A senior secondary school pupil of Maverick College, Ibadan, Oyo State, Fehintoluwa Fabelurin, has emerged the overall winner of the 2014 United Bank for Africa Foundation National Essay Competition.
The 15-year-old beat over 1,600 secondary school pupils from across the country who submitted entries for the keenly contested competition to clinch the coveted prize of N1m educational grant to study in any African university of her choice.
Sixteen-year-old Obi Chukwudum of St. Thomas Secondary School, Kano, emerged first runner-up; while 15-year-old Sunday Ikemsinachi of Dority International Secondary School, Aba, Abia State, took the third position.
Both Chukwudum and Ikemsinachi won educational grants worth N750, 000 and N500, 000 respectively for higher education in any African university.
The three winners emerged after 12 finalists were selected from the hundreds of applicants to write a final essay competition at the UBA Head Office in Lagos, from which three emerged overall winners.
All the 12 finalists were also given certificates and brand new laptops to enhance their academic performance at the award ceremony which held at the UBA House, Lagos on Monday.
Fabelurin, who aspires to become a medical doctor, attributed her success in the competition to the reading culture inculcated in her by her parents from childhood.
“Since I was a child, my parents always insist that we read widely. As a science student, I take delight in reading literature books, while I also read the newspapers every day. These contributed to my success in the competition,” she added.
Deputy Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer (Africa), UBA, Kennedy Uzoka, explained that the financial institution took pride in organising the essay competition with a view to stimulating intellectual capabilities of African youths.
He lamented that the surge of digital technology was having profound negative effect on the English language, use of many young Africans, especially in written communication.
“Due to the impact of modern technology, many of our children can no longer write appropriately in the English Language. And that is why we introduced the essay competition not only in Nigeria, but also in Ghana and Senegal, as our corporate social responsibility in halting the trend,” Uzoka said.
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