Mr Samuel Miracle, 17-year-old Nigerian student and winner of the World Chinese Bridge Language Competition has pledged to solve Nigeria’s electricity challenge after completing the scholarship he won to study Engineering in China.

Miracle made the pledge on Friday in Abuja during an interaction with the media on his educational journey to studying Mandarin and participation in the competition.

The Chinese Bridge Competition is the highest stage for foreign language learners to compete in language competence and cultural understanding worldwide.

Miracle who won the 2019 World Chinese Bridge Competition held in Henan Province, China competed alongside 120 others from 105 countries.

He said that the scholarship he won would be meaningless if he did not achieve something that would impact positively on the development of Nigeria.

Miracle explained that he decided to study the Chinese language in order to learn electricity engineering from China which is a developed country occupying a leading position in the world.

He promised to return to Nigeria after completing his scholarship programme to help tackle the problem of “blackout”.

He said that the prize for winning the competition was a four-year fully-funded scholarship to any university/institution to study any course of his choice.

“After my secondary education I went to study the Chinese language when I was introduced to the competition by a friend. I thought that it was a very good opportunity because it is a language I am really interested in”.

“Before I started studying the Chinese language, I always had the dream of becoming an engineer and to be very good in it to help the electricity sector in Nigeria which is a big challenge.

“I will come back to impact in my country because you have not achieved the main goal of studying abroad if you do not return to your country to make an impact”.

“I would do everything to help Nigeria, make a change where possible and correct the negative impression that other  countries have about Nigeria”, Miracle said.

On winning the competition, Miracle said it was a great challenge as he only started studying Chinese at the Nnamdi Azikiwe University China Confucius Institute in Oct. 2018.

He said that winning the competition was as a result of determination and the help of his teachers as he advised other youngsters of the advantages of being bilingual.

Miracle said that Nigeria and China had strong ties and it would be good for Nigerians to take learning Chinese language seriously to further promote the cultural ties with both countries.

Also speaking, Mr Zhang Jianle, Lecturer at the Nnamdi Azikiwe University Confucius Institute commended Miracle who now bears the Chinese name Gu Siyan for his commitments to learning Chinese.

Jianle said that Miracle’s speed at learning the language was remarkable as a result of his determination.

He said that he was proud to be his teacher as he made the Institute which was participating in such category of the competition for the first time proud in winning the star prize.

Jianle urged the Nigerian institution to further build on the relations between Nigeria and China to introduce learning Chinese language in their curriculum especially from Primary School levels.

“It is important to learn Chinese language now because Chinese is getting stronger in the world and  more Chinese companies are coming to Nigeria. It will help in deepening bilateral ties and interaction in order to enhance communications”.

“It would be good to introduce Chinese in Nigerian schools.  They have degree courses in Nnamdi Azikiwe University in Chinese Language but should also be introduced at primary level of education”, Jianle said.

Until 2019, the Chinese Bridhe series of competitions has attracted more than 1.4 million  teenagers from more than 150 countries and region across the world.

More than 6,500 students from more than 110 countries were invited to China to participate in the World Chinese Bridge rematch and finals.

Last year, another Nigerian with Chinese name Ding Jiaming, a Student of the Nnamdi Azikiwe University Confucius Center also won the African Championship of the 17^th World University Chinese Bridge Competition. (NAN)