By Sageer Ado.

Building on its commitment to support education and encourage secondary schools students to excel, the Center for Information Technology and Development (CITAD) has introduced an annual literary creativity competition in Jama’are Local Government for students of secondary school in the local government. The competition entitled ‘Marai on the Marble’, aimed to bring together students from secondary schools in the local government to demonstrate their literary skill and knowledge. The maiden edition of the event took place on Saturday, 21^st July, 2018 at Wabi Academy, Jama’are local government, Bauchi state. In his opening speech, the Executive Director of the Center for Information Technology and Development (CITAD) who was represented by the Training Coordinator, Malam Ahmad Abdullahi Yakasai said that this is an event of the Jama’are CITAD branch and probably if it is very successful CITAD will replicate the initiative to cover its other offices of operation. He said that the objective of the competition was to encourage revival of reading culture, sensitize and encourage students to take literary expression as important and celebrate creativity among the students. He finally encouraged the students to be attentive when answering the question and emphasized that the creativity competition consists of debate, poetry writing and reading, quiz and storytelling.

Malam Zakariyya Jibrin, the Education Secretary, Jama’are Local Government served as the chairman of the occasion. In his remarks, he commended the effort of the organizers who he described as progressive partners. He then turned to the students and said that quiz compitition is not do-or-die affairs. He added that organizing quiz helps to test the students’ knowledge and identify gaps in the knowledge. It also helps the students to practice their knowledge and retain it for long period of time and provides feedback to instructors and lets them know what is learned and what is not.

Six secondary schools took part in the quiz competition. The schools were Government Day Secondary School, Jama’are, Government Arabic Collage, Jama’are, Government Day Secondary School Hassan Muhammad, Wabi Science Academy, Junior Secondary School M.C Abubakar and JIBWIS Science Secondary School. The schools were asked to answer five questions in the first round. G.A.C Jama’are answered 4 questions and scored 8 points. G.D.S.S Hassan Muhammad answered only one question and scored 2 points. JIBWIS Science Secondary School answered 2 questions and scored 4 points. Wabi Science Academy, Junior Secondary School M.C Abubakar and G.D.S.S Jama’are answered 3 questions and scored 6 points each. When announcing the result the Quiz Panel that comprises of Yusuf Shuaibu of G.D.S.S Azare, Sadiq Shehu of Katagum Forum and Sani Garba of also Katagum Forum serving as the Chief Judge said that G.A.C Jama’are that answered 4 questions and scored 8 points automatically emerged victorious for the first place position. The panel then instructed the technical committee to allow the 3 schools that have a tally with 6 points each to go for the second round. The crowded hall was so excited to see the 3 schools battling to get second and third place positions. After four rounds, G.D.S.S Jama’are emerged victorious for second place position and Wabi Science Academy occupied third place position.

The poetry writing and reading competition featured five schools. Adam Ahmad represented G.A.C Jama’are, Muhammad Ali represented G.D.S.S Hassan Muhammad, Mariya Muhammad Jidda represented M.C Abubakar, Jama’are, Aishatu Abubakar represented JIBWIS Science Secondary School Jama’are and Muhammad Kabir Suleiman represented Wabi Science Academy, Jama’are. Earlier, Malam Isa Garba, Senior Program Officer of the Center for information Technology and Development who served as the Chief Judge in the poetry competition stated the guidelines of the poetry competition. He stated that the poet must be a composer of the poem and a poem must be in prose and possess poetic qualities. After assessing the poems, Junior Secondary School M.C Abubakar scored 68.8 points and emerged first place position. JIBWIS Science Secondary School scored 62.5 points and emerged second place position while Wabi Science Academy scored 59.5 and emerged third place position.

During the story telling competition, six schools participated with different narrative stories. Khadija Hussain of Government Day Secondary School Jama’are narrated a story titled ‘Proud’, Muhd Farouk of Government Day Technical Collage, Jama’are gave a story with title ‘Caring and Loving Father’ and Abdulkadir M. bello of Wabi Academy with a  story ‘Female are more Pity to their Child than Male’. Other narrations were ‘Cin Amana’ from Ibrahim Muhammad of Government Arabic Collage, Jama’are, ‘In Kin Ki Ji, Ba Kya Ki gani ba’ from Hafsat Hassan of Hassan Muhammad Collage and ‘Honesty is the Best Policy for Mankind’ a story from Abdurrahman Ahmad of Government Day Science, Jama’are. JIBWIS emerged first position with 75.5 marks, GDSS Jama’are won the second position with 66.5 marks and Wabi Academy scored 65.5 and won third place position.

In the debate competition, the schools were given 10 minutes to make presentation on the following topics:

S/N	School	Topic
1.	JIBWIS Science	How to Address Youth Drug Abuse
2.	GDSS Jama’are	Agriculture is Key Development of Jama’are Local Government
3.	GSS Hassan Muhammad	How to Encourage Young People to Engage in farming
4.	Wabi Academy	Ways of Improving girl-Child Education in Jama’are Local Government
5.	GAC Jama’are	How should government creates job for young people
6.	MC Abubakar	Education is what makes us Human

GAC Jama’are won the first place position in the debate, GDSS Jama’are came second and JIBWIS Science won third place position.

The schools were given the following prizes at the end of competition

Competition	1st	2nd	3rd
Literary Quiz	Television	Handset	Radio
Poetry	Television	Handset	Bicycle
Storytelling	Handset	Bicycle	Jamb form
Debate	Television	Bicycle	Radio

Alh. Salihu Ibrahim Halilu (Sarkin Dawakin Jama’are) representated the emir of Jama’are local government at the event. Other dignitaries at the event were Alh. Saleh Ahmed, Gado da Masun Jama’are, Alh. Hassan Baba, Dan rimin Jama’are, Alh. Umaru Usman, PTA Chairman Committee, Wabi Academy and Zakariyya Jibrin, Education Secretary, Jama’are local government.

Others were Alh. Haruna Sabo, representative of Hon Isah Hassan, Alh. Salihu Ibrahim, representative of Hon. Magaji Isah, Alh. Ibrahim Mai Dalla, representative of Jama’are emirate council and principals of secondary schools in Jama’are Local Government.

In his vote of thanks, the emir of Jama’are, Alh. Ahmad Muhammad Wabi, ably represented by Alh. Salihu Ibrahim Halilu, Sarkin Dawaki thanked CITAD and its Executive Director, Engr. YZ Ya’u for initiating the quiz competition. “I stand on behalf of the emir Alh. Ahmad Muhammad Wabi, to express our gratitude and appreciation to the organizers of this quiz competition especially Engr. Ya’u who was son of our soil, and the person who established a computer centre to educate our children”. “We always pray to Almighty Allah to reward him abundantly”, the emir said.

In his closing remarks, Malam Ahmad Abdullahi Yakasai thanked the donors of the quiz competition especially Hon. Isah Muhammad, Member House of Representative, Jama’are Federal Constituency for donating 3 set of televisions, Hon. Magaji Isah, Member House of Assembly for donating 3 set of phones, Barr. Bala Yusuf for donating the sum of 30,000 Naira, Pharmacy Nasiru Ahmed Pfizer for donating 30,000 naira also, Engr. Baba Ladan and Alh. Abdullahi Abubakar Fatal for donating 5,000 naira each. He said that the money was used to purchase the 3 bicycles.