Merit Ibe
Three students of the University of Nigeria, Nsukka (UNN) have emerged national winners of the 2020 edition of the African Organization for Standardization (ARSO) annual essay competition in Nigeria.
A statement from the office of the Director General, Standards Organization of Nigeria (SON), Mallam Farouk Salim, named the winners as James Ibe-Akunna, who came tops with 66.31percent, Eze Harrison Ebuka, 65.50 percent and Eze Samson Somtochukwu 65.47 percent. Two other essays from Evan-Ibe S. Sobechi and Offor O. Christopher completed the five entries presented by Nigeria to ARSO for the continental competition.
The theme for this year’s edition of the competition is “The Role of Standardization in Resolving and Addressing the Socio-Economic Issues for the Refugees, Returnees and Internally Displaced Persons and Creating Durable Solutions to Forced Displacement in Africa”.
Salim congratulated the winners and expressed the hope that some of the five entries from Nigeria would be among the final winners at the continental version of the competition.
He enjoined undergraduates in tertiary institutions in the country to participate in future editions of the competition to further spread the gospel of standardization and deepen the understanding of its potential for value addition to lives, the economy and the environment.
The DG expressed appreciation to the inter-ministerial screening committee responsible for the collation, assessment and scoring of the essays.
A total of 43 essays were received from 11 tertiary institutions out of which 41 met the requirement for assessment, the statement said.
Members of the inter-ministerial screening committee, according to the SON statement include representatives of the Federal Ministries of Education, Health, Women Affairs and Social Development as well as the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development.
Others were the National Universities Commission; Nigerian Educational Research and Development Council, the National Human Rights Commission, Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit and the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Offences Commission with the Standards Organization of Nigeria providing the Secretariat and coordination.