..As Foreign Bodies Woo Girls for Scholarship
By Ikeugonna Eleke
The Anambra State Government is planning a big welcome party for her girls from Regina Pacis Secondary School, Onitsha who recently won gold at a Technovation Competition in Silicon Valley, San Francisco, USA, reports Ikeugonna Eleke.
The all-girl team, which has the tag: ”Team Save A soul”, was received back in the country by government officials at the Murtala Mohammed International Airport Lagos on Monday.
The girls had developed an application which will help detect fake drugs and save the country of deaths caused by use of fake drugs.
The girls, Adaeze Onuigbo (15); Vivan Okoye (14); Promise Nnalue (14); Nwabuaku Ossai (14); Jessica Osita (14) and Miracle Igboke (16), were led to the competition by their mentor, Uchenna Onwuamaegbu Ugwu.
Fides however learnt that the state government was planning a welcome party fit for queens for the girls for making the state proud.
Mr James Eze, Chief Press Secretary to Chief Willie Obiano, governor of Anambra State, said the governor, besides planning a befitting welcome party, was also planning a rewarding package for them.
Eze said, ‘This is not football, this is not a beauty pageant, this is not Big Brother Africa, all of which may not need too much intelligence to emerge victorious. This is a serious academic competition, and the girls competed with their counterparts from advanced countries and won.
‘It is something that should inspire us that we are not limited by where we are coming from.’
Obiano had upon receiving the news of their victory sent a message to the team, asking that they relax in San Francisco and take a deserved rest for one week at government’s expense, while their reception was planned.
Meanwhile, Fides has gathered that several offers from all around the world have been coming from people who want to offer scholarship to the girls.
Eze who confirmed this said the latest was from a Turkish College, which wrote the state government, asking for the girls to be released to them for scholarship award if they wished.
He however said the government had not taken any decision, but was more occupied in giving the girls a befitting welcome.
