Rivers student wins 2025 Mike Okonkwo Essay contest

A 15-year-old student of Bloombreeds School, Port Harcourt, Rivers State, Davina Phillips, has emerged the overall winner of this year’s edition of Mike Okonkwo National Essay competition.

The second and third prize went to 16-year-old Aniki Emmanuella Onizi of Babcock High School, Ilishan-Remo, Ogun State and 15-year-old Maryam Opeyemi llyas of Isawo Comprehensive High School, Ikorodu Lagos State, respectively.

While Davina who scored 75 per cent at the final stage to clinch the first position will receive N1 million cash and a laptop for her effort, Aniki and Maryam, who scored 68 per cent and 66 per cent will go home with N500, 000 and a laptop, and N400, 000 and a laptop, respectively.

The school of each of the three winners will also receive a set of computers while other students who made it to final round will get N50, 000 each as consolation prize.

All the winners will be presented with their prizes at the Mike Okonkwo Annual Lecture Series which is organised to commemorate the birthday anniversary of Bishop Mike Okonkwo, the organiser and sponsor of the annual competition.

The event is slated for Lagos on Thursday, September 4.

Mike Okonkwo Annual National Essay Competition instituted in 2004 by Dr Mike Okonkwo, the Presiding Bishop of The Redeemed Evangelical Mission (TREM) aims at promoting reading culture and writing skills among secondary school students in the country.

Speaking on the results, the chief examiner of the competition and a Professor of English language, Akachi Ezeigbo, said only five essays made it to the final stage from where entrants were given a fresh topic to write on, physically under a regulated examination environment.

She noted that while some of the students demonstrated a clear understanding of the adult-themed issues given to write on, many of them copied from internet and textbooks and other sources without crediting their sources.

“We got to know this because the imprints of their sources were left in the bodies of their submitted essays,” she said, adding that “We also noticed the use of Artificial Intelligence in the generation of some of the contents.”

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While the don commended the students for making use of internet and AI to source useful information, she, however, urged teachers to educate their students on how to make use of contents sourced online in their writes-up to make them credible.

The annual competition has been a platform meaningfully contributing to academic pursuits of secondary school students and the education development generally in the country.

“This is because students through the competition have developed real interest in research, extensive reading, and constructive writing and ability to express their views on critical national issues that could impact socio-economic life of Nigeria and its people,” ReverendTony Samuel, added.