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Literary reality show debuts in Lagos, as expert bemoan neglect

By Kehinde Olatunji
11 November 2021   |   1:20 am
Chief Executive Officer of Sastoma Empowerment Foundation (STEFO), Dr. Stella Ebuetse, has lamented the dearth of English/literature teachings at the secondary level, saying this has further ..

Kano English teacher standing beside blackboard giving grammar lesson.

Chief Executive Officer of Sastoma Empowerment Foundation (STEFO), Dr. Stella Ebuetse, has lamented the dearth of English/literature teachings at the secondary level, saying this has further widened the gap of illiteracy.

In a bid to address this challenge, Ebuetse debuted what she described as ‘Wake up the Giant Literary Reality show, season 1 across the South West region of the country.

This first academic reality show in Nigeria and Africa, which is organised by Sastoma Empowerment Foundation (STEFO), with the support from to Sifax Group, for secondary school students, is aimed at promoting issues on education in Africa, support the educational drive for the less privileged, widows, orphans and missionary children.

According to her, the audition is currently going on in the South West region, while the Lagos edition starts tomorrow, November 12, at the designated centres.

She added that the Academic Reality competition is going to be in three stages namely senatorial district level, state level and the third stage being the tasks for the competition.

She said: “It will be 14 nights of brain cracking academic literary competition among the stage 2 winners from six South West states. The audience will experience spoken words at its peak. The nights are tagged: ‘In search of Wole Soyinka, Gone but not forgotten, Black/wailing night, Proudly Niger, My language: my identity, Africa, my Africa, proudly South West, testing the deep water, etc.”

Ebuetse said the literary reality show would prove that beyond physical talents, beautiful face, and physical strength, African youths got brains.

She noted that with the current poor reading culture among youths in Nigeria, the bitter truth is that there may never be a replica of such great minds like Wole Soyinka, Chinua Achebe, Ola Rotima, J.P Clark, Ken Saro Wiwa, Zaynab Aikhali, Chukwuemeka Ike, Festus Iyayi, Femi Osofisan, Tanure Ojaide, Zulu Sofola, Sam Ukala, Gabriel Okara, Christopher Okigbo, – who gave us memorable stories and everlasting rhythms.

Ebuetse added that most worrisome is the fact that currently in Nigeria, there are over 100 reality shows/talent hunts but none is focusing on this poor, nagging communication/reading challenge.

“The list is endless and yet most of these winners with their mouth watering prizes whose faces cascade in television screens across the country have almost disappeared under the radar just as swiftly as they bobbed up,” she stated.

She said it was sad to note that due to the ugly trend, parents and their wards have decided to abandon academic competitions/educational activities that have more lasting impact on their lives and veered into music, dance and beauty contest – even when it is glaring that they lack the necessary ingredient to succeed in such fields.

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