Victor Attah's Blog

AFRICANS AND THE NOBEL PRIZE QUESTION

Whenever I hear Africans ask when will an African win the Nobel Prize in the sciences, especially towards the end of the year when the annual Nobel prizes are being announced, the first thing that comes to mind is the Japanese writer, Kenzaburo Oe, who won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1994. He wrote somewhere that “As a child, I promised my mother I would win the Nobel Prize in Physics. 50 years later, I said to my mother, ‘See, I have kept my promise. I won the Nobel Prize.’ ‘No,’ said my mother, ‘You promised it would be in physics!’ I don’t know if this was an anecdote for comic relief or if it happened but there are three key lessons to be drawn from it. First, that one, especially the young, can dream about being Nobel laureates someday. Second, that a Nobel Prize to be won requires years of intense dreaming and labour. Third, that a Nobel Prize in the sciences is mostly not an easy feat.

Even though it is awarded yearly, the Nobel Prize is not like the Grammy award which is often the result of a year’s work in your area of interest, but often a crown for years of dedicated hard work in environments that give you room to follow your life’s blueprint. Countries with the most Nobel Prize winners include the United States (373), the United Kingdom (131), and Germany (108). What is observable in these countries is that they have environments or institutions that allow people to dream and work for the progress of humanity. So any African, who asks when his or her country would produce a Nobel laureate in fields besides literature, ought to also to ask what the government of his or her own country is doing to create an atmosphere for potential laureates. Such individuals should also ask themselves about what they are also doing in their immediate environment to promote individuals with revolutionary dreams or ideas. What are they doing to allow others their fundamental human right is another key question they need to ask themselves? 

There are plenty of children and youths in Nigeria or Africa who don’t know what a Nobel Prize is but they daily have on their lips the names of the regular winners of the Big Brother Africa or the Big brother Nigeria reality TV show. How can children or youth dream about what they don’t even know about especially in environments that don’t make provisions for them to know or learn and grow?

This year Abdulrazak Gurnah from Tanzania won the Nobel Prize in literature, for “uncompromising and compassionate penetration of the effects of colonialism.” Most Africans as usual have taken to social media to say that Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o from Kenyan is a better candidate for the prize than Abdulrazak because his body of work revolves around such themes. This sort of a literary bone of contention has been there for decades. Prof. Wole Soyinka was awarded the prize in literature in 1986, the first sub-Saharan African to be honoured in that category and till date, many people still feel Chinua Achebe should have been awarded the same prize before his demise as he too was a writer of great standing. 

Africans barely argue about who wins the Nobel Prize outside literature. Many of them don’t even know that there are persons of African descent like Max Theiler from South Africa who won the Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1951, Allan M. Cormack in 1979, and Sydney Brenner in 2002. Aaron Klug in 1982 and Ahmed Zewail in 1999 were awarded the prize in chemistry while Claude Cohen-Tannoudji was awarded the prize in Physics in 1997. Chinua Achebe asserted that “The trouble with Nigeria is simply and squarely a failure of leadership.” Since Nigeria is the “Giant of Africa” this applies to other African countries as well. Look at African countries and you see that they have the problem of leadership. Two African presidents became Nobel laureates while in office, Anwar Sadat of Egypt in 1978 and F.W. de Klerk of South Africa in 1993. I am not trying to say that the Nobel Prize is a yardstick for leadership but when you look at your president or governor, does he or she have traits of someone worthy of a Nobel Prize or one who can create an atmosphere for his or her own citizens to aspire for such a prize someday?

I grew up around a very athletic father, in our family albums; there are pictures of him either playing football or participating in field and track events about the time I was born or before then. I also recently stumbled on a certificate of his participation in a Plateau State Marathon in the 90’s. When I reached the age of reason or my early teens, the only sport he was focused on was boxing, I always followed him to the stadium where I watched him train and box. He also wanted me to become a boxer, so he bought me boxing gears and I also tested a real boxing fight once with another young fellow who beat the crap out of me when talks of a boxing under 16 tournament was in the air.

Children can be considered as either active or contemplative by nature. My Dad realized that I was not an active child, I was the contemplative type so he just let me be, he also stopped carrying me along to train. Years later seeing that I don’t play football, basket ball, tennis or partake in any competitive sport, I chose running as a way of making up for my lack of participation in those sports and also for physical and mental or spiritual edification.

Last weekend, Friday night precisely, I stumbled on a post about Ahmaud Arbery, a 25 year old African American who was shot while jogging after being confronted by two white men, Travis McMichael, 34 and his father Gregory McMichael, 64, both armed; one with a shot gun, the other with a long one. Arbery was fatally shot by Travis McMichael. This happened on February 23, 2020. Arbery was a very strong and active child while in school, he was a star American footballer and in the video of his murder, he struggled with his killer until he was shot thrice. The McMichaels told police that they had chased Arbery because he looked like a suspect who has been burglarizing the area.

The killers from February to April were not arrested and authorities said it was “permissible homicide”. This was prior to the manifestation of a video of what actually took place, the video surfaced online on the 5^th of May, 2020, which eventually led to their arrest on Thursday, 7^th May. The case generated a lot of outrage by concerned citizens as this was obviously a case of racism, hate and racial inequality in the judicial system of the United States of America. One would have thought that we would have gone past the attributes of Jim Crow in an era of so much education and technology but it is still like Kenya West said in his song “Never let me down”, “racism still alive, they just be concealing it”.

#IRunWithMaud was the hashtag that was trending over social media during the weekend to honour Arbery. Friday 8^th May 2020 was to be his 26^th birthday and people were to run for 2.23 miles – symbolizing February 23, the day Arbery was murdered. I got the gist late, however on Saturday the 9^th, I laced up my shoes and ran the minimum of 2.23 miles, I normally cover such distance and even more but that morning was different, I ran with Ahmaud Arbery in mind, I ran with the memories of my ancestors in the diaspora during the Maafa: Sojourner Truth, Nathaniel Turner, Toussaint Louverture and the host of others who had to run from slave plantations and during slave revolts from people who treated them like animals and property, people with racist mindset like the killer of Ahmaud Arbery.

I ran keeping in mind that in my country too, intercultural prejudice that needs to be dismantled exists among tribes . In the western world, they have racism to contend with but at home we have to deal with tribalism. In Benue State for instance, some Idoma, Igede or Tiv families would not allow their sons or daughters marry a non-tribe especially from within the state, same as not granting equal opportunities to persons who are not members of the dominant tribes in the state. If you are a Nigerian, and you keep quoting Martin Luther King, Malcolm X, Nelson Mandela, reading their books, listening to their speeches, using their pictures as profile pictures etc and you still promote the inter-religious and intertribal prejudice (tribalism) that exist right under your nose, know that you are nothing but a hypocrite that dishonor their name and what they stood for.

One thing running in the early hours of the morning has taught me is that no matter our tribes or skin tone or hue we can actually live together as brothers and sisters. There is an esprit de corps that exist among those who jog in the early hours of the day; most joggers give you a clap as they speed pass you as a sign of encouragement, a nod of affirmation which often grows into friendship which is symbolic of what we need on a grand scale in life, to help and encourage each other until we reach its finish lines.

A friend of mine sent me a link on WhatsApp, asking for my vote for a beauty contest she was in; she was to get as many photo likes as possible if she was to stand a chance of winning. The first thing I asked her was if she had a voter’s card, I didn’t know if I did it out of love for my country or out of feeling irritated by all these beauty queens whom you appear invincible to until they are contesting for Miss this or that before they hit your inbox or wall. But isn’t that how our politicians behave? They barely do the needful until election time comes when they promise to build bridges where there are no rivers but roads that have been death traps. They will come to demonstrate their abracadabra of selling sand to the Arab when all we need is access to the oasis of the national cake; the milk and honey that flows from Aso Rock.

In the forth coming elections, there are five promises we are to keep in mind even after the elections if we want our nation to move forward: the promises of the electorate, the promises of the politicians, the promises of the media, the promises of the electoral staff and the promises of security personnel.

THE PROMISES OF THE ELECTORATE

As election approaches, our politicians are making different promises, but have we asked ourselves what we are promising ourselves and why are we backing our choice of candidate. We should first promise ourselves to go out and vote on Election Day if we have all it takes to do so, we should promise our selves not to sell our votes, not to snatch ballot boxes for anyone, not to engage in any form of electoral violence and to demand fulfillment of electoral promises after elections.

Anybody who thinks outside the box ought to value the power of the ballot box to the society. The armed robber, the kidnapper, the terrorist, the cultist may have the cartridge box, members of the jury especially those who pervert the course of justice may have the jury box but it is the electorate who have the ballot box which is the most important of the all boxes because the ballot box can bring people into power who can create jobs and empowerment for our youth who will no longer sit on the keg of gun powder but rather have the garb of blue and white collar jobs. The ballot can bring people in power who can make sure our justice system works so that citizens are not denied their rights when they stand before a jury. The ballot box can bring people into power that will make sure our military and Para-military are well equipped with the intelligence and resources they need to fight and keep crime and insurgency at bay.

In marriage it is one man one woman, but in election, it is one man one vote, one woman, one vote. Your man or woman can cheat on you but you cheat yourself if you don’t vote, you cheat yourself when you sell your vote and you cheat yourself if you don’t demand fulfillment of electoral promises after elections. Voting is like a covenant between you and your creator: in the confessional, your priest is there, during counseling your Daddy or Mummy G.O might be there but when you want to cast your vote, there is no Imam, Priest or Pastor: just you, your ballot paper and your voting cubicle. Vote selling or buying is not a good idea but it is only your eye that sees your vote, so if you can, you can take their money and still vote against them, take it, cast your vote and walk away because when the ballot boxes are right; even the offertory boxes smile.

THE PROMISES OF THE POLITICIANS

Everybody knows that politicians have sugar coated tongues, sweet mouths that can sell snow to an Eskimo or inflate the expectations of the masses, but electoral promises demand blood, sweat and tears if they are to be fulfilled. It demands looking beyond eating today’s yams and at posterity and the legacies one can leave behind. It requires service to the people in humility. As elections draw close, politicians should embrace the spirit of sportsmanship that would allow for free and fair elections, keeping in mind the words of former President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan that the “the ambition of anybody, is not worth the blood of any Nigerian”. The politicians therefore should make their promises with the interest of the people in mind so that they can meet up with the challenges of the 21^st Century.

THE PROMISES OF THE MEDIA

Media houses in Nigeria can be propaganda outlets for politicians who have stakes in them or who have the money to make them dance to their tune. However, under normal circumstance, they are supposed to provide a platform for the electorates to know more about electoral processes, political aspirants and the need to vote. They are supposed to serve as the microscope through which electoral promises are dissected by members of the public.

In the era of digital technologies such as social media, there is the temptation to ignore the role traditional media such as the radio or the physical presence of media teams or crew can play in an election. Shrewd Nigerian politicians know that elections are mostly won in the grass roots, where there are often poor media coverage or internet connection and where elections can easily be rigged. The presence of members of the press in major cities or towns during elections is sometimes a charade, because electoral processes can become opaque in places where there is little or no media presence. There is need therefore, for both state and private owned media outlets to increase their coverage of elections to remote areas on election days as their cameras can serve as the eyes of big brother against electoral malpractices. Above all, they should promise themselves to be impartial arbiters against the tyranny of hate speech, misinformation and violence that is associated with politics, not just in Nigeria alone but Africa and the world at large.

THE PROMISES OF ELECTORAL STAFF

Nigerians, especially the youth have more confidence in the judges of a beauty pageant or spelling bee than they do in the electoral processes of the country. They have little faith in electoral outcomes due to lack of transparency which often result in violence as electoral results are often contested and protested against. Most Nigerians view elections like fixed matches, they believe that their votes won’t count and that elections are skewed to favour the dictates of the powers that be. INEC as the chief umpire of elections should try to put measures in place that enables electorates to have faith in the credibility of the elections they will conduct. INEC’S permanent and ad-hoc staff should ensure that voters are able to cast their vote in secret and act according to the oath forms provided to them.

THE PROMISES OF THE SECURITY PERSONNEL

Even though there seem to be little security threat during voter’s registration or collection of permanent voter’s card, the threat to security increases during campaigns, at pooling units and at collation and announcements of results after elections. What is sad is that security personnel often do the biddings of politicians to rig elections, to oppress or intimidate opponents and to hamper processes that allow for free and fair elections in the country. Each security personnel more than others at elections need to keep the national pledge in mind:

“To serve Nigeria with all my strength.

To defend her unity, and uphold her honour and glory.

So help me God”.

It is new year, the funeral of a dead year has just been celebrated as many crossed over to a new: that means we are all moving towards adding another year to each of our lives. The other day I saw an Obituary without the deceased date of birth or death and I found it strange, because even if people hid their age while alive, their obituaries mostly carried it. I asked myself if it was an omission on the part of those making the burial arrangement or if the deceased had wished it.

I recently turned thirty, most people don’t know that because I look younger than my age and I have had an aversion for people knowing my age, so I leave them guessing. In my twenties I had read two poems that constantly reminded me of aging, one was “To My First White Hairs” by Wole Soyinka, the other, “The Panic of Growing Older” by Lenrie Peters. My first Panic of growing older was when I was 27, I was preparing for one of my younger sister’s matriculation when I noticed two strands of gray hairs on my head; two strands which have come to interpret the passage of time. I was shocked and began having sober reflections; it was like I was in the middle of an exam with a lot to write and the invigilator shouted time up. Shortly though, my worries disappeared along with the two strands of grey hairs which I no longer saw. Lol! They might just have been warning signals after all.

In most African societies age is synonymous with wisdom, even though nowadays we just seem to be growing older and not wiser. People these days seem to sneer at aging particularly in the west, where we have people dying hairs, applying wrinkle creams, undergoing surgery and taking supplements to prevent aging. We often don’t want to be associated with aging at all, we want to be or feel forever young but we must all age so that the wealth of our experiences can give directions to the younger generation.

Most people panic at getting older when they don’t have achievements to show for their age or when they feel their lives have no markers to indicate the passage of time. On the other hand some people flaunt their age because they fill they have achieved some things at an earlier age than others which they ought to take pride in. In my personal opinion, when we talk about aging, we need to consider three things: geography, biology and socialization. Geography refers to your location, which has to do with your environment, the people, the opportunities present or absent etc. Biology refers to your constitution or body make up; we have all seen people who for some reason look older or younger than their age or who fall sick more often than others etc. Socialization involves the interaction between you and the people within or outside your circle. All these can affect your age and your achievement and you have to keep in mind that if circumstances were reversed some people would perform better or worse than others in relation to these factors. So think of these things before you start comparing yourself with others.

Societal pressure in modern times more than anything make people panic about aging, in the Lenrie Peters poem I mentioned above the author favours your 20’s as time for achievements and that at 30 aging begins and you should at least have a child then. This is the type of outlook that puts pressure on a lot of youth today that makes some at their prime feel like failures. I however, appreciate where he points out that science gives hope of a life about twice the age of your prime, that’s  to say with all things being equal, there is always time to try again. So is age only a number? Don’t know for you but if asked, I will say it is. What matters is what you do with your time and those things that make you more productive. That is what makes people remain where they are or advance beyond that. May the New Year be full of life and productivity. Cheers!!!

I had gone to the Mammy Market on Wednesday morning to eat breakfast before I start work for the day, while at the canteen I heard the soldiers from across the table talking about a recent Boko haram attack; I was only picking tit bits as their convo went on. I heard about 40 soldiers were killed in the course of the attack. I had thought I had heard wrongly that was why I didn’t even discuss the matter with my colleague when I went back to the shop because I felt we have gone passed the era where Boko Haram has the Audacity to carry out such attacks. Little did I know that the number was about a hundred. One of the soldiers had said something along the line of “some ofour boys were killed by Boko Haram”, and in the course of the discussion the other soldier threw in a name or so and asked another if he was his regular. Itwas about a month ago that I knew the meaning of “Regular” or “Regus” as a parlance in the Nigerian army. This is my second year of going to the Nigerian Army School of Military Engineering (NASME), Makurdi to work. I am a bookbinder and I run a small business center at Benue State University, so when the school is on break or ASUU is on strike I go to a friend’s place with my machine and tools to bind thesis, results, dissertations, dictionaries, Bibles etc for both staff, student and other people who might be military or civilian.

 In the course of my two years of going there I have seen soldier(s) who are recovering from bullet wound(s), I have spoken with soldier(s) who have been to the front with Boko Haram, in fact one showed me a scar of burns he suffered from the beginning of his hand to the end of his arm and I am sure even up to his back if I were to check. At my stand, there were occasions where I had seen a soldier broke the news of the death of a fellow soldier fighting these terrorists in the course of their conversation, and I sometimes feel the chill in my system as though I knew the fallen hero. At my stand on several occasions, I have seen some soldiers refer to each other as“Regus” or “Regular” and from the connection they made, you can tell it is deep. I kept trying to wrap my mind around the meaning until I asked a soldier who had become my Facebook what it meant when he used it in an RIP message fora deceased soldier; his mate who was recently killed by Boko Haram. “Regular”or “Regus” I came to understand simply means your course mate in the Nigerian army. Now the 100 soldiers killed by these vultures are somebody’s father, son,brother, lover, friend and “Regus” or “Regular” and yet some people make lightof their sacrifice for our nation?

Our media houses I think are making light of the current situation of the Boko Haram insurgence by not keeping us abreast with the information from the fronts, the government is making light of the sacrifices of these fallen heroes by not keeping members of the military well equipped and by not checking how funds for security purposes are been utilized. In fact one of the soldiers told me as far as he was concerned, this Boko Haram insurgency is both business and politics and people are making a fortune out of it. He said the government can release funds for weapons for instance and some persons will short circuit the cash flow leaving the soldiers ill prepared for attack.Most of us are also making light of the sacrifices of our heroes, fallen and standing probably because they are not related by blood with us. As I typed this, someone one had the nerve to say that we should just suck it up, that“Soldiers go to war to kill and be killed” and I was glad for someone’s apt response to the post that said those soldiers were murdered and not killed, it was murder because they were not provided with better and superior arsenals.This is murder of a hundred men.

Some of us don’t know what it feels like to have someone in the fronts, my former apprentice and a family friend who joined the Nigerian army gave me feedback sometimes back of what it is like facing this insurgents,he is mostly off the radar and his mum barely gets to see or hear from him. My Dad use to be a unit commander in the Mopol with about 60 men under his command and you can’t tell the anguish we find ourselves when he and his unit were posted to regions like the Niger Delta during elections or to tackle Fulani herdsmen in Agatu which got us very scared particularly when one of their colleague was ambushed and murdered by the herdsmen. Members of the Nigerian military are brave men who are really getting less than they deserve. Lt. Col Ibrahim Sakaba the unit commander of the Nigerian army who was killed in there cent Boko Haram attack was a brave man; it is not easy leading men to war. All the members of his unit that were killed were brave men; all the members of the Nigerian army that have so far been killed in the fight against Boko Haram were brave men. May their souls rest in peace and may their families be greatly consoled.

When it comes to the matter of sex, the best the African mother mostly tell her son is “be careful with the girls, women or ladies” and the best the African father often tell his daughter is “be careful with the boys, men or guys”,  African parents shy away from talking about sex, so the African child mostly see members of the opposite sex as something to be afraid of, something to be careful of instead of a person to be understood, that is why they grow up without seeing the beauty of friendship that can exist between members of the opposite sex. Since the African child have been covertly or subtly taught that members of the opposite sex are something to be afraid of, something to be careful of, they often become afraid of not only knowing more about the sexuality of the opposite sex but their own bodies or sexuality as well.

Where then should the African child gain knowledge about Sex? African parents are doing a lousy job about it and even teachers who teach subjects like biology also shy away from talking about sex or reproduction in class. I remember a female biology teacher who came for her teaching practice in my secondary school who shied away from teaching the chapter that had to do with reproduction until her male colleague came to her rescue or so. With the benefit of hindsight, I also remember a couple of times I had stumbled on my class mates back then reading parts of the biology text that had to do with reproduction, the way and manner they went about it looks as though they were doing something illegal, yet this is knowledge they ought to ordinarily and openly have. Even in our higher institutions of learning where we have people studying courses like psychology, sociology, mass communication etc, people still have misconceptions about human sex or sexuality and so in the streets we can even have graduates who should know better, join women who sell in beer parlours, Okada men and brick layers who have not entered the four walls of higher institution to think that because you are single for instance, you might be gay or have something wrong with you.

The religious organizations are also lagging behind since their emphasis is mostly on virginity or abstinence, that is why members of different religions can sometimes have sex may be for the first time and still think they can’t have HIV or other STDs because they have not been promiscuous, they missed the part of the syllable that say micro-organisms have no conscience, they have no moral compass, they are opportunistic in nature and so you can be a virgin and still suffer from STIs until they become life threatening if you don’t have the wherewithal to treat yourself. It is this failure to talk about sex in African homes or society that often gives rise to unplanned pregnancies among young people who are apparently from religious or good family backgrounds.

I am currently reading a book on human sexuality by Valdimir Antonov, in it the author reported three stages of reproductive development in which he observed that the first primitive signs of the activity of the reproductive system can be observed in human infants in the form of erection of tissues in the penis and clitoris even in the first days after birth. This type of erection occurs in response to nonspecific influence, such as laughing, eating, experiencing pain, fright, weeping etc, the second phase known as the stage of “adolescent intersexuality”, occurs in humans from the ages of 7-9 to 15-17 under the auspices of sex hormones. This stage according to scientists is the most dangerous in terms of possible development of sexual abnormalities.

According to the author “What is typical of this phase is an absence of a distinct sexual orientation towards representatives of the opposite sex of the same biological species, which can be attributed to immaturity of the corresponding brain structures. A sexual arousal at this stage can be easily induced by inadequate stimuli, including inanimate objects, animals, and representatives of the same sex…. However, transformation of these reactions into conditioned reflexes —due to an adolescent’s lacking information about normal sexual relations of adult people may lead to an inversion of his or her sexual orientation for the rest of life”. So the emphasis here is on providing early information on normal sexual relations of adult people to adolescents or young people because when they enter the third phase of sexual development which is the “adult sexuality” stage — the process of maturing of the brain structures responsible for a particular sexual orientation seems to be cemented.

I don’t have difficulty talking about sex or having the “The Talk”, may be it is because I am a biologist or have taught biology before. I am a strong proponent for sex education; I talk to my younger ones about it because I feel it is my responsibility as the eldest child to supplement my parent’s efforts in that regards. Generally, talking about sex is not easy, that is why the English use the euphemism and idiomatic expression “Birds and Bees talk” to refer to courtship and sexual intercourse. It generally involves parents explaining to their children what sexual relations are, especially during puberty when curiosity about sexual matters is most acute. In this age of abundant information both online and offline, we shouldn’t sell our self short on what we need to know about sex or human sexuality. On the whole, sex education in formal or informal setting should not just be about reproduction or how babies are conceived and born without livening it with everyday practical examples and how sex is perceived in different societies or cultures.

I remember watching Akeelah and the bee shortly after secondary school over a decade ago, I remember becoming confused as the movie went on, I had thought it would be about insects, particularly bees. But it was a different ball game altogether, it was all about words. It was after watching the movie that I knew that such a thing as a spelling bee existed; what surprised me the most was that my primary and secondary school days were filled with participation in quiz and debate competitions and yet I had no idea that such a thing as a spelling bee existed. A spelling bee is a competition in which young pupils or teenagers are asked to spell words, these words could range from simple to complex ones based on the rules set by the organizers. The concept is thought to have originated in the United States but has spread to other parts of the world like Nigeria; Benue State in particular. I was opportune to have attended one recently (Saturday, 27/10/2018), the third edition of the Wowza spelling bee at the Aminu Isa Kontagora (AIK) theatre, Makurdi. 

WOWZA SPELLING BEE

Wowza spelling bee is organized by one of Benue’s finest bloggers, Levels Kuku, who over the years has carved a niche for himself with how he blogs and is very popular with the young people of Benue state, especially those who are active on social media.  His blog goes by the name Wowza gist and the Wowza spelling bee features in it as part of his initiative to teach young peoples and pupils in the state the power of words, healthy competition and constructive educative entertainment. Speaking from experience, the organizers, sponsors and teachers who coach pupils for such events have no idea what they do to the lives of these little ones, they often unknowingly broaden their horizon or open for some of them new vistas that could alter the course of their lives.

TIME MANGEMENT AND 2018 WOWZA SPELLING BEE

One thing I loved about the 2018 edition of the Wowza spelling bee (which was my first) was that there was no African time. I intentionally arrived the venue around 9:30 am instead of 9:00 am. Accreditation of contestants from different primary schools seemed to have long begun at the entrance before the opening prayer was said by one of the brave pupils at about 10:00 am. The most impressive thing about the event was the way the Wowza team conducted themselves (from the technical team to the judges), they were impressively courteous, years of organizing or participating in such events might have given them the almost surgeon like precision they displayed at the event.

THE CONTEST AND CONTESTANTS

The contestants were from over 25 primary schools from across the state and from the tag each constant carried onstage one could see that they were over a hundred contestants who were at most 12 or 13 years of age. I was glad when I saw my little cousin among the contestants, I had thought about him contesting but shelved the thought, yet there he was on stage not knowing if anyone has sent a thought about him into the universe. I was glad that his not winning did not break his spirit at the end.

RULES OF THE BEE

The competition consisted of four rounds in which each of the over 100 contestants have to participate. At the beginning of each round, a sealed envelope was brought forward by a member of the panel of judges, the seal broken and the content which were pieces of papers with numbers inscribed on them were emptied into a transparent bow. When a contestant steps forward, he or she picks a paper from the bow, moves to the microphone and makes known the number he or she had picked. The compere or the “chief judge” of that round will ask the pupil to spell a word that corresponds with the number the contestant had picked. In the span of 40 seconds, the contestant was allowed to either ask the judge to use the word in a sentence, to give the meaning of the word or to pronounce it again before he or she begins to spell. A contestant fails once he or she misses or mixes a letter in the word, the contestants’ parents and teachers were not allowed access to the contestants during the course of the about 7-8 hours of the competition. Refreshment was available for contestants and an interlude was provided when they can go out and ease themselves while the judges computed their results. No member of the audience was allowed to aid any of the contestants whatsoever and any glitch observed was brought to the notice of members of the technical crew or the MC.

SHORTCOMINGS

One of the pitfalls I observed with the competition was with the way the judges pronounce certain words when asking the contestants to spell them, the manner often prompt the pupil to spell wrongly. They should be more conscious next time of manner of word pronunciation and should also be cognizant of the fact that this is Nigeria and most of these young folks might not come from well equipped schools with good teachers and all that.

TAKE HOME: NO VICTOR, NO VANQUISHED.

At the end of each round of the competition, one would have expected that those who didn’t make it to the next round would have been asked to leave to the stage, but no, the organizers at each stage of the competition as I observed made sure that no child felt as a failure or loser. After each round, those who couldn’t spell their words correctly were not asked to leave the stage but to rather sit behind those who qualified for the next round. The process continued until there were only five contestants left.

Phew!, it was indeed a tough competition, I saw adults googling and consulting their phone’s dictionary for some of the words those young pupils had to spell; the final stage was like a scene taken from the Akeelah and the bee movie, the first position was known after the fourth round but the other four contestants tied twice in trying to emerge as the second and third runner up. The judges to break the tie had to choose the second and third runner up in accordance with their earlier attempts in trying to spell the words that were assigned to them instead of going through a third round. The good of the thing was that no child left there without a gift, each child was given a certificate of participation and even the youngest contestant who didn’t spell any word correctly was also given a gift for participating as the youngest in the contest.

There is nothing that crushes a child’s spirit like when you make him or her feel like a failure, once that feeling takes root in his psyche, doubts emanating from that feeling will creep into all his or her undertakings and he or she might not compete favourable with others whether in academics, sports or life in general.

It was obvious that Emmanuel Iwuji, an eight year old grade 4 pupil of Crystaland Schools emerged as winner and it was okay that schools like Temple Gate Academy did well by emerging as 3 out of the five finalists but you cannot tell how crushed the spirits of those other pupils would have been if the organizers had treated them as total losers. Such things mean a lot to these pupils. There was a little girl who clunged to her teacher while I was about living the venue, she was crying because she didn’t win, I then realized that it was high time we teach young people that they can lose battles and still win wars, that failure is not final but a vital learning process.

IN PREPARATION FOR THE NEXT EDITION

A lot of positive things can come out of Benue, you can tell even from the energy and brilliance those young pupils exhibited at the third edition of the Wowza spelling bee. If you are tired of all the negative publicity that Benue State has been having lately, then sponsoring or participating in events like the Wowza spelling bee should be your priority because it show cases part of the best in us.

Teachers, especially those who coach pupils for such events should form spelling bee clubs at their various schools and parents and guardians should always try to increase the vocabulary of their children or wards because you expand the world of a child or how he or she views it by enlarging the number of words they can command. They can also do well to provide educative movies like Akeelah and the bee for their children etc.

LAST NOTE: THOUGHTS FOR OCHANYA AND THE GIRL CHILD

All through the third edition of the Wowza spelling bee, I kept thinking of Ochanya Ogbanje Elizabeth, the 13 year old girl from Benue State who was allegedly raped on different occasions by father and son for a period of 5 years. She eventually died on the 17^th of this month from complications such as Vesicovaginal Fistula (VVF). As I looked at the young contestants on the stage, aged 7-12 (the age range in which Ochanya came to stay with relatives that led to her abuse and  death), I observed that the female contestants performed better than the male and among the 5 finalist 3 were females, which goes to show from my several other observations that the future is indeed with the girl child.

Lastly, I reckoned that Ochanya would have been a force to be reckoned with in future had she survived (most survivors of rape are), she was indeed a strong willed child. Her name Ochanya means “Women Leader” or “Queen”, may she rest in peace, may she finally get the justice she deserves and may the mention of her name remind us of every duty we owe a child, especially the girl Child. Amen

#Spellingbee #Education #JusticeforOchanya