Winners of Mike Okonkwo National Essay Competition Receive Cash Prizes

Uchechukwu Nnaike

The 2022 Mike Okonkwo National Essay Competition winners have been rewarded during the 21st Mike Okonkwo Annual Lecture.

The competition was initiated in 2004 as part of activities to celebrate the birthday of the Presiding Bishop of TREM, Dr Mike Okonkwo, and to contribute to the development of the education sector.

Miss Oluwanifemi Ayeni of State Senior High School, GRA Ikeja, Lagos came first with 65 per cent; Roqeed Yekini of Ijegun Senior Comprehensive High School, Isolo, came second with 64 per cent, while Leila Enecha of Vivian Fowler Memorial College for Girls, Ikeja came third with 63 per cent.

For their efforts in the keenly contested essay, Ayeni received N100,000, a personal laptop, a trophy, and a plaque, while her school got three computers. Yekini got N75,000, a plaque and his school got two computers. Enecha got N50,000, a plaque, and her school got a computer set.

According to the Chief Examiner, Prof Akachi Ezeigbo, over a thousand entries were received from secondary schools across the country on the topic ‘Nigeria, A Country At War Against Itself: The Problems, The Solutions and The Way Forward’.

“As usual, the writers of the 10 best essays were invited to the second round of the competition to write on the topic, ‘2023 Election: A New Nigeria or a Descent Into Chaos’.

Ezeigbo, represented by Dr Adaobi Muo, said the winners’ back-to-back scores showed the competition’s keen nature and the originality of the efforts put into it.

She, however, noted that no contestant in the first three positions during the first round was able to hold their place.​

“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,” Ezeigbo explained.

She added that the winners showed an impressive understanding of the two topics and addressed them as exceptional students in their class and category should.​

She said, “Their orderly presentation of ideas and remarkable control of the English language mark them out as meticulous people with huge potential.”

To continue the improvements in quality and originality, she suggested that in future, the implications of plagiarism and receiving undue help should be communicated to the participating schools in the call for entries.

In his lecture, ‘Nigeria: Culture, Values, Democratic Governance and Development’, a renowned biologist, Prof Anya O. Anya, stated that the country was battling security, economic, social and leadership crises.

“Unless you stabilise the security situation, you cannot tackle the economic crisis; without a handle to the economic, you cannot deal with the social crisis,” he stressed. “Your capacity to deal with these crises depends on the leadership question.”

On the mismanagement of the economy, he said the country is about to drown in debts which, at the last count from the National Bureau of Statistics and the Debt Management Office, is chasing after N50 trillion.

He regretted that over the last seven years, the country’s GDP has hovered between two and four per cent annually.
Proffering solutions, Prof. Anya stressed the need to recall and mobilise all the retired military and paramilitary personnel in the country. “There are amongst them a reservoir of experience, expertise and patriotism that we can ignore only at our peril.”
He called for the creation of an environment for enduring social and political harmony, as well as a strategic plan that aims to create a new environment for the selection, training and development of a leadership elite.
Responding, Okonkwo expressed hope for a peaceful nation. He congratulated the winners of the competition for their outstanding performance.