No winner or finalist has emerged in the 2019 PositiveNaija Essay Competition, themed: The Value of the Life of a Nigerian!
The 2019 PositiveNaija Essay Competition (June 1 – October 31, 2019) is purposed towards informing the world on how the lives of Nigerians are genuinely being respected, protected and empowered today in good conscience and as required by the current Nigerian constitution.
The 2019 PositiveNaija Essay Competition aims to promote the dignity, safety and prosperity of Nigerians; Nigerian patriotism; nation building as well as serve as a platform for excellence!
According to the Founder and Editor-in-Chief of PositiveNaija, Mr. Toju Micheal Ogbe:
“We thank God Almighty as always as we are once again pleased with another realization and success of the annual essay competition (now in its third edition) – even with no finalist or winner.
This edition further proved instrumental in improving on the applied strategy, organisation, set objective and engagements by the participants.
The number and quality of entries received could/can be better but we are confident that the culture of reading, valuable research and interest in the positive progress and excellence as well as hope by Nigerians would increase significantly in future.
The theme of this year’s essay competition is a very crucial one at this time – particularly in the areas of building trust among inevitable day-to-day relationships as humans and fulfilling far-reaching social contracts in the Nigerian society.
I believe in no small measure that certain salient but highly relevant revelations on factors contributing to the dignity, safety and prosperity of Nigerians and Nigeria as a country have been unveiled through some of these essays and should be further amplified with sincere, practicable and profound courage as well as convictions.
Some of these factors include: the companionship of honorable Nigerians; the role of the family unit or home; available and accessible legal provisions; presence of the media; legal courts; civil right societies; relevant international treaties; etc.
As noted by Udeme Akpan in his essay: ‘Parental guardian is a major role played by parents to make sure their children gets the best in terms of advice, tradition, culture and education. Their loving mentoring and shared experiences are tools that can make us wise and ready to face the future. Hence, whatever empowerment any Nigerian can get, starts from home.’
Also, Solihu Ololade Aliyu in his essay noted: ‘In Nigeria, the government in its promotional objective towards citizens’ right established the Legal Aid Council.The Nigerian Legal Aid Council is a body set up by the federal government since 1976 to provide free legal services to Nigerian citizens who cannot afford the services of private legal practitioners. It is important to note that the scheme cuts across various legal need of citizens especially enforcement of fundamental human rights.’
The general consensus of the essay entries at the same time, clearly reveals the lack of and the need for significant and sustainable interventions in ensuring genuine respect, protection and empowerment of Nigerians – with empowerment not only limited to financial or economic measures but the overall increase of power, self-worth and self-reliance of people and communities to represent their interests in a responsible and self-determined manner, acting on their own authority.
Although the opportunity also was very well present for a winner to emerge, certain notable factors attributed to why no winner or finalist emerged in this year’s edition of the competition including the following reasons: logical and narrative inconsistency; instances of lack of reliable/relevant references by participating writers; spelling and grammatical errors; false information; genuine value of the essay objective not profound with little or no linkage to the reality on ground today as most essays largely appeared to be – off-topic, descriptive, lamentational, historical or suggestive; late submissions; etc.
As we have always communicated and done even for the last two editions of the essay competition, when requested only by the participants, we would provide feedback to all who did not make it as a finalist or winner – the specific reason(s) why as pertaining to their essays.
Our essay competition is a long-term vision towards becoming the most rewarding essay competition in Nigeria – not just financially but most importantly, upholding the values of purposeful insight, critical-thinking, transparency and accountability.
We appreciate the writers of the essays we received this year (57 in total – 57 Nigerians). We appreciate their courage, trust and hope in a greater Nigeria, their intellectual brilliance as well as their confidence in our execution.
Once again, we thank profoundly Mrs. Eire Ifueko Alufohai, Ms. Oladoyin Abiona, Mr. Osagie James Osemwegie and Mr. Emmanuel Akpata, for their swift interest, wisdom, time and intellectual support committing and continuing as Advisory Judges for the essay competition this year.
We also express our heartfelt gratitude to our team, sponsor for this year’s essay competition – Wole Joshua and Co. [competition process auditor] and advisors [Elijah Ezaga, Esther Oladayo, family and many others] for their kind contributions; a testament of their belief in our vision and mission.
We also appreciate every person and institution genuinely committed to elevating and defending the dignity, safety and prosperity of Nigeria and Nigerians globally in their own little way.
We look forward to more remarkable editions in the future and further improvement in every aspect. Thank you.”
The 2019 PositiveNaija Essay Competition is the third edition of the PositiveNaija annual essay competition.
The 2017 edition, which was the first edition, themed “How Great Is Nigeria!” was won by Mr. Olawale Lekan Christopher.
The 2018 edition, themed “The Love of a Nigerian!” was won by Miss Akunna James-Ibe.
PositiveNaija is a multimedia news, information and forum platform, with the vision of having the most reliable platform for informing the world of the truly impactful, positive, valuable, inspiring, educative and worthy updates associated with Nigeria and Nigerians globally based on consistent objectivity and excellence. The aim is to positively – inspire, educate and redefine the standards of Nigeria’s values based system.
As a human-centered enterprise, the mission of PositiveNaija is to continuously strive towards creating a good, well-informed and empathetic society for Nigeria and Nigerians through news management and impactful initiatives.
