James Ojo, Abuja.
Akwa Ibom State has emerged the overall best in the essay competition for anti-corruption clubs in secondary schools, organised by the Independent Corrupt Oractices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC).
The competition, which has been on since 2007, was designed by the commission to get students at the secondary level involved actively in the fight against corruption.
Because of the modest achievements it has recorded, the essay competition has received impetus from foreign governments and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) who have shown interest in sustaining the project.
This year’s competition was organised in conjunction with Youth Alive Foundation, an NGO, and the UK’s Department for International Development (DFID).
The National Examination Council (NECO) was also involved in assessing the essay entries from the students, which lent more credibility to the process, leading to the emergence of the winners.
At the ceremony, where the five best students were presented to the public and decorated with awards, the acting chairman of the ICPC, Dr. Musa Usman Abubakar, declared that the essay competition was not organised for fun, but to inculcate sound moral values and instilling zero tolerance for corruption in the psyche of the students, starting from their formative age.
When the school anti-corruption clubs was introduced, he said, it was to create an avenue for students to get involved actively in the fight against corruption.
Abubakar said: “This is part of the major function of the commission in preventing corruption, by educating and fostering the support and co-operation of the public in the fight against corruption as contained in Section 6 (E and F) of the Corrupt Practices and Other related Offences Act, 2000.”
ICPC’s core mandate is to deploy strategic and evidence-led initiatives and programmes to reduce and prevent corruption, which has been identified as the bane of development in the country.
Abubakar, at the ceremony in Abuja, appealed to principlas and school regulatory agencies to team up with the ICPC in kitting and making the anti-corruption clubs more active.
In a short speech read on his behalf by the the acting spokesperson of the commission, Mrs. Rasheedat Okoduwa, he said this would facilitate the students’ understanding and appreciation of the need to shun corruption wherever they are.
The essay project featured 1,539 students from 16 anti-corruption clubs in schools drawn from Kano, Lagos, Rivers, Akwa Ibom and the FCT, Abuja.
The best five students whose essays were scrutinised by NECO were given another test a few hours to the presentation of the awards, a decision by the commission to double-check the the students’ abilities and understanding of the subject matter.
Fifteen years old Mbong Utibe Abasi of Imperial Secondary School, Eket, Akwa Ibom State, emerged the overall best student and she went home with a laptop and a plaque.
She was followed by Nnedima Cloudi Oragbu of Blue Fountain Secondary School, Lagos, aged 13. She also went home a laptop and a plaque, while Abuka Victor Okezie from Kings College, who came third, also won a laptop and a plaque.
The third runner-up was Olotu Jesuyimika Rut, 15, of Government Secondary School, Jabi, FCT, followed by Testimony Michael Essien of King Solomon College, Uyo, Akwa Ibom State.