Gov. Bello Matawalle of Zamfara has announced an annual provision of N60 million as prizes to be won by participants of an Islamic quiz competition in the state.
The announcement is contained in a statement issued by Zailani Bappa, Special Adviser to the governor on Public Enlightenment, Media and Communications in Gusau on Thursday.
According to the statement, the quiz competition is to be organised by the state radio station.
The governor was quoted as making the announcement when he presented prizes to those won the annual Ramadan quiz competition at the premises of Zamfara Radio Station.
Matawalle of expressed happiness over the performance of the winners, who took part in the quiz conducted via telephone in a live programme transmission.
He directed that the annual competition should now hold monthly.
The governor pledged to release N5 million monthly for the programme, which would be competed for by the phone callers under his personal supervision.
Matawalle gave a standing order that the programme should hold unfailingly every month.
He said that if he happened to be out of the state, the competition should be supervised by either his deputy or the secretary to the state government.
The governor, who chaired one of the sessions at the radio station last week, gave out cash and material prizes, including cars, tricycles, sewing machines and cash between N150,000 and N300,000.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the programmes, which started about eight years ago, was first organised jointly by the state’s branches of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), the Radio Television and Theatre Arts Workers Union (RATTAWU) and the Nigerian Institute of Public Relations (NIPR).
Participation is by phone calls where callers within the station’s area of coverage would call, pick a number which is attached to a question and attempt to answer the question in order to win different prizes. (NAN)
