By Amechi Innocent, Abakaliki
IN a bid to reduce the high rate of children out-of-school in Nigeria, a Non-governmental organization known as One Youth Global has organized second edition of quiz and debate competitions for the students in secondary schools across Nigeria.
The competition tagged ‘Spark Nation 2.0’ was held at Osborne La Palm hotel, Abakaliki, Ebonyi State which attracted secondary schools and students across Nigeria.
The winners of the competition went home with N 1 million meant for the scholarship to any public university of their choice across Nigeria.
At the end of the competition, the team Bloomers of Great Achiever International School, Abakaliki won with 37 points in quiz competition while Gold team of Federal Science and Technical College Amuzu, Ezza South score 29 points for the second position.
In Debate competition, the winner was Akin Oluwa Olajolo (SSI) of
Wellspring College Lagos with 85 points while Michelle Emeka-Nwuke of CSMT school Abakaliki, Ebonyi State scored 82 points to clinch second position.
The President of One Youth Global Mr. Uchechukwu Agbo in his remarks said that what motivated him and his team to start the project was because he discovered that there are several young people who grew up in rural communities across Nigeria and across Africa who have so much potentials that waiting just for an opportunity to actualize their full potential by the grace of God.
He advised the government in all levels to raise standard of education through investment in infrastructure development, increase in teachers remuneration to encourage them to do more and have good teaching and conducive environment.
According to him, “In 2022, we came to Nigeria.When I say we, I mean One Youth Global. And I came with Professor Benjamin Vought. He’s a professor of Rhetoric in Southern Methodist University in Dallas and also the Director of the BAIT program there and also the editor of the International Journal of Advocacy and Argumentation and one of the publishers of Lexington Books.
“I came with him in 2022 to Nigeria to organize a teacher’s boot camp. In that boot camp, we taught teachers how to create healthy interactional spaces within their classroom, how to transform their classrooms into interactional spaces where young people, where their students feel comfortable to share ideas and to learn in a safe atmosphere.
” In 2022, we worked with teachers. 2023, we worked with young professionals. In 2024, we worked with secondary school students and teachers from Ebonyi State.
“Now in 2025, we are working with secondary school students and teachers drawn from across Nigeria. For instance, the team that won the debate competition this year came from Lagos. In 2026, we will be hosting West and Central Africa in Ebonyi State, Nigeria.
By 2027, we will be hosting the whole of Africa in Ebonyi State, Nigeria.
“We have had this conversation with our development partners, and we have the blueprints with some of our development partners, including the President Ronald Reagan Foundation. And we will be ensuring that we extend the opportunity of this wonderful program to those who live in the South communities across Africa by 2027.
” We hosting 400 student in 2024, we hosted 150. In 2025, we hosted 250 students By 2026, we’ll be hosting 400 students from across West and Central Africa. And by 2027, we will be hosting the whole of Africa. And needless to say, it’s also important for me to mention that in 2024, we impacted about 700 students.
In 2025, we currently impacted 1,500 students from our competition alone. And by 2026, we intend to impact nothing less than just from the Spark Nation competition. That does not include the millions of people we reach every week through our radio programs” Agbo stated.
The Director of Grants One Youth Global and Camp Director project Mr. Sampson Amulu said the competition was advertised and schools and students registered from where participants were selected and invited to the camp to participate in the competition.
He said that the participating schools, their teachers and students were camped for one week in Ebonyi hotel for the competition.
“And I think so far we have given scholarships to about 15 students just from our Spark Nation, our radio webcast. Education is critical and we believe in education and that is why we are doing this. And we believe that when the government takes interest in education, then a lot of these interventions may not be entirely necessary.
“No nation that wants to grow or develop will undermine education.
A society becomes a reflection of what the society promotes. Individuals, young people in society become a reflection of what the society promotes. And so when we prioritize education, we see our young people improve. We see development, we see character, we see nation building. And until that is done, we are not going anywhere.
“So I am urging the federal government to place a serious spark on education, to prioritize education.When we say education, we are talking about education at all levels. 20 million children are out of school in Nigeria according to the United Nations. That is why we are doing this. We want to change the trend. We invite as many organizations, as many NGOs, as many state governments. We invite the federal government to join us on this mission, “Amulu said.
