BY Kamaluddeen Umar
The Centre for Information Technology and Development (CITAD) and Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre (CISLAC) with support from Oxfam Novib conducted the 2nd Extractive Industry Literacy Quiz for Secondary schools in Zamfara State on 24th July, 2013. The objective of the quiz was to promote awareness about the extractive industry transparency as provided in the Nigerian Extractive Industry Transparency Initiative (NEITI) Act, including accounting for environmental degradation. The quiz which was part of a larger project being implemented by CISLAC across the country to promote transparency and accountability in the extractive industry sector.
The quiz was held at the Government Science Secondary School Bukkuyum, Bukkuyum Local Government, Zamfara State. Ten schools out of the fifteen invited participated in the quiz. The schools were
- GSSS Bukkuyum
- GDSS Masama
- JSS Zarumai
- GGDSS Anka
- GSS Anka
- GDSS Anka
- GGDSS Maru
- GGDSS Bukkuyum
- GDSS Mayanchi
10. GDSS Nassarawa
 Among the participating schools, three ware girls’ secondary schools while seven ware boys’ secondary school.
 Alhaji Aminu Kagara, who represented the secondary schools principals, chaired the occasion. The program started with an opening prayer from Sani Mohammad who represented the Emir of Bukkuyyum followed by opening remark from Barrister Musa Umar. Executive Director of CITAD who was represented by Mallam Kamaluddeen Umar welcomed the participants and guests and explained the objective of the quiz to them. He also explained the rules and regulation of the quiz competition.
Barrister Musa Umar urged the participants to put more efforts in their studies not only for the quiz purposes. He added that extractive industry literacy quiz was very important not only for the secondary schools students, but also because it would help in raising awareness on the importance of the management and use of the extractive resources in the country. Alhaji Aminu expressed his happiness to attend the programme and thanked the organizers. While commending the organizers, he expressed the wish that competition would be expanded to cover the whole state and eventually be taken at national level. Barrister Musa Umar gave a brief presentation on what is the extractive industry and the activities involved in the sector which include the business of prospecting, mining, producing, processing and distribution of minerals, gas, oil, goal etc. He added that this also included extracting of farm produce and trees for wood and papers industry as well as removing fish in industrial fishing.
Before the beginning of the quiz, all the participating students were given NEITI branded T-Shirt and Face cap and put on. The first round started with all of the schools from which six of them qualified for the final round. In the final round the quiz ended with a lot of ties and had to be cleared to get the first, second and third position.
Below is the table of the winning schools and their prices
Position | School | Prize |
1st | GGDSS Bukkuyum | New brand Laptop |
2nd | GDSS Masama | New Television Set 17†|
3rd | GDSS Nasarawa | New Television Set 15†|
The first place position prize was presented by Alhaji Sani Mohammad. The second prize presented by Alhaji Aminu Kagara the third position presented by Mal Kamaluddeen Umar.
In addition to these prizes, teacher of the best school was presented with a 15†television set. Teachers of the 2nd and 3rd position schools were presented with wall clock each. Other prizes were clothing materials to each participant from the three winning schools. Also various publications on the extractive industry by NEITI were distributed to the participants, guests and members of the audience.
Barrister Musa Umar expressed his appreciation to the effort of the participating schools and donated Two Thousand Naira (N2, 000) to the fourth position school, GDSS Anka
At the end of the competition, CITAD expressed its gratitude to the Oxfam Novib, CISLAC, NEITI and all others for their solidarity and contribution to the success for the programme. The event was successfully closed with a prayer from volunteer among the guests.