Nigeria Universities Updates

It may be regarded as the surprise of the century – considering that the best Nigerian university is ranked 1,723rd in the world (www.4icu.org) and is not even among the top 50 in Africa. However, the team that represented the University of Ibadan (UI) at the just-concluded Zain Africa Challenge International Championship in Uganda has proven that a lot of good things can still come out of Nigerian universities.

The UI team made up of Nnaemeka Nwachukwu, Olatunji Ayoola Olalere, Tolulope Oloruntoba and Olanrewaju Ismail Shittu beat a more experienced team from Kenyatta University, Kenya, which won last year’s edition of the competition.

The University of Lagos (UNILAG), which lost to UI in the semi-finals of the competition, emerged third.

This is the first time universities from Nigeria have participated in the competition sponsored by mobile giant Zain.

The UI team put up a brave fight in the final against Kenyatta and did not disappoint their coach, Lewis Ademola, a lecturer in the Department of Linguistics. He had expressed confidence that his students would bring the trophy to Nigeria – even before the final was decided.

Babatunde Tajudeen Adetona, the team’s liason officer, also said his confidence was anchored on the fact that the team had proved on several occasions that it could rise to big challenge.

The more experienced Kenyans were favourites to win the coveted Zain Scholars Trophy which had remained in the East African country since the contest started three seasons ago.

Zain Nigeria’s Head of Public Relations and Corporate Social Responsibility, Emeka Oparah, said UI would take home institutional and individual grants and the Zain trophy, in addition to the bragging right associated with such victory.

Oparah said the prizes are part of over $1 million that the firm invested in providing travel grants, prizes and educational grants to participating institutions and students.

The contest started with 32 universities from West, East and Southern Africa countries where Zain has operations. It tests undergraduates’ level of brilliance, intelligence, insight and ability to think quickly and provide correct answers to tough fast-paced questions selected from a broad range of topics, such as history, science, technology, African culture, sports, geography, literature, music and current affairs.

From the beginning, the boys from Ibadan showed they were no pushovers, overcoming strong oppositions, including such leading East Africa and Southern Africa institutions as Jomo Kenyatta University of Kenya, Mbarara University of Science & Technology (MUST), Uganda, and University of Malawi (UNIMA) as well as the University of Lagos, Akoka.

On the other hand, Team Kenyatta, Kenya’s second largest University, defeated the International Medical and Technological University (IMTU), Tanzania, the Federal University of Technology, Akure, the Catholic University of Eastern Africa (CUEA) at the quarter final stage and Zambia’s largest university, the University of Zambia on its way to the final.

The final featured a three- round fast-paced contest during which one member of a team competed against another in the face-off phase and got an opportunity to answer bonus questions as well as the final 50-point round, the ultimate challenge.

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