Winner of the First Prize in the 2021 Nigeria National Award for Creative Writing in Indigenous Language, Dr. Nze U. Nze has recommended that President Bola Tinubu should reward the secondary students who represented Nigeria in the recently concluded international debate competition for secondary schools.
Dr. Nze who is also a lecturer in the Department of Mass Communication of Tansian University, Umunya, Anambra State made this call while addressing students during extra curricular activities programme for Senior Secondary Schools held in Enugu.
The writer stated that since the students made Nigeria proud, the teachers that prepared them, the various schools they came from and the glorious students should be rewarded tangibly by Federal Government. The University don went further to advise the Governor of Anambra State Prof. Chukwuma Soludo to also reward them with something substantial inasmuch the team came from Anambra State.
The students won national debate competition as Team Anambra. This qualified them to represent the nation as Team Nigeria at the international level where they outwitted students from other other countries and came back with trophy.
The founder of Tansian Times magazine enjoined corporate organisations to equally reward them. That such organisations can use them as brand ambassadors in advertising their products/services then be paying them royalties. Rewarding students who made the nation or State proud usually serve as encouragement not only for the champions to do more but also motivate more students to work hard and be part of subsequent competitions.
The Mass Communication expert said that as student both at Secondary School and University level, he won series of prizes which attracted a lot incentives to him. He got a lot of tangible rewards for outstanding performances in educational competitions from Mr. Peter Obi when he was the governor of Anambra State. He was among Anambra First Class graduates whom Mr. Obi rewarded with Masters Degree Scholarship when he was the governor. He explained that there are motivations from different organisations for other academic prizes he won. Such encouragements contributed greatly to the height he has attained today. The academic doctor said the perks made him to study for Masters Degree and Ph.D programmes under scholarship.
“So I am advising the Federal Government, Anambra State Government and corporate organisations to reward Team Nigeria that won laurel in the global debate competition. Teachers that prepared them and their various Schools should not be left out in the incentives.” The lecturer said.
