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Has the star in the Ghanaian national flag lost all its significance? A week after the University for Development Studies lost to Malawi’s Mzuzu University in the Zain Africa Challenge, Nigeria’s Federal University of Technology Akure on Wednesday night dealt out a similar blow to the University of Cape Coast, also from Ghana.
Kenya’s Kenyatta University had on Sunday proved it’s not for showbiz when the university named after a great statesman knocked out Tanzania’s International Medical and Technological University in this inter-varsity battle of the brains.
The Wednesday round was the 14th episode of the 31-game knockout tournament. Both teams answered questions from choice of categories that included Founding Fathers, Chemical Elements and the Business of Journalism etc.
The Nigerians were lucky the flash of lightening came during their turn, which means that they got to answer simple questions from a special category architecture. They were shown, on screen, the famous Roman Colosseum and the Eiffel Tower which they easily identified and scooped 30 super bonus points.
In this game, viewers get to play as well to win a Nokia Internet-enabled phone and Shs100,000 in Zain airtime. So they were asked to name the town in which the official residence of the Bunyoro King is located.
Anyway, by the end of the third round, the Ghanaians were trailing with 125 points to Nigeria’s 390. Not all hope was lost though, as it was time to play the highly exciting ultimate challenge when either team has its last chance to win.
As show host John Sibi likes to say, speed is of the essence here because players have 60 seconds to answer 10 questions as a team in the category of their choice. With every correct answer worth a whopping 50 points, and knowing answering all questions right earns each member of the winning side an extra $500 in cash, both teams give their best.
The University of Cape Coast was behind so it went first and nailed eight of the questions (400 points) giving them a grand total of 525 points.
At this stage, the Federal University of Technology Akure, 135 points behind, needed three correct answers to be declared the night’s champs. They went for the ultimate challenge nervously but got eight questions right too. With a grand total of 790 points, John Sibi had no option but to wear his broad smile and congratulate the Nigerians with his trademark rhyme: “Well done well won!”
Luckily in this race, no one leaves empty-handed, so the Ghanaians returned home with a consolation of $500 each plus $5000 grant for their university.
But the battle for $5,000 and $50,000 for the winning university complete with the prestigious Zain Scholars Trophy continues. Next week, the Zambians take on our neighbours Kenya. Be sure to catch the competition on Sunday at 7:30pm and Wednesday at 8:00pm on NTV.
--Saturday Monitor, May 16, 2009
