The 2023 edition of the competition focused on Nation Building, Good Governance, and National Development. Students from different schools were required to explore Wole Soyinka’s Humanism, Artistry, and Nationalism in their thought processes and writing.
The Wole Soyinka International Cultural Exchange (WSICE) has announced the winners of the 2023 Essay Competition – the 14th edition of the annual youth mentoring and mental capacity development initiative.
The 2023 edition of the competition focused on Nation Building, Good Governance, and National Development. Students from different schools were required to explore Wole Soyinka’s Humanism, Artistry, and Nationalism in their thought processes and writing.
The announcement of the essay winners coincides with the 89th birthday (July 13) of the Nobel laureate, Prof. Wole Soyinka, the eminent literary teacher and rights activist, whose life and career as a global culture icon and humanist, inspired the project.
According to the Media and Communications Unit of the WSICE, since its launch in 2010, the competition has served as a platform to mentor youths to imbibe the culture of participating in socio-cultural and political discourses in their environment.
It also noted that the competition enables young ones to engage in healthy dialogue about national and international issues, testing the creativity and intelligence of the participants, and building their self-esteem.
A record number of one hundred and eleven (111) entries were received from fifty (50) schools from which 89 finalists were selected through a rigorous process of adjudication by a panel of literary workers and social workers, it said.
After the exercise, Akoki Aaron Mojolaoluwa, a Senior Secondary School (SS) 2 student of Adedokun International School, Ifo, Ogun State, emerged as the Grand Prize winner of the WSICE 2023 Essay Writing Competition.
Olugbenga Dominion Mojolaoluwa of Salawu Abiola Comprehensive School (SNR) emerged as the first runner-up while Ezima Chinasa Margaret of Anglican Girls Grammar School (SNR) emerged as the second runner-up.
“We thank all schools and students for their participation and remain committed to our goal of fostering unity, bolstering integrity, and instilling qualities of good leadership as values,” Dr Teju Kareem, the Executive Producer of the annual WSICE, said.