While the overall winner received a prize of N5 million in scholarship, the first and second runners-up received N3 million and N2.5 million grants, respectively, among other gifts.
A 15-year-old student of Fountain Heights Secondary School, Surulere, Lagos, Adaeze Onaro, has emerged the overall winner of the 2023 National Essay Competition (NEC) sponsored by the United Bank for Africa (UBA).
Miss Adaeze was unveilled on Tuesday at the financial institution's headquarters in Lagos where 11 other students from various parts of the country also won various prizes and received accolades.
The overall winner received in educational grant a total of N5 million to study the course of her choice in any tertiary institution in Africa. She was also presented with a laptop, a plaque and a trophy.
The first runner-up in the competition, Khadijah Abdulhameed of Sweet Haven High School, Kano, Kano State, received in educational grant a total of N3 million to study in tertiary institution on the continent, while Naomi Chukwuma-Okoh of Queens College, Yaba, Lagos, who came third, received N2.5 million in educational grant.
The two runners-up also received laptops, award plaques and branded bags filled with educational materials such as books, writing tools, among others.
12,000 entries
The representative of the panel of judges, Asabe Kabir, a professor of African Literature at Usmanu Danfodiyo University, Sokoto (UDUS), said since its launch 13 years ago, the 2023 edition received the highest number of entries of almost 12,000.
The renowned scholar also commended the spread of the entries, saying candidates from various parts of the country sent in their entries, and that the judges were impressed that a large percentage of participants complied with the set instructions.
She said the candidates wrote on the topic: "Will Artificial Intelligence(AI) Take Over Human Intelligence? What Should Students Do to Ensure AI Doesn't Override But Enhance Their Ability to Learn through Research?"
However, the shortlisted 12 finalists, comprising three males and seven females, assembled in Lagos on Sunday, 19 November, to write on a new topic: "Ethnic Diversity and National Unity: Implications for Our Political Problems and Possible Solutions".
Assessment
According to the professor, the scripts were "thoroughly evaluated resulting in coming up with the shortlist of 12 best essays," adding that the judges were guided by the "approved guidelines for the distribution of marks for composition in line with the benchmark set by NECO and WAEC."
She said "content" carried 40 marks, while "expression" carried 30 marks, noting that "organisation" and "mechanical accuracy" carried 15 marks each, making up a total of 100 marks.
She said: "Under the content, the focus is usually on the subject matter, with special emphasis placed on the relevance of the idea of the topic, appropriateness of the language and its relevance to the central theme and its development. Above all, originality in the candidate's approach and ability to addressing the topic carries weight. Any alteration from the topic is unacceptable.
"Expression which carries 30 marks focuses on the candidate's ability to express himself or herself which includes choice of vocabularies and their relevance to the topic, sentence structure, judicious and imaginative use of figurative language, candidate's control over the vocabularies, and descriptive words to create vivid pictures.
"Under organisation, the candidate's organisation of points which include the correct use of former features such as good paragraphing, suitable opening, adequate development of paragraphs, proper links between paragraphs, balance, unity, coherence, suitable conclusion as well as appropriate use of emphasis, and arrangement of ideas are the basis for scoring."
She said the mechanical accuracy guideline concerned "mainly the candidate's ability to use the mechanics of English Language, especially as they relate with the correct use of grammar, punctuation and spelling."
Observation
Speaking on the observations by the judges, Mrs Kabir said many of the candidates were found guilty of plagiarism.
She said such students used "untidy sources" to generate their answers, including websites and applications such as "Ask AI," "Tutor.com," "Readout Loud," "Study Gig," "Study Bay," "Assignment Maker," among many others.
"We detected all these plagiarisms when we noticed similar sentence patterns in the writing structures, recycling of information without changing the language gotten from the internet, copy and paste process of research. In fact, about 70 per cent of the evaluated essays were outright plagiarisms which we detected through checkers like 'Turn it in' 'Copy Leaks', and many others," the professor said.
She, however, commended many of the candidates for their beautiful entries, saying she was surprised to know that there were students of Senior School 1 classes among the 12 finalists.
Ecstatic mother
The mother of the the overall winner of the competition, Veronica Onaro, a fashion entrepreneur, who was visibly overjoyed, said she had known all along that her daughter would lift the trophy.
She said: "Adaeze has always been very exceptional in whatever she does. When she got to SS1 she started developing special interest in essay writing. Anytime there is an opportunity, you would see her preparing to participate and I have always encouraged her. Even if I didn't want to, whenever she needed my phone, I would always want to know what she wanted to use it for."
She noted that even if she claimed she didn't have time to check her write-ups, her daughter would still read it to her, "and I would definitely show interest and correct appropriately."
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Mrs Onaro said her daughter is willing to study Economics for her degree, saying her interest is to contribute to economic development of Nigeria through promotion of sound policies.
Alawuba, Atta speak
The Group Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of UBA, Oliver Alawuba, applauded the finalists for their excellence, saying the bank is committed to grooming future leaders for Africa through the competition and other initiatives.
Mr Alawuba said the financial institution's commitment to reclaiming Africa's lost glory is undoubted, adding that through quality education the continent will rise.
He said: "The focus of the national essay competition is the African youth. The objective is to improve the critical thinking ability and reading skills of African youth and position them for leadership on the continent."
For her part, the Chief Executive Officer of UBA Foundation, the bank's corporate social responsibility arm in charge of the competition, Bola Atta, said the initiative has been recording improvement every year since its launch 13 years ago.
"The quality of entries that we received this year was amazing. And the quality of the winners is even more amazing. They are just excellent, fast-paced with ability and talent," Mrs Atta said.
