award.
He urged Nigerian scholars to join the race as many opportunities were being anchored by the organisation.
The Country Director explained that STAI had also put together a schools’ reading programme tagged “Read the Book, Build the Nation”, which would commence on Jan. 6, 2020.
He noted that different activities on reading and research had been designed by the NGO in primary, secondary and tertiary levels of education in the country.
“The effort is to ensure that people return to printed pages, besides that, we are going nowhere,’’ Emmanuel said.
Newsmen report that, Dr Nasir Ibrahim, from Pharmacy and Medicinal Chemistry Department, Usmanu Danfodio University Sokoto (UDUS), emerged overall winner of the “2019 Readers Award Competition”, and went away with N1million cash award.
Two scholars had a tie in the second position, Dr Abdullahi Yusuf and Dr Kabir Abdurrasheed, from Sokoto State University and Kebbi State University of Science and Technology respectively, went home with N250, 000 each.
Newsmen gathered that 15 other Lecturers from Universities, Colleges of Education and Polytechnics, who also had a tie as third place winners, got N100, 000 each.
The Sokoto State Commissioner for Basic and Secondary Education and Commissioner for Higher Education, Alhaji Bello Guiwa and Prof. Bashir Garba, lauded STAI for its intellectual development initiative.
Commenting on the development, the Vice Chancellor, Sokoto State University, Prof. Sani Dangoggo, underscored the importance of reading to human development and called for more efforts at ensuring proper students and teachers’ teaching and learning outcomes.
Dangoggo noted that effective reading ability was imperative for attainment of good reading culture and excellent research in Nigeria.
NAN
