By Godwin Tyonongu
Muslim wards have been advised to take the National Qur’anic Recitation Competition seriously as it would not only impact on them morally, but also gives them an advantage on western education.
Education secretary, Karu local government area of Nasarawa state, Atiku Musa, gave the advice recently at the closing ceremonies of this year’s completion organised by the Karu chapter in Tudun Wada.
He explained that apart from the programme bringing the children up morally, through Qur’anic recitations, “it will give them the opportunity to select the contingent that would represent the local government in the state-wide completion coming up at Kwadire, Lafia, on December 23, 2017.”
H said: “We do compete in the state level actively and we are always well represented; though we have not clichéd best yet. We are, however, hoping to emerge winners at the state-wide completion this year.
“The challenge is the inadequate financial strength that of taking them to the state completion but we hope this year will be different because the National president of Miyetti Allah, Alhaji Bodejo Bello, has promised to foot their transportation bill.”
Musa expressed satisfaction with the level of female participation during the event, noting that an under-20 girl was able to memorise the whole Qur’an at the completion, even as he encouraged female Muslims to put in more efforts in the completion.
Earlier, in his speech, the traditional ruler of Tudun Wada, Alhaji Abubakar Bako, commended the co-coordinator, Islamic Affairs, Karu, Alhaji Abubakar Tanko, the Marafan Tudun Wada, Engr. Abdulazeez and the chief Imam of Tudun Wada, Adam Musa, for drawing the event to his domain.
He, however, expressed concern that despite hosting the competition, none of the children in Tudun Wada was able to win a prize, saying it was a wake-up call for them to study the Qur’an.
The chairman, Organising Committee, Ustaz Abdulmumini Suda, told Blueprint that this year’s event had 74 participants from the entire local government in six categories with the best performance coming from the fifth and sixth categories. The overall winner is a medical student from ABU, Zaria.
