Bishop Okonkwo doles out prizes to essay competition winners

Bishop Mike Okonkwo, the Presiding Bishop of The Redeemed Evangelical Mission (TREM) has doled out prizes, including cash, plaque and trophy, to winners of the 2024 edition of the Bishop Mike Okonkwo National Essay competition for Nigerian secondary schools. The winners were honoured along with their schools.

Recall that Olaoye Flourish, a student of Christ the King International School, Gbagada, Lagos State, in August emerged the overall winner of the 19th Edition of the Bishop Mike Okonkwo National Essay Competition.

While Olaoye scored 73% in the competition, Nora Femi-Lawal of Chrisland High School, Lekki, finished second with an average score of 64.5% while Olayimika Esther Durotimi took the third spot with an average score of 61%.

The overall winner received a cheque for N500,000, a trophy, and a plaque, while her school was awarded a set of computers. While the second prize winner received a cheque for N250,000 and a plaque, her school also received a set of computers.

The third place winner was awarded a cheque for N150,000, a plaque, and a computer set for her school. The remaining finalists each received a consolation prize of N20,000.

The winners, alongside their schools, were honoured and rewarded at the Zenith Bank Shell Hall, Muson Centre, Onikan in Lagos State last Thursday during the 23rd Bishop Mike Okonkwo Annual Lecture Series, with the theme “Nigeria’s Pathways: Diagnosis and Prescriptions”. The lecture also marked the 79th birthday of Bishop Mike Okonkwo, the Presiding Bishop of The Redeemed Evangelical Mission (TREM).

In the first round of the competition, the title of the essay the students wrote was “Nigeria’s Pathways: Diagnosis and Prescriptions” while in the 2nd round, it was on “Protest Against Misgovernance: The Gains and Pain”.

The Chief Examiner of the essay competition, Prof. Akachi Ezeigbo, disclosed that the committee setup for the competition received a total of 551 essays from secondary school students across the country.

According to her, the committee used quality control instruments such as Goggle search machine, Turnitin plagiarism detector and their own eagle eyes to scrutinize each essay for plagiarism, copyright infringements, unhedged A1 assistance and other integrity infractions.

Said she: “The feedback we got enabled us to weed out 341 essays that showed direct evidence of infractions. Apart from the eight participants invited to the second round and validation round of the competition, others fell below our quality threshold of 50 percent.”

Ezeigbo explained that the three winners thought about the issues involved in the topics within the mental orbit of their age. She said they expressed their thoughts in the way that exceptional students of their age would do.

“Their mastery of English language structures marks them out as meticulous students with potential. We must encourage them, as Bishop Mike Okonkwo is doing, to sharpen there thinking and critical skills, by acknowledging their contributions and rewarding their efforts, ” she added.

Prof. Ezeigbo commended Bishop Okonkwo for giving the committee the opportunity to be part of the epochal process of talent development of young people in the country.