By Victor Ahiuma-Young

Nestle Nigeria Plc has selected 10 students out of over 2,261 secondary school students that entered for the 2011 Maggi Cook for Mama Competition, from Abuja Zone.

In an event that took place at Area 10, Abuja Art and Culture, the 10 successful students and their schools were picked through a raffle draws.

In the draws monitored by the representative of Consumer Protection Council, CPC, the following contestants which will represent their respective schools in the next round of the competition were picked:

Shehu Fatima, Government Secondary School, Kwali, Ochonogor Adaeze, Government Secondary School, Byazltin, Kubwa, Akamuonu Chinaza, Junior Secondary School, Kubwa.

Others include, Onyejekwe Augusta, Premiere Academy , Federal Housing Authority, Lugbe, Umeji Sophia , Junior Secondary School , Area 7, Nwabuko Elizabeth, Government Secondary School , Gwagwalada, Bala Fatima , Junior Secondary School , Area 11 Garki.

Also included in the list are: Abdul Maliu Useni, Junior Secondary School, Dutse Alahaji, Aledare Abidemi, Senior Secondary School, Nyanya and Garba Samira , Junior Secondary School , Asokoro.

A winner from the 10 contestants from Abuja zone will slug it out with winners from other five zones at the National stage of the competition.

No fewer than 50,977 entries were made from the six zones of the Federation in the year’s cooking competition which is open only to secondary school pupils between the ages of 13 to 17.

Lagos having the highest number of entrants with 22,737 followed by Ibadan which records 14,065.

Speaking during the draws in Abuja, the Brand Manager, Culinary, Gloria Nwabuike said that the “Maggi Cook for Mama” initiative was part of Nestle strategies to create value for the business and society through promotion of better family bonding, youth development and education.

She said that at the end of the competition the overall winner would earn N.5million in addition to other educational incentives which would be provided by Nestle.

On why the pupils’ teachers were part of the year’s draws, Nwabuike explained that the company took the decision to involve them in order to give the process leading to the emergent of contestants more credibility.

She said,” We decided to make them to be part of the year’s draws in order to show to the world that the process is transparent. In the past, the system we adopt was to make Journalists pick the draws, but we have had various unsubstantiated comments about the process and that is why we are now involving the teachers.

In his comments, the representative of CPC, Mr. Andrew Itabor, said that the council was part of the design of the cooking competition, explaining that it came to witness the draw in order to ascertain that Nestle meet the standard of what it drew up in the programme.

Andrew, who is from the Surveillance and Enforcement of CPC, also added that it was the responsibility of the council to ensure the protection of the right of consumers, particularly against the vagaries of unscrupulous service providers and producers in the country.