UNIZIK Confucius Institute students win national championship at 19th Chinese Bridge Competition

By Aloysius Attah

Students of Confucius Institute at Nnamdi Azikiwe University have delivered outstanding results at the Nigeria National Final of the 19th Chinese Bridge Proficiency Competition for secondary school students held online, yesterday.

After four highly competitive rounds, three outstanding students from the UNIZIK Confucius Institute delivered remarkable performances, standing out among contestants from Confucius Institutes and Chinese language teaching centres across Nigeria.

The students achieved exceptional results, winning four awards and securing all of the top three positions in the national competition.

Ms. Umezurike Favour Chinaetugo received the Best Eloquence Award. Both Ms. Umezurike Favour Chinaetugo and Ms. Okoye Chikadibia Faith were awarded second prize.

Most notably, Ms. Micheal Uchechi Justina emerged as the national champion even as Umezurike F. Chinaetugo won Best Eloquence Award and second prize.

As the national champion, 17-year-old Ms. Micheal Uchechi Justina will represent Nigeria at the global final of the Chinese Bridge Competition in China later this year. As she is still a minor, she will be accompanied by her Chinese language teacher during the trip.

The Chinese Director, Confucius Institute, at Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Prof. Yu Zhangbao, in a remark, disclosed that this achievement marks the 12th time that a student from the Confucius Institute has won the Nigerian national championship since the institute began participating in the Chinese Bridge competitions in 2018. 

“It is also our seventh national championship title in the secondary school students category since joining that competition in 2019” he stated.

Deputy Director of the Confucius Institute at Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Prof. Anas Egwuatu Elochukwu, in a statement, said that even more encouraging is the fact that all six previous secondary school national champions from the institute successfully advanced to the Global Top 30. 

“Among them, two won Global First Prizes, two received Global Third Prizes, and two were crowned African champions. These outstanding achievements reflect the high quality of Chinese language teaching at our Confucius Institute and demonstrate the growing influence and competitiveness of Chinese language education in Nigeria.

He expressed sincere hope that Ms. Micheal Uchechi Justina will continue this proud tradition and achieve another historic breakthrough for both the Confucius Institute and Nigeria on the global stage.

Meanwhile, the Vice Chancellor, Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Prof Ugochukwu Bond Stanley Anyaehie, has congratulated the winning students and the Confucius Institute at UNIZIK for the outstanding performance and maintaining the winning streak over the years.

The vice chancellor, who is presently in China for an official engagement, said the positive development speaks volumes on the shared prosperity and prospects of the institute, which has become a veritable platform for cultural exchange and language learning between Nigeria and China at the Nnamdi Azikiwe University.