Ibrahim Brima Swaray, Chief Executive of National Public Procurement Authority (NPPA) who doubles as Chief Executive Officer of the Ibrahim Brima Swaray Foundation has received awards from pupils of the Eastern region in recognition of his outstanding support and dedication to the Free Quality Education Program; though many people see it as a corporate philanthropy.
Teams from Kailahun and Kono were mystically accurate as usual, throwing serious challenges and threats in the fierce Eastern Regional Debate and Quiz competitions, but that would not have been enough, as Team Kenema stood firm to defend their home advantage, scooping the first positions in the debate and quiz competitions respectively.
The first heavy fighting at close quarters between schools took place in December, January and March for Kenema District, Kailahun district and Kono District systematically. Government Secondary school and College Secondary School Kenema, Pendembu Vocational Secondary School and Luawa Islamic Junior Secondary School Kailahun, Clunny Free Secondary School and Experimental Junior Secondary in Kono were champions at district levels in the debate and quiz separately, where they had crushed off competitions from other top-ranked schools to be crowned champions.
After the primaries in all the three ‘K’ districts in the east, qualifications to the regional stage was skewed to the best debating teams, best quizzing teams, first and second best debaters as well as first and second best quizzers for each district. However, due to falloffs by some invited schools of teams from Kono and Kenema for the quiz, in compositions, each district had three participants in their quiz teams and four debaters in their debating teams accordingly.
In what that was considered a gathering for pulsating academic synergy, turned into a sturdy moot warfare as the debaters took not only the judges but the audience by storm with their marvellous enactments and sequential exhibitions of their one-to-one team cases and the temerity in which they voiced their public speaking dexterities. Out of three topics, only one of them was presented by all teams as per the direction of the honourable judges. After all the teams had presented their team cases, the results from individual participants of each team were conjoint. In this episode, Team Kenema (282 points) were crowned champions as against Kailahun (222) and Kono (212). Emmanuel K. Musa of Team Kenema with an individual score of 83 points was declared the best debater.
The quiz rivalry was also an attention-grabbing episode as participants from various were at each other’s throats. After several eliminations, Umpha Lamin Koroma of Team Kenema and Yusif Turay Team Kono trekked on level terms. Realizing that they have mastered all the spellings in the script that was given to schools prior the competition, it was unanimously agreed that in order to have a winner, they should move away from the script and draft spellings in accordance with their syllabus. It was during that round that Umpha Koroma substantiated he is a spot-on champion, as he rummaged in front trouncing Turay by a fringe variance, replicating the same feast he had amassed during the district tourney in Kenema December last year. When the tight battle was finally settled and scores coalesced, Team Kailahun scored 61 points, Kenema 87points and Kono scored 79 points. Ergo, Team Kenema was declared the winning team and at the individual stage, Umpha scored a high of 43 points against Yusif’s 40, thereby making Umpha the best quizzer.
The Foundation initially made a budgetary projection for the coverage of the competition in star and other consolation prizes of Ten Million Leones (Le. 10,000,000). During the course of the event, the Chief Executive; National Public Procurement Authority, Chief Ibrahim Brima Swaray, the sole guarantor of the competition was amazed by the varying degree at which the competitors presented their skills and therefore skyrocketed the initial star prize to Twenty Million Leones (Le. 20,000,000).
As Guest Speaker of the occasion, the NPPA staunch-man, Chief Ibrahim Brima Swaray was greeted with a mixture of standing ovations and applauds after he took the centre stage at Karima Complex. ‘‘We are all gathered here this afternoon to celebrate academic excellence, and not the usual pageantry that has beclouded the minds of many young people’’. Mr Swaray said earlier in his speech. He spoke to a crowd estimated by program organizers at about 800 people. Speaking exclusively to teachers and students, the NPPA boss admitted his ambition of seeing education grow not only in the east where he has started supporting such goodwill but throughout the country, while also backing digitalized procurement practices in ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs).
‘‘As long as I continue to live and the New Direction government continues in power, I will always continue to promote education’’. He maintained. According to Mr. Swaray, the Ibrahim Brima Swaray Foundation focuses on education through debate and quiz competitions as a mainstay niche because they help to broaden the horizons of students and enhance the research capabilities of students too. He observed with staid unease that some participants from Kailahun and Kono who performed extremely at their respective districts were unable to reproduce the exact performance. He attributed such challenge to the fact that the competition was staged on a foreign land and they did not travel with cheer givers to boost their morale. He assured participants from Kailahun and Kono that they will be accompanied by supporters to such competitions should they be organised away from home grounds. He concluded by complimenting the efforts of the teachers for preparing their candidates with precision.
The competition was climaxed with the presentation of prizes and award of certifications. Team Kenema received the sum of Eight Million Leones (Le. 8,000,000) for winning both the quiz and debate competitions. Team Kailahun received the sum of Eight Hundred Thousand Leones and One Million Two Hundred Thousand Leones (Le .800 and 1,200,000) for finishing third and second in the quiz and debate competitions respectively. Team Kono also received the sum of Eight Hundred Thousand Leones and One Million Two Hundred Thousand Leones (Le.800 and 1,200,000) for finishing third and second in the debate and quiz competitions accordingly. Umpha Lamin Koroma and Emmanuel K Musa both of Team Kenema won One Million Leones (Le. 1,000,000) each as best quizzer and best debater.
For doing what he considers a corporate social responsibility, though many see it as a corporate philanthropy, the NPPA strongman was honoured with an award from pupils of the eastern region in recognition of his outstanding support and dedication to the Free Quality Education Program.
All the above took place at the Karima Complex, Kenema City on Saturday 19th June, 2021.
