How teens performed at ALIT-TEENFEST22 debate, poetry competition

By Tobias Lengnan Dapam

Participants at the 2022 edition of Abuja Literary Teen Arts Festival (ALIT-TEENFEST22) secondary school debate and poetry slam competition have wowed the organizers of the event.

The competition with the theme; “The Struggling Thriving Artist” is a follow up of last year’s theme, “Making Art Work”.

The event was also meant to groom young Nigerians in to the creative world.

Meanwhile, the winners of the debate are; Adrian Oghenetega Anireto from Premiere International School, second runner up was Joy Attah from Glorious Destiny Educational Foundation, third place, Sunday Praise from Kings Farourite Education School in Abuja.

Those who won the poetry competition included; Joy Olarenwaju who emerged winner, Bella Ogwuche took second place and Abdulrazaq Salihu emerged third place.

According to the organisers, the 2022 edition focused on teen creative engagement in accessing potential livelihoods by equipping them with the information, skills, resources and networks they need to thrive.

Speaking on the event, Deputy festival director Ujenyu Joy Sani said this year’s edition is 5th edition of the festival and is one of the programs of the Abuja Literary Society (ALS).

“The Abuja Literary Society is the oldest gatherinf of creatives in Abuja. It is 24 years old now, we have had members from all stratas of life. Our work has been to sort of refine peoples creative skills. People bring their thesis to our meetings where we critic their work, offer them helpful suggestions on how to make their work better, we encourage people to build their stage presence. For the festival, it started off with us wanted to showcase Nigeria, Abuja especially to world, what is Abuja in terms of creativity, and how we can contribute to the global stage.

“This years festival is to provide artists and creative with skills, provide them with platforms and trainings to refine their craft and be able to make a living out of it.

“This event today is the school debate and poetry competition is a post festival activity, we have had all the festivals before now. We had panels, stage play, grand poetry slams and workshops.
We gathered secondary schools from around Abuja to come together to help them on the path of writing, public speaking and doing things that will put them on stage, so this is an avenue for them to groom those skills and be trained. At the end of today, we will have six winners; three for debate and three for poetry. For the debate, the winner will go home with N150,000, second winner with N100,000 and third place N50,000. For the poetry, the winner goes home with N100,000, second place N50,000 and third place N30,000.

Also speaking, project coordinator, Nene Okonya said, the essence of the programme was to groom young Nigerians in to the creative world.

She added that the group has been grooming young Nigerians in arts for the past 25 years.