By Dayo Adesulu,

Chief Examiner of Bishop Mike Okonkwo National Annual Essay Competition, Professor Akachi Ezeigbo has explained how the top winners of the contest emerged.

*Bishop Okonkwo

Ezeigbo who spoke at the 17th Mike Okonkwo Annual Lecture held at the Muson Centre, Lagos, said that 846 candidates met the judges’ standard for assessment after filtering and quality enhancement mechanisms.

At the first round of the essay, candidates wrote on: ‘’The State of the Nigerian Nation: Redefining Our Values, and the second round they wrote on Adopting and Practising Tolerance as a Core Value in Nigeria.

“In the first round of the competition, we adjudged seven contestants as suitable to proceed to the one hour written test intended to confirm the integrity of their submissions.’’

According to her, Miss Fadilah Saliu-Ahmed of Zamani College, Kaduna emerged the overall winner of the competition for this year, scoring 75% in the first round and maintained the same grade to lead in the second.

Closely allied to Saliu-Ahmed was  Miss Barakat Adebyo of Roshallon International School, Lagos who came second, scoring 70% in the first round and was fourth. In the second round however, she scored 74% to beat other candidates.

For Miss Wuraola Adeoye of Fountain Height Secondary School, Lagos who scored 73% in the first round, had 68% in the second to emerged in the third place.

For coming top, Fadilah Saliu-Ahmed received a cheque of N100,000, a Laptop, a plaque, while the school got three sets of Computer and a printer. Just as Barakat Adebayo received a cheque of N75,000, a plaque and the school got two sets of computer and a printer.

Also, the third position, Wuraola Adeoye received a cheque of N50,000, a plaque and the school got a Computer set. The fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh candidates received a consolation price of N20,000 each.

Meanwhile, speaking and remarking on the lecture titled: ‘’The State of the Nigerian Nation: Redefining Our Values’’   Governor Akinwunmi Ambode,  represented by Secretary to the State Government, Mr. Tunji Bello, Bishop of The Redeemed Evangelical Mission, TREM, Bishop Mike Okonkwo, former Ambassador, Chief Arthur Mbanefo  and former minister of Information and National Orientation, Frank Nweke, jnr, called for restoration of the nation’s lost value system.

According to them, if the right value system is restored it will have a positive impact on the policies of the government and lead to economic development. They posited that irrespective of religious, tribal and political affiliations, every citizen needs to join hands to build a strong, united and virile country noting that great cities and civilizations were never built in a day.

Nweke who was the guest speaker said: “Masses were expecting a lot from those in authority, but until the value system, preservation of personal and family values was restored, government cannot not do much.”