The premises of Baptist High School, Akwanga, a town located some 120km east of Abuja, in Nasarawa State of North-Central Nigeria, was a beehive of activities last Saturday 27 December 2025. The occasion was the ‘Most Strongest’ championship, an annual celebration of physical culture (you can check out the report on last year’s event HERE), with this year’s event being even bigger in scope, having been expanded beyond just participation from Akwanga to participation from the entire Nasarawa North (Senatorial District), comprising three zones of Akwanga, Wamba as well as Nasarawa Eggon. And the District’s representatives at the National Assembly made their presence felt at this end-of-year youth-inclined programme, with this edition having been powered by Honourable (Amb.) (Dr.) Jeremiah J. Umaru, the House member representing the Akwanga/Nasarawa Eggon/Wamba Federal Constituency of Nasarawa State in the 10th National Assembly (parliament). Some other bigwigs present at the event included Honourable Gaza Jonathan Gbefwi (the lawmaker representing the Karu/Keffi/Kokona Federal Constituency of Nasarawa State) as well as Mr. (Engr.) Tony Bala Shammah, an aspiring lawmaker. Also represented was the academic community, with the medals presentation handled by Dr. Isaac Dabuson Kaduna, the Provost of the ERCC College of Health Technology, Alushi, also in Nasarawa State.
A total of sixteen (16) contestants took part in this event, comprising six (6) each from the Akwanga and Wamba zones, while the remaining four (4) contestants represented the Nasarawa Eggon zone. The championship itself covered contests across five events – bench pressing, deadlifting, squatting, the ‘farmers’ walk’, as well as a muscle posedown as the cherry on the cake. The contestants themselves were split into heavyweight, middleweight and lightweight categories for each of the events except the posedown.
In the lightweight division, Bala Bello representing the Wamba zone came out tops overall, after results across all four events were collated, followed by teammate Aminu Hussaini in 2nd, while Abraham Barnabas Bature of Akwanga zone came in 3rd. Moving to the middleweight division, hosts Akwanga zone – represented by Paul Umar Abdullahi took top honours here, followed by Tanimu Mohammed of the Nasarawa Eggon zone in 2nd place and Samson Sangari of Akwanga zone in 3rd.
The most anticipated showdown however came in the heavyweight division, where reigning champ Reshammah Thani representing the Akwanga zone, fresh off making his competitive national bodybuilding debut last month, again dominated all comers here, winning each of all four events (155kg max. bench press, 210kg max. deadlift, 165kg max. squatting, 16 seconds max. farmer’s walk), setting him apart from the chasing pack and hence, unsurprisingly winning the division at a canter, and in effect being crowned not only Akwanga’s strongest, but ‘Nasarawa North’s Strongest’. He was followed by the Nasarawa Eggon zone duo of Michael Alexander and Emeka Festus in 2nd and 3rd overall respectively.
It was a hugely successful event once again, and with the presence of local heavy-hitter politicians on ground, you can be sure that ‘pepe rest ’ (Nigerian pidgin slang for “significant cash prizes were made available”) – just don’t ask us what each contestant got, haha!
We at The NBD are already licking our lips in anticipation of the 2026 edition – perhaps that one would be a state-wide edition? There’s no telling how big this show is capable of becoming with better investment and structuring. Arnold Classic? Step aside!
The NBD.
