By Stephen Ojo
The Islamic Education Trust has presented cash award amounting to N2.1M and laptops to winners of the first edition of online Islamic literature quiz aimed at enhancing reading culture of the youths in Nigeria.
The Director General of the Islamic Education Trust (IET), Alhaji Arzika Abubakar Rimau stated this while presenting prizes to 20 winners of the quiz in Minna, the Niger State capital
Rimau explained the importance of encouraging reading culture among the youths, adding that, ” this is fast eroding the young people in Nigeria”.
He emphasized the necessity of parents, individuals and organisations to imbibe the spirit of motivating young people to engage in activities that promotes knowledge and understanding of the Qur’an.
Speaking on the purpose of the online quiz, Director Research and Training of the IET, Sheikh Nurudeen Muhammad Lemu said the book titled Authencity of the Qur’an was deliberately chosen for the quiz in order to help Muslims understand why the Qur’an is a word of Allah.
He said, “26, 000 people registered for the quiz while over 13,000 actually participated out of which the top 20 winners emerged. The first and second positions were won by Hadiza Muhammad Jima from Niger State and Ibrahim Aminu from Kaduna state and were presented with brand new laptops each and cash prizes of N500,000 and N350, 000 respectively while the third position won by Abdulmughny Aboaba from Osun State got a laptop and a cash prize of N150,000”
According to him, in the same vein, 4th to 10th positions were presented with N100,000 cash prize each while 10 others from the 11th to 20th positions won N50,000 each.
“We chose financial gifts because of the current situation of the country and the fact that money is also a universal gift. As we move into the future, we would be looking probably at various forms of scholarships and assistance. We will look at better ways to show recognition while increasing the number of beneficiaries from 20 to 50”, he explained.