Ibadan Spelling Bee Champions Girls’ Education, Challenges Child Marriage

 

By Atlantic Reports

A spelling competition in Ibadan became a platform for advocating girls’ education and an end to child marriage on Wednesday, with organisers urging families, schools and government to protect girls’ opportunities to learn and shape their futures.

The Twenty-One Five Child Foundation (T1FF) organised the event to commemorate the 2026 International Day of the Girl Child, observed annually on October 11.

Rahma Abdullahi, a 15-year-old Senior Secondary School Two student at Fountain Option Knowledge High School, won the competition. She hopes to study computer engineering at university.

“I also want to thank my school and teachers for training me,” Abdullahi said after her victory.

“To all girls out there, I want you to know that you can be anything you want to be.”

Education and the Confidence to Speak

The foundation’s founder, Ambassador Tolu Taiwo, said ending child marriage and investing in girls’ rights required practical action, including opportunities to develop literacy, communication skills and confidence.

“When we end child marriage, we keep a girl in school,” she said.

“When we invest in girls’ rights, we invest in education, we invest in health, we invest in leadership, and we invest in the future of Nigeria.”

Taiwo said the Spelling Bee was designed to help participants become confident speakers who could express themselves and advocate for their rights.

“A child who can spell can write her own future, and a girl who can speak can defend her rights,” she said.

She thanked the 14 invited schools and encouraged participants to recognise their right to education, pursue their ambitions and reject child marriage.

The foundation had previously marked the day through an essay competition and an anonymous question-and-answer session in which girls raised concerns about their bodies, futures and fears for women leaders to address.

Protection Beyond the Classroom

Representing the Oyo State Ministry of Women Affairs and Social Inclusion, director Taiwo Oladokun said girls were contributors to development whose childhoods and opportunities needed protection.

He identified teenage pregnancy, sexual and gender-based violence, abuse, exploitation, discrimination and child marriage as barriers to their progress.

Oladokun said the competition offered more than a test of spelling. It provided an opportunity to build vocabulary, communication skills, confidence and constructive participation.

He said the state government was working with stakeholders to promote the protection and development of vulnerable children, women and girls.

T1FF Assistant Project Lead Esther Emmanuel described the foundation as a registered non-profit organisation supporting children, teenagers and young adults through education and empowerment.

She said it had supported nearly 100 pregnant teenagers over three years and reached more than 1,500 students across over 50 secondary schools in Ibadan. These figures were provided by the foundation; the account did not detail the support delivered or its longer-term outcomes.

Participating schools included St. Anne’s School, Eleyele High School, Lead City International High School, Fountain Option Knowledge High School and Ibadan International School.

For Abdullahi, the day ended with a victory and a clear ambition. For organisers and public officials, the broader task is to ensure that girls have the safety, sustained education and support needed to pursue such ambitions beyond the competition stage.

Atlantic Reports: Voices. People. Facts.