21 contestants progressed to the state finals of the Edulight spelling bout (ESB) 2017 for colleges from surulere zone

The maiden edition of the zoning of ESB in 2017 kicked off with the Surulere Zone with 28 contestants on ground to slog it out for the ticket to the State finals. The event witnessed an exciting and fun filled atmosphere with the contestants showing their worth on stage.  Following the preliminaries of the Edulight Spelling Bout held on Friday, 10^th February 2017 at Tummy Yummy Eatery, 183, Ijesha Road, by Ogunlana Bus Stop, Ijesha Road, Lagos State for Surulere zone. Here are the 21 contestants that made it through to the State finals:

1. The Great Esteem School (Eden Emmaneul SS2 & Awosemo Rhoda SS2)
2. Marjos Int’l College, Oke-Ona (Ajala Gaffar SS2 & Gali Ahmad SS2)
3. Peace Promise Int’l College (Etefia Joy SS2 & John Anita SS1)
4. Oba Adelani Gbogboade Mem. School (Chukwuemeka Daniel SS3 & Iwalehin Precious SS2)
5. Somerset College (Bello Samod SS1 & Akinsanya Timilehin SS1)
6. De Global Distinction College (Edozie Blossom SS1 & Sulaiman Olabisi SS1)
7. Afuye Titilayo, JSS3 (Independent contestant)
8. Umar Ramatu, SS2 (Independent contestant)
9. Ubong Moses, SS1 (Independent contestant)
10. John Kennedy School (Nwosu Victoria JSS3 & Nwakor Chiamaka JSS3)
11. St. Mary and Alfred College (Adebayo Omogbolahan SS2 & Adeyemi Oluferonmi SS2)
12. Vic Mercy College (Echeta Charles JSS3 & Blessing Nweke JSS3)
13. Royal Star Comprehensive College, Govi (Kolawole Emmanuel SS2 & Bello Basirat SS2)
14. Toviel College (Praise Kingsley SS1 & Destiny Okonjo SS1)
15. Onward High School (Oyindamola Ajibulu SS2 & Al-amin M. Aliyu SS3)
16. Baptist Bowen College (Faheyimu Michael SS3 & Isinguzor Chinedu SS2)
17. Jeno Grammar School (Augunus Precious SS2 & Arinze Success SS2)
18. Yemi Comp. College (Anyanwu Favour SS1 & Idowu Johnson SS1)
19. Faith Reward Int’l College (Aniekan Victor SS3 & Uzokwe Chibuedo SS3)
20. Royal Star Comp. College, Ogunlana ( Edet Bassey Asari JSS3 & Williams Samuel JSS2)
21. Shoms Int’l School. (Chinoyerem Umeh JSS2 & Havelah Unabunwa SS3)

The organizers of the event, (Publishers of Edulight Magazine) specially appreciate her partners from the venue used for the zonal preliminaries, to many others; Moshab Press for the exclusive video coverage, Easy Multimedia for the photographs, Yemat Int’l Catering Institute for decoration and every member of the team that has played a vital role in ensuring that the maiden edition of the zonal phase was a success.

All contestants advised to study the rules and regulations alongside all the 600 words given.

As all roads now lead to the State finals as the shortlisted contestants compete with other qualifiers from other zones, the organizers wish all contestants best of luck.

Details for the State finals:

Date: Wednesday 22^nd, March 2017

Venue: The Hedges Place, Lagos State University (LUTH), Idiaraba, Mushin, Lagos

Time: 9:00am Prompt

Requirements: Two Contestants and A Teacher, Plus Proof of payment (N3, 000)

ONE ON ONE WITH A VETERAN BROADCASTER, MR. FEMI SOWOOLU, CEO/M.D. JAMZ100.1FM

One on One with Mr. Femi Sowoolu the Ceo/M.D. Jamz100.1FM, Ibadan City

Education in Nigeria, my take? It is a sad, disappointing story. I’m sorry I’m so harsh, but that’s the reality of the case compared to when I was in primary, secondary or graduate school.- Mr. Femi Sowoolu

Sir, can we meet you?

Sure, I’m Femi Sowoolu, a broadcaster, journalist, an author, a social media commentator, that’s good enough I guess. And I’m currently CEO/M.D. of Jamz 100.1FM which is a radio station that is in Ibadan city.

Kindly take us through your journey as a broadcaster?

Up to this point?! Ah! It’s too much oo, It’s a very very long journey. I’ll try and keep it short. I started as a young announcer back in the days at the old Ogun State Broadcasting Corporation (OGBC) which was in Abeokuta. It was a state radio station. I spent thirteen (13) years there. I rose through the ranks and resigned my appointment as the principal presenter. I came over to Lagos and I did some three and half years in advertising with an advertising agency called Grant Advertising Agency. At that time it was number 2 or 3 advertising agency in Nigeria. Then I started off my own business, a production company. Producing Radio Commercials, Radio Programmes, Radio and Television documentaries and all that kind of stuff until I was invited to join the book list, the foundation team at Rhythm 93.7FM which is another radio station that started off at Lekki now moved to Victoria Island I hear. Emmmh! I spent about six years, I decided to leave again. All along, my company kept on, you know in and out, in and out, but I always ran my production company which was called FM Production. But then again I was invited to turn around the fortunes of another radio station which was then called UNITY FM I think, amongst other names they had back then. We turned it around re-named it Radio Continental and made it number one station in Nigeria. I left there again joined Smooth FM briefly as the General Manager, left Smooth FM. I have done a lot of Consulting for radio stations all over Nigeria, couple of stations in Ibadan, couple of stations in the East, helping them write proposals, improve their market shares, improve their programmes. I produced jingles and ideas and all kinds of materials that we use on radio. Long and short of it here I am, found myself here in Ibadan as part of the team that set up Jamz100.1FM in Ibadan.

Bottom line, are you living your dream?

Exactly!

Coming to our education sector here in Nigeria, many believe the standard has dropped, what is your take on this?

Education in Nigeria, my take? It is sad disappointing story. I’m sorry I’m so harsh but that’s the reality of the case compared to when I was in primary, secondary or graduate school. Things were not this bad but I cannot just pinpoint and accuse the education sector alone. It’s a whole Nigeria problem. It is a problem that has spread all around. Every institution you go, every.  Whatever it is, whatever sector you are talking about. Everything has turned to ruin and sadly so. Why did it happen? I think it’s just a failure of leadership. It’s a failure of our leadership. Those that were put in charge, I’m not just talking about leadership of those at the helm of affairs of the country. All kinds of leadership, whoever has been put in charge of any institution have not done his/her job. That is the way I look at it. All the corporations, all the ministers are not performing, there are problems in the states, there is a problem in education, health sector is in tatters, our factories are not manufacturing anything. Our public parastatals are failures, NEPA, water whatever it is. 

I’m sad that it has now affected education. To the quality that even those put in charge of those institutions are not managing them well. I don’t know where the solution lies really because the long and short of it is that you look at the whole chain that is responsible for matters like education. From the ministry of education down to the administrative office, down to the schools themselves, principals, staff. The qualities of teachers are poor so the quality of students will be poor. Look at the teaching institutions, there are problems there. So, the standard is poor and we are getting poorer, less intelligent graduates. 

I did a lot of research on education two-three years ago and I used the range of students who are in Nigeria. For instance, compare the Nigerian class four secondary school student with his class four counterparts in Ghana or in South Africa or in Egypt. The Nigerian won’t fare any better than those ones. Give them something to write and you probably would not understand what the Nigerian class three or four is writing because his/her English is totally limited. Give them an oral test and you will be embarrassed by what you will hear from the Nigerian. Ghanaian student, look! Each region has its own tone, I agree or accent in English language but you would never hear a child from Ghana, you watch television all the time, you would never hear them make grammatical blunder, whether Ghanaian, South African or Egyptian, but that is not the case with our Nigerian students.

We thank you for your time!                      

Our Role Model: Barrack Obama, President of the United State of America

Barack Hussein Obama II born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who is the 44th President of the United States. He is the first African American to hold the office and the first president born outside the continental United States. Born in Honolulu, Hawaii, Obama is a graduate of Columbia University and Harvard Law School, where he was president of the Harvard Law Review. Obama was born on August 4, 1961, at Kapiʻolani Maternity & Gynecological Hospital (now Kapiʻolani Medical Center for Women and Children) in Honolulu, Hawaii; he is the first President to have been born in Hawaii. His mother, Ann Dunham, born in Wichita, Kansas, was of mostly English ancestry. His father, Barack Obama Sr., was a Luo from Nyang'oma Kogelo, Kenya. Obama's parents met in 1960 in a Russian language class at the University of Hawaii at Manoa, where his father was a foreign student on scholarship. The couple married in Wailuku on Maui on February 2, 1961, and separated when, in late August 1961, Obama's mother moved with their newborn son to attend the University of Washington in Seattle for a year. During that time, Obama Sr. completed his undergraduate economics degree in Hawaii in June 1962, then left to attend graduate school at Harvard University on a scholarship. There he earned an M.A. in economics. Obama's parents divorced in March 1964. Obama Sr. returned to Kenya in 1964 where he remarried; he visited Barack in Hawaii only once, in 1971. When he was killed in an automobile accident in 1982, his son was 21 years old. He was a community organizer in Chicago before earning his law degree. He worked as a civil rights attorney and taught constitutional law at the University of Chicago Law School between 1992 and 2004. While serving three terms representing the 13th District in the Illinois Senate from 1997 to 2004, he ran unsuccessfully in the Democratic primary for the United States House of Representatives in 2000 against incumbent Bobby Rush.

His mother spent most of the next two decades in Indonesia, divorcing Lolo in 1980 and earning a PhD degree in 1992, before dying in 1995 in Hawaii following treatment for ovarian cancer and uterine cancer. Of his early childhood, Obama recalled, "That my father looked nothing like the people around me – that he was black as pitch, my mother white as milk – barely registered in my mind." He described his struggles as a young adult to reconcile social perceptions of his multiracial heritage.

In 2004, Obama received national attention during his campaign to represent Illinois in the United States Senate with his victory in the March Democratic Party primary, his keynote address at the Democratic National Convention in July, and his election to the Senate in November. He began his presidential campaign in 2007 and, after a close primary campaign against Hillary Clinton in 2008, he won sufficient delegates in the Democratic Party primaries to receive the presidential nomination. He then defeated Republican nominee John McCain in the general election, and was inaugurated as president on January 20, 2009. Nine months after his inauguration, Obama was controversially named the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize laureate.

During his first two years in office, Obama signed into law economic stimulus legislation in response to the Great Recession in the form of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 and the Tax Relief, Unemployment Insurance Reauthorization, and Job Creation Act of 2010. Other major domestic initiatives in his first term included the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, often referred to as "Obamacare"; the Dodd–Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act; and the Don't Ask, Don't Tell Repeal Act of 2010. In foreign policy, Obama ended U.S. military involvement in the Iraq War, increased U.S. troop levels in Afghanistan, signed the New START arms control treaty with Russia, ordered U.S. military involvement in Libya in opposition to Muammar Gaddafi, and ordered the military operation that resulted in the death of Osama bin Laden. In January 2011, the Republicans regained control of the House of Representatives as the Democratic Party lost a total of 63 seats; and, after a lengthy debate over federal spending and whether or not to raise the nation's debt limit, Obama signed the Budget Control Act of 2011 and the American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012.

Obama was reelected president in November 2012, Obama will be succeeded by President-elect Donald Trump.

Vigram N/P School emerge champion of Edulight Spelling Bout 2016 for primary schools

October 28, 2016 will remain a remarkable day in the lives of everyone gathered (pupils, teachers and partners) at the Destiny Hall, Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH), Lagos. The event which was the maiden edition of the spelling competition for primary schools saw sixty (60) schools come together to slog it out and it lasted for 5 hours. 

After a tight competition amongst the participating schools Vigram Nursery and Primary School, Surulere, Lagos came tops going home with the champion’s trophy and other prizes while Learnmore Schools, Palm Avenue, Mushin, Lagos emerged first runners-up and ECWA Private School, Lagos Island went home happy as the Second runners-up. The winners could not hold back their joy as both the pupils and their teachers openly expressed their joy on the day.

The top twenty (20) schools went home with gifts, while all participants were certified for participating.

Barr. Olalekan Alaka, the Legal Adviser to Edulight Magazine was on ground to present the trophy to the champion. While the Representative of the M.D Yemat International Catering Institute Miss Yetunde Owolabi was also present to present the first runners-up their trophy and Uncle FM did the honour presenting the second runners-up their trophy. The competition presented two sides of emotions joy for the winners and for other participants who did not make the final twenty were determined to do better in subsequent edition. Olivefield Nursery and Primary school, Ojuelegba, Success Square Nursery and Primary School, Ikate, Surulere and Labo Memorial School, Ijesha went home as well dressed schools on the day.  

The organisers of the spelling competition amidst some of the challenges was quite grateful for the smooth event. He mentioned that as a follow up to the competition, the team is determined to improve on the subsequent event. The editor of Edulight Magazine, Uzoanya Kenneth on behalf of the team tipped off the schools that the event will be regionalized and top schools from various regions will come together to do the final battle. He further did appreciate the partners of the event and did solicit for more partnership assuring the partners of value for their support.

Greenland Hall College emerge Champion at the Edulight Spelling Bout (ESB) 2016 for Secondary Schools

Friday, May 6, 2016 will go down in history as a day to remember. On this fateful day, twenty-nine secondary schools converged at The New Great Hall, Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH), Idiaraba, Mushin, Lagos were they slugged it out at the Spelling competition. Greenland Hall College, Alakuko stood out as the overall champion on the day with Shoms International College, Surulere coming second and Bachel Model College of Ikotun as the third.

The ESB 2016 had received so much publicity since the beginning. The organizers of the event invited over 200 secondary schools for the competition. There were mouth-watering prizes for the top nine finalists that emerged. A dictionary and 2 bags were given to them. The champion went home with the golden trophy, the first runner up went back with silver trophy and the second runner up with bronze trophy plus dictionary, bags and certificate for not just the winners but also all the participating schools present.

The maiden edition of the event was organized by the publishers of Edulight in conjunction National Association of Proprietors of Private School owners (NAPPS) Mushin Chapter and College of Medicine and Pharmaceutical Science Students Association (COMPSSA) and it was a welcome initiative. The students did express their potentials during the competition. The COMPSSA president, Proprietor of De’Pathfinders Tutorial Consult, Mr. Dotun Sodunke, Miss Yetunde Owolabi M.D. Yemat International Catering Institute and Ayo of COMPSSA were the judges for the day while Mr. Kingsley Ohaeri was the moderator of the event. The competition which lasted for four hours was originally slated to start by 10 am but owing to some logistics challenges at the venue, it kicked off at exactly 11:15am with some schools arriving two hours ahead of time. 

The organizers lived up to their promise by ensuring that all participating schools were issued certificate of participation and were well taken care of. Each school present were represented by four students and a teacher, two of the students were presented as contestants while the other two and the teacher joined the audience.  

Generally, the ESB 2016 took place without rancor, though there were mild protests about the spelling of words given by the organizers which Mr. Kingsley differed from the Dictionary spelling because “printer’s devil” did set-in in the course of publication.

The Publisher, Bello Anthony Adekunle assured the participating schools and those who could not make it of a better organization, planning and package to take home come next year. The Editor of the Magazine, Uzoanya Kenneth also seized the opportunity to ask the primary schools to gear up. 

As theirs is next, this 2016 with exact date and time to be made known as soon as possible. This is as a result of the yearning by the primary schools.