By Efe Onodjae

The 15-year-old winner of the 13th edition of United Bank of Africa, UBA, National Essay Competition, Chukwuazolum Adaeze, has said interpreting the given topics was the biggest challenge.

According to Adaeze, a student of Fountain Heights Secondary School, Surulere, Lagos, except the topics are interpreted right, other things will go wrong.

The National Essay Competition, featuring 12,000 entries from all over Africa, narrowed down to 12 pupils, who then competed in the final round on November 20.

The competition concluded with Adaeze claiming the top spot and a N5 million prize.

She told journalists: “I never expected this. I thought I was going to be the second runner-up. I was confident in myself, but I never knew I was going to be the winner. I am so surprised, grateful, and thankful.”

Addressing the challenges of the competition, she said: “The most challenging thing will be the interpretation of the topics because they were not easy.

“You have to interpret them well, otherwise you will get it wrong. Aside from that, everything went well.”

The Group Managing Director of the United Bank for Africa, Oliver Alawuba, presented the cash prizes and gifts to the winners.

The first runner-up got N3.5 million and the second runner-up, N2.5 million. Others also received prizes.

Alawuba stressed that the competition’s aim was to sharpen the students’ critical thinking skills.

Reflecting on the entries, Professor Ini Uko of the University of Uyo, who was one of the judges, noted that this year marked the highest number of entries in the competition’s 13-year history.

“We had over 12,000 entries, and the awareness is now quite extensive among the students,” she added.

Professor Uko highlighted the meticulous judging process undertaken by a panel of four judges who travelled to Lagos to select the top 12 essays.

Regarding plagiarism detection, Professor Uko explained that “It’s very easy to do that.

“Many Nigerian students may explore the internet, so we focused on parameters that confirmed reasonable originality. Checking for originality was a major concern for us during the evaluation.”