UNIOSUN, ABU Zaria, OAU Students Emerge Overall Winners Of Iqraa Challenge

The Standard Bearers Islamic Organisation (SB), Ile-Ife Chapter has announced the names of overall winners for The Iqraa Challenge.

Recalls that SB had earlier announced five names of participants who qualified at the preliminary stage of The Iqraa Challenge.

The students; Tiamiyyu Shakirah Ajoke, a part one student from Department of Education Management, Ekiti State University, Yunus Najmudden, a part four student from Department of Linguistics and Language, Federal University Oye- Ekiti, Mutohhir Olanrewaju Abdulhameed, a part two student from Department of Religious studies, Obafemi Awolowo University, Fatima Toluwalope Ajiboye, a part two law student from Osun State University, and Aishah Muhammad Mustapha, a part four student from Department of Geography, Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, were shortlisted for the final stage out of 46 students from across 17 higher institutions across the country that applied for the Iqraa challenge.

However, three students from three different tertiary institutions were announced overall winners of the final stage which was held on Saturday at conference room, OAUTHC Mosque, Ile Ife.

Fatima Toluwalope Ajiboye from UNIOSUN emerged overall winner with 78.6%, Aishah Muhammad Mustapha from ABU Zaria emerged overall second winner with 72.75% and Mutohhir Olanrewaju Abdulhameed from OAU emerged overall third winner with 67.4%.

The overall winners each carted away cash prizes among many other rewards.

A copy of the presentation of the Iqraa Challenge results sent to our correspondent shown that “adherence to the structure of the article as given by the organizers; writing within the required words limitation; relevance and originality of the overall content; Islamic content of the article/referencing sources used; and judges’ discretion (evaluation concordance, flow, syntax and grammar) formed the criteria by which participants were evaluated till the final stage.

While reading out the results, a post doctoral research fellow of Chemical Engineering , University of Cape Town, South Africa, Dr. Ismail Adefeso commended the Standard Bearers for staging such a reading competition for Muslim Youths , noting that only those who dedicate themselves to reading will have the required mental capacity to lead others.

Commenting on the results, the Programmes Coordinator, Mr Luqman Isa said some candidates submitted the 3 assignments given in the challenge, some others did not submit all given assignments which reduced their marks.

Mr Isa therefore commended all participants for their efforts in the contest, noting they have done well.

“Standard Bearers Islamic organization has made it as part of its cardinal responsibility to improve education of Muslim youths with interest of rewarding excellence, intelligence, creativity and knowledge about Islam. That is why we established Iqraa Challenge. By Allah’s will, Iqraa Challenge will soon be a held across all states of federation,” he said

Dr. Shuaib Osunleke, the Head of Department of Chemical Engineering, Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU) who graced the occasion urged the Muslim youths to imbibe the spirit of reading.

He said that imbibing the spirit of reading and seeking for knowledge is the only way the youths can contribute meaningfully to the development of the country and the religion.

While commenting on her victory, the overall winner, Fatimah Ajiboye said: “Alhamdulillah. I felt really happy and I still am. I couldn’t stop giving thanks to Allah.

“I had so much fun during the cause of writing the essay. It opened me to knowledge about somethings I never knew. It also widened my reasoning horizon which I’m really grateful for.

“Sincerely, I felt good. As a law student, essay writing contributes largely to our development and this was an avenue to further improve in my career development.

” The Iqra Challenge is a very commendable project. Other projects that would take us back to our roots should be encouraged and recommended.”

Also commenting, the overall second winner, Aisha Mustapha said: “I am really very happy to be amongst the contestants for this intellectually challenging competition. It gave me the opportunity to challenge myself in field of research and must say, it was indeed tough and worth all the while.

“Again, I feel happy to have taken part in this. As it further gave me insight on the undisputable importance of education and how we can use it as a tool to break the yoke that confines us to poverty and financial dependence.

“I sincerely commend STANDARD BEARERS for this opportunity given to all within the academic space to intellectually engage them in the process of solution findings. On that note, I sincerely advice this initiative should be put in place at least quarterly, as it will give people the opportunity to find out their innate potential in problem solving and proper/rational decision making.

I will urge them to always come with competition of this kind to help students discover their writing skills and explore the various knowledge they get therein.”

Corroborating, the overall third winner, Muttohir Abdulhammeed urged the organisers of the program to extend the program to all states of Federation.