An SS3 student of the State Senior High School, Ikeja Lagos, Ayeni Oluwanifemi Bright has won the this 17th edition of the Bishop Mike Okonkwo Annual Essay Competition.
This year’s competition themed: “Nigeria, A Country At War Against Itself: The Problems, The Solutions And The Way Forward,” received over a thousand entries from secondary schools across the country.
Bright scored 65 per cent to beat her closest rival from Ijegun Senior Comprehensive High School, Isolo, Yekini Roqeed Abolaji, who scored 64 per cent to take second position, while Eneche Leila of Vivian Fowler Memorial College for Girls, Oregun, came third with a score of 63 per cent in the keenly contested essay competition.
Chief Examiner of the competition Professor Akachi Ezeigbo, noted that the back-to-back scores of the winners, shows the keen nature of the competition and the originality of the efforts put into it.
Ezeigbo who was represented by Adaobi Moore, also pointed that no contestant in the first three positions during the first round was able to hold their place in the end of the second and final round of the competition.
“This suggests the involvement of invisible hands during the first round, and also the continuous necessity of the second round in strengthening the integrity of the competition,” she said.
The winners showed an impressive understanding of the two topics – Nigeria, A Country At War Against Itself: The Problems, The Solutions And The Way Forward, and 2023 Election: A New Nigeria or a Descent Into Chaos – selected for the first and second round of the competition.
“Their orderly presentation of ideas and remarkable control of the English language mark them out as meticulous people with huge potential,” Ezeigbo said further.
She suggested that to boost the quality and originality of entries submitted for future competitions, participating schools must be warned on the implications of plagiarism and offering undue help to students.
The Chief Examiner noted that when students steal their entries from the internet and do not win the competition, their respect for intellectual property right would grow.
“Submitting wordproccessed essays enabled us to scrutinize for plagiarism. The competition is thus helping to insert students into the digital world that is now inevitable in all communications,” she stated.
Cash prizes of N100, 000, N75, 000, and N50, 000, as well as plaques, were presented to the first, second, and third winners respectively.
The top three winning schools were also presented with computers, while winner of the first position received a personal laptop and consolation prizes were awarded to seven other contestants who emerged fourth to 10th position.
Earlier, a renowned Biologist and former Chief Executive Officer, Nigeria Economic Summit Group (NESG), Prof. Anya O. Anya, who was speaker at the event which doubled as the 21st Mike Okonkwo annual lecture, said adopting the productivity paradigm for national development immediately imposes a new value system anchored on innovation, competition, accountability and education.
Anya noted that the capacity to deal with the multi-faceted problems facing the country is limited by the number and quality of its professional class and education system which has been denied the minimum level of resources needed to lay the foundations of a knowledge economy.
He added that science and technology was critical in driving wealth creation and the potential for increasing wealth was limitless if anchored on ideas, skills and new insights.