Nancy Okoh of Starville School, Abuja, and Charlotte Okulaja of Corona Schools, Ikoyi-Lagos, have emerged First Place Winners in the recently concluded Rising Star Writing competition. They came first in the secondary and primary categories respectively. In a release from the organisers of the competition on their website www.thewriterscorner.com.ng, the Coordinator of the competition and Managing Director of The Writers Corner, Uche Udoji, explained that entries from Miss Okulaja and Miss Okoh were outstanding. According to her, while Charlotte won in the Primary Category, Nancy won the Secondary Category prize. Each of them won an HP laptop; a television set, UPS, books and certificate, Udoji said.

The comprehensive result showed that while Charlotte Okulaja won the first prize in the Primary Category, the second and third positions went to Vincent Essien of Fountain School, Surulere, lagos and the third position to Anjola Akerele of St. Saviours, Ikoyi-Lagos. Each of them won a laptop, a UPS, books and a Certificate.

In the Secondary Category, Nancy Okoh won the first prize, Osagiede Mabel Osagie of Valuespring College, Okota, Lagos, won the second prize and third positions went to Hatesin Ugokwe of Winners International School, Nkpor, Onitsha in Anambra State. They also won a laptop, a UPS, books and a Certificate each with Nancy Okoh taking the TV set for that category.

There were also “Honourable Mentions” winners whose creative entries were rewarded with a UPS, books and a certificate each. The winners are: Tracy Dominic – Starville School Abuja; Onyekachi Prince – Winners International School Nkpor; Folashayo Olaniyan – Corona School Ikoyi; Precious Ugokwe – Phenom Premier Language School, Asaba; Ifunanya Vivian Ojialor – Seed Trinity School Okota-Lagos; Chiwuzie Chukwuemeka Godswill – Universal Messiah Schools Lagos; Masturat Tantoluwa Layomi – Corona School, Ikoyi; Moyinoluwa Adefuye – Sparking Minds Edu-Center, Ilupeju-Lagos; Favour Lawrence – Seed of Knowledge School Okota, Lagos; Fortune Bernard – Valuespring College, Okota-Lagos and Eyimofe Jemerigbe – Greenspring School, Ilupeju – Lagos.

According to the Coordinator, “The awards/prizes shall be presented to the winners in their various schools and at their “Assembly Grounds.” She said this would enable the organisers the opportunity to celebrate the award-winning children in the presence of their families, friends, teachers and mates. “This method of presentation will also help us touch base with our primary constituency (schools/school children), strategically deepen our marketing and engineer greater participation in the next edition,” she added.

Udoji, while congratulating all the winners, appreciated all the children that entered for the competition for their courage and competitive spirit. “In participating, you are all winners,” she said.

She used the opportunity to thank their sponsors for sharing the vision of the competition, especially Greenlife Pharmaceuticals for their financial support, Tripplesea Group, the owners/marketers of Bluegate Electronics in Nigeria, for ensuring that all winners got more valuable gifts. Udoji said that the television sets and the UPS were courtesy of Tripplesea Group. “We are also grateful to Chelis Bookazine for their book donations to all the winners,” she added.

The Writers Corner boss urged schools to get appropriate literacy curriculum for their pupils and students. She observed that many pupils and secondary school students do not know the difference between a short story and an essay, as shown in the received entries. According to her, many entries were disqualified as a result of this. She also said the primary/secondary categorisation was eventually employed instead of the earlier advertised age-based junior/senior categorisation in order to strike a balance.

The maiden edition of The Rising Star Writing Competition was flagged off on December 3, 2015 in Lagos. The award is an annual children creative writing competition and awards organised by The Writers Corner in collaboration with Vuvuzela Communications Limited to help develop children’s creative thinking and writing skills while rewarding the winning entries with various prizes. The entries were either a poem or a short story exploring the theme “Our Troubled Planet” with 200 and 500-word limit for a poem and short story respectively.

“Details on the next edition of the competition shall be announced soon and we encourage all children to participate,” Udoji announced.

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