15-year-old Davina Phillips, a student of Bloombreeds School, Port Harcourt, Rivers state, has emerged as the overall winner of the 2025 Mike Okonkwo National Essay Competition for secondary school students.
She receives a cash prize of ₦1,000,000 and a laptop for her achievement.
The competition also recorded 16-year-old Aniki Emmanuella Onizi, from Babcock High School, Ogun state, and 15-year-old Maryam Opeyemi Ilyas, from Isawo Comprehensive High School, Lagos, finish in second and third place, respectively.
The chief examiner, Professor Akachi Ezeigbo, said the competition was conducted in two rounds. Davina Phillips scored a final tally of 75% to claim the top spot, while Aniki Emmanuella secured the runner-up position with 68%, and Maryam Opeyemi Ilyas came in third with 66%.
Professor Ezeigbo noted that many students demonstrated a clear understanding of the complex issues presented in the essay topics. However, she observed a rising trend of collaboration and the uncreative use of external sources, including artificial intelligence. She advised teachers to guide students on how to use such tools for verification rather than outright content generation.
The winners and their schools will be presented with their prizes at the Mike Okonkwo Annual Lecture Series on September 4, 2025, at the Civic Center in Victoria Island, Lagos where 1st place, Phillips will receive the cheque of ₦1,000,000, a laptop, and a set of computers for her school while the 2nd place, Aniki Emmanuella, receives the cheque of ₦500,000, a laptop, and a set of computers for her school. Also the third Place, Maryam Opeyemi Ilyas, will receive a cheque of ₦400,000, a laptop, and a set of computers for her school; and other finalists will each receive a consolation prize of ₦50,000.
Speaking further on the competition, Ezeigbo stated that after going through the submissions, the best five essays were selected and a second physical round stage of the competition was organised on a different topic to see the extent that the students would confirm their abilities in a more regulated examination environment.
The Chief Examiner, in her rating noted this year’s competition was good as the students demonstrated a clear understanding of the adult-theme issues at hand, and consequently responded in writing.
“As usual a substantial number revealed evidence of collaboration with peers and copying from the internet, text books and other sources.
It was easy to reach this conclusion because the imprints of sources were uncreatively left behind in the bodies of the essays submitted. Similarly, we noticed the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in the generation of much of the content examined.”
However, she pointed out this has shown that students are doing well by consulting sources that have become inevitable in knowledge generation and transmission, adding that teachers must teach them to know how to use material creatively and intelligently for the purposes of verification and validation.
Meanwhile, the organisers said that the essay competition had sparked a heightened interest in research, extensive reading, and constructive writing among participating students
