Seyi Makinde’s Essay Competition aimed at mentoring, empowering Youths, says Diaspora Group

Gov Seyi Makinde

A socio-political group, Omituntun Initiative in Diaspora (OID) says the Seyi Makinde annual essay competition it initiated is aimed at empowering youths and preparing them as problem solvers.

This was contained in a statement signed by the OID Spokesperson, Mr Ayotomiwa Adebayo and made available to newsmen on Sunday in Ibadan.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that students across the country had been on a forced holiday due to the ravaging Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.

NAN reports that the essay competition tagged, “Seyi Makinde Annual Essay Competition”, was aimed at developing youths for leadership tasks.

Adebayo said that the OID’s effort was to equip the youths with necessary socio-economic and educational exposure as well as develop them skillfully for their future career.

“The competition aims to create a platform for public policy discourse on the socio-economic concerns of Oyo State youths who dominate over 70 per cent of the state’s population (NBS, 2016),” it said.

The group said that the effort was in line with the vision of Gov. Seyi Makinde to empower youths and prepare them as socio-economic problem solvers.

It said that youths as future leaders would be prepared to take the mantle of leadership and propel the state to the next phase of developmental revolution.

According to him, participants have the luxury of choosing to write between two themes.

“The themes are, the role of youths in achieving good governance, leadership and development in Oyo state’ or digital grassroot innovation for sustainable agriculture in Oyo state,’ he said.

He said that participants must be students of tertiary institutions from age 15 to 30, who are indigenes or resides in the state.

“The maximum word count is 1000 words, font size of 12 and line spacing of 1.5. There is 20 per cent plagiarism percentage limit and deadline for submission is Nov. 15.”

“The only language allowed is English and submissions must be made in Microsoft Word format alone.“The topic should be addressed as it applies to the state situation and entries be made to admin@omituntunindiaspora.org,” he said.

He also said that the best essay would be awarded a sum of N150,000, second N100,000 and the third best a sum of N50,000.

He added that the top 20 essays would be sponsored for competent development training.

THE INDEPENDENT