Six secondary schools have emerged as finalists for the 2023 MTN Anti Substance Abuse Programme (ASAP) quiz to be held physically on Friday, June 23 at Abuja.

PTA/NADP International College, Lafia in Nasarawa State, Girls’ Secondary School, Abakpa -Nike, Enugu in Enugu State and Girls Secondary School, Yola in Adamawa State qualified in the first elimination stage held on Tuesday, May 6, 2023.

Katsina College, Katsina, Olivet Baptist High School, Oyo and Anglican Girls Grammar School, Benin-City emerged from the second elimination event held on Wednesday, June 7, 2023.

The elimination stages were all held virtually with students connecting from their various schools.

The six schools that have qualified for the final round will proceed to Abuja where they will compete against each other to determine the eventual champions of the MTN – ASAP 2023 quiz competition.

Adaku Ndukwe, project coordinator, national priority at MTN Foundation Nigeria disclosed to BusinessDay that the 18 schools that via for qualifications were all public secondary schools selected by the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) and United Nations Office on Drugs and Crimes (UNODC), criteria for selection was across 6 geopolitical zones of Nigeria that has a prevalence of high rate of substance abuse.

The 18 secondary schools cut across the six geopolitical zones of the country; north central, north-east, north-west, south-south and south-east.

Ngozi Madubuike, the first moderator, Adewumi Abimbola, the second moderator and Chigbu Odoemelem the judge all from the NDLEA conducted the competition after which they announced the finalists.

In the first elimination stage, the competition was so tense that Girls’ Secondary School, Yola and Queens College, Enugu were tied consecutively before Girls’ Secondary School, Yola won the bout.

Ngozi Madubuike educated the students that the aim of the competition is for enlightenment and further encouraged them to see it as an opportunity to learn to become advocates and champions against substance abuse than a quest to win by all means.

Funtaj International Schools, Abuja won the 2022 MTN-ASAP quiz competition. The trio of Ramat Sakman, Oluwatoyinsola Adeyemi and Ataba Shehu emerged champions in both the first and second rounds of the competition.

The ASAP programme was launched in 2019, and since then, the aim has been to reduce the rate of first-time drug and substance use among Nigerian youths aged between 10 and 25.

ASAP is being implemented by the MTN Foundation in collaboration with local and international partners such as the UNODC, NDLEA, and the federal and state ministries of health and education, with the objective of preventing substance abuse among young people in Nigeria.

The purpose of the MTN ASAP quiz programme is to raise awareness of drug abuse among young Nigerians and dissuade them from using enhancing substances, and to promote a drug-free lifestyle.