The way the Bee Programme sees it, great readers make great spellers anywhere in the world they may be, hence this year’s Nigeria inclusion at the 2025 School Spelling Bee in the United States. That is unprecedented.

Until now, neighbouring Ghana was the only African country with a presence in the annual diction-acuity-focused competition. Ghanaian school kids between the ages of eight and 13 were the participants. In the 17 years of attending, Maria Kubabom took her country to the Grand Hyatt Washington in Washington, D.C. in May 2007 for a two-day drill.

Nigeria as a whole is slowly seeing old bottlenecks let loose in its favour. As a country whose lingua franca is the English language and one whose citizens seek migration to Anglo-social spaces and destinations, particularly for work, the appetite to master words could be a survival tool.

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So, after decades of watching a neighbour take the lead, the opportunity has finally arrived for pupils of the green-white-green. It is the reason why the Spell It Nigeria (SPIN) initiative, championed by the charity Young Educator’s Foundation, finds itself set on the cusp of an incredible milestone of joining the global family of the Scripps National Spelling Bee, reads the convener’s speech displayed on their website.

When students take part in SPIN, it is expected that they have signed up for a platform which will enhance their spelling, vocabulary, and public speaking skills for their journey to the US where they will represent Nigeria against a pool of representatives aggregated from locations in the world where regional partners of the Bee programme have been active and getting local schools to participate.

It has demanded 16 years of grooming to score the franchise for the Scripps Spelling Bee in Nigeria and Lucid Education Initiative has a hand in it as a partner to the charity.

Then comes Young Educators Foundation chief executive officer, Eugenia Tachie-Menson expressing the goal of starting the spelling bee in the first place. We aim to equip students with the skills to use words as powerful communication tools from an early age. We are elated that Nigeria will be joining Ghana in May of 2025 as the second African country in the global competition.

Eventually, when the Nigerian representative who will fly the flag in Washington D.C in either May or June of 2025, they will have emerged from one of two cities – specifically Lagos or Abuja. This is because these are the venues where the organisers are focusing their call for participation. Their job at the venues is to assist primary schools in identifying the best minds in their midst that can withstand the pressure of the globally shown spelling bee.

Ahead of their inaugural Scripps National Spelling Bee homecoming, would-be eligibles should take note of the youngest child to ever win. That is Nihar Janga from Austin, Texas in 2016 when only just 11 years old.

Finishing as a co-triumphant, this kid’s winning word was Gesellschaft, which Oxford defines as the duty to a society or organisation instead of impersonal ties.

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Ayodele Johnson

Ayodelé is a Lagos-based journalist and the Content and Editorial Coordinator at Meiza. All around the megacity, I am steering diverse lifestyle magazine audiences with ingenious hacks and insights that spur fast, informed decisions in their busy lives.