1st July, 2019
Utibe-Abasi Bassey, an SS2 student of Bright Star Model Secondary School, Uyo, has emerged winner of this year 2019 South-South Zonal Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) National Science Quiz Competition.
Speaking at the event, held at Community Secondary School Uyo on Monday, Mr. Ndu Ughamadu, the Group General Manager, Group Public Affairs Division NNPC, said the competition was the flagship Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) initiative of the corporation.
He said that the 2019 edition which was the 17th in the series of the competition was aimed at building on the gains already recorded in previous editions.
Ughamadu congratulated all the participating schools and their students who battled it out with their peers in the competition.
He said that Akwa Ibom, Edo and Bayelsa would represent South-South at the Grand Finale at NNPC National competition to be held in Abuja in September.
“NNPC is well known for its interventions in many aspects of our daily lives in the quest to touch lives in many positive ways as is captured in the corporation’s pay offline.
“Our Corporate Social Responsibility activities cover projects in health, infrastructure, power generation, agriculture, sports and arts,” Ughamadu said.
Ughamadu, represented by Mr Stephen Douglas, Manager, Corporate Social Responsibility, NNPC said that the corporation’s intervention in the educational sector was the most important CRS activity.
According to him, NNPC understands the value of education in the growth and development of any society.
He said: ”competition plays a key role in sustaining our economy by providing us with tools to understand the world around us and innovation to solve everyday problems.”
Ughamadu said the competition was first introduced in year 2000 when it was held only for students in the Niger Delta.
”It was transformed into a nationwide exercise in 2001 and from the last edition in 2017, its reach has spread to 774 local government areas of the country,” he said.
He explained that the result of NNPC’s investment in the quiz competition was very visible for all to see.
He said that NNPC scholars had gone far to achieving outstanding academic excellence in tertiary institutions, both locally and internationally.
He said that several innovations were introduced last year to make the competition better and to help the corporation impact on many communities as possible with the initiative.
“Thirty-seven of you emerged from recently concluded state competitions including the Federal Capital Territory and will compete in the different zones across the country.
“Of this number, 13 are from government schools while 24 are from private schools and there are a total of 8 female,” he said.
Also speaking, Mrs Helen Ante, Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Education, Akwa Ibom, commended the outstanding performance of state contingents who had been representing the South-South Zone from 2014-2016 consecutively.
Ante said that the competition would promote the teaching and learning of Science and Technology in the school system.
”We can see the level of enthusiasm by all participating teams in preparation for the competition,” she said.
She said that Akwa Ibom Government was committed to ensuring total peace throughout the competition and beyond.
“We expect that at the end of the competition, the best would be selected from participating students without bias,” she said.
The Akwa Ibom contingent scored 60 marks to emerge the winner of the Competition while Edo and Bayelsa states came joint second with 55 marks each.
Rivers and Cross River States scored 50 marks each to emerge the fourth position while Delta scored 40 marks to emerge as the sixth position in the competition.
Six states participated in the competition including Rivers, Edo, Delta, Cross River, Bayelsa and Akwa Ibom.
During the competition, the students were tested in English Language and core science subjects such as Mathematics, Biology, Chemistry and Physics.
Responding, Bassey said he was determined and with God on his side, he won the competition.
He promised to try harder in order to win the national competition coming on soon while promising that the trophy would come to South-South Zone.