By Moses Nosike

Enactus Nigeria and its funding partner, African Capital Alliance Foundation have rewarded students from 20 public secondary schools, and picked three overall winners who participated in the essay writing competition with cash prizes and laptops to encourage learning abilities in Lagos state. The competition was organised to test their compliance of the training given to them on ethical living.

Ethical living was created and introduced to secondary schools in Lagos to ignite personal changes and as well prepare them as feature leaders.

Speaking at the grand finale of the awards ceremony in  Lagos, the Chairman, ACA Group, Dr. Okechukwu Enelamah congratulated all the 20 schools that participated in the essay competition on ethical living. 

He said, “The initiative reached over 2000 students across 20 public secondary schools in Lagos State, compared to about 534 in our inaugural edition last year. This milestone reflects the growing impact of our shared commitment to promoting ethics, integrity and responsible citizenship among young people. Out of these bright minds, 1, 416 students rose to the challenge by participating in our annual essay competition”. 

According to Enelamah, The ACA Foundation was established as a force for good with three focal areas: governance, entrepreneurship, and ethical leadership. As a Foundation we believe that the future of our society rests on a foundation of strong values, which are honesty, empathy, and respect.

“Ethical living project is not just a competition, it is a movement, it is a call to action for each of us to live by the values we espouse, to be the change that we want to see in our communities and society and to live by example in a world hungry for ethical and exemplary leadership”.     

In the same vein, Country Director, Enactus Nigeria, Michael Ajayi, the implementing partner for the ethical living project, said, “Enactus is in the business of building capacity, leadership, entrepreneurship, and project management skills among young people particularly the tertiary institutions. African Capital Alliance Foundation engaged us and said, what weare doing in tertiary institutions can be domesticated for secondary schools. It was an opportunity for us to expand our reach to younger people”.

“We moved from 534 students that participated to over 2,000 students in the second edition. We look forward to the third edition and beyond, looking to expand the programme and of course, the impact and reach beyond Lagos, first to other South-western states and eventually to other parts of the country. The impact that needs to be made to transform Nigeria cannot be made on a handful of states; we need to make that impact on a wide range of young people so that we can create that critical mass that will gradually transform the nation. And so for the third edition and subsequently, we are looking to expand it gradually. For the third edition particularly, now we have 20 secondary schools, for the third edition, we are looking at minimum of 40 and from there, we will grow up to the entire nation eventually”.     

Head, Corporate Development, African Capital Alliance (ACA), Executive, ACA Foundation, Mrs Uwa Osa-Oboh said, “The quality of engagement of the students is better. 

While we may not expect to see all the changes now, the seed that has been sown could be the difference between a young man joining a cult and not joining a cult.  The reason for this grand final is not just because the six weeks training is not enough but when you elevate and celebrate the way the grand finale does it re-enforces it in the minds of the children that this is truly important. The reason for this celebration to highlight, to recognize, to identify is to ensure that when the students leave here they continue to think about this and they want to become role models”.

In addition, Chairman, ACA Foundation Council, Mr. Paul Kokoricha, said, “The purpose of ethical living project is to instill in young minds in the secondary schools the virtues of living ethically. This is the second one we are doing. Last year, we reached out to 10 schools; this year we decided to double it up to 20 schools. We started with a pilot of 10 schools last year and then we moved to 20 schools this year. Eventually we are going to spread across Nigeria. Once we are done with Nigeria we will be thinking outside of Nigeria because our business is also pan-African.

Continuing, he said, “We are teaching young people the virtues of making right decisions, the virtues of honesty, and the virtues of integrity, of accountability, of responsibility.     

Samuel Opadotun (Ebute Elefun Senior High School, Sura, Lagos Island): Said, “I feel great because I have made my parents proud by taking the first position”.

Ruben Oshisanya (Baptist Academy, Obanikoro, Lagos): SS1 student, 2nd overall winner told the media, “It’s a mixed feeling because when they presented the first set of awards, they said I was third place in my school. So, my frame of mind was that I should just care about knowing the winner, that’s all. So, when they now called my name as second place winner, I was like maybe there is a mistake. I am really happy for taking second position overall, and I am really excited. I want to say a big thank you to everyone that has put a hand in sponsoring this. My school participated in this programme last year”.     

Anuoluwapo Akeni (Jagunmolu Girls’ Senior Grammar School, Bariga, Lagos): Said, “I feel so happy. This is the first time our school is participating in this ethical living project and I feel so overwhelmed that we did not feel disappointed because they say first time is always a trial, but this one is not so. We are so happy that we came third. I feel happy because I have always wanted to have a laptop, now I got it through this competition”.