Ladies and gentlemen, Abulrazaq Ariwoola and Peace Habila have won the N20,000 cash prize for week 23 with their essays titled Towards Peaceful Co-existence Among Ethnicities and Man Up respectively.
It is not easy to win with your debut entry. A few have managed to do that but in this essay, Abdulrazaq displayed his abilities like none before him. The topic was well researched and his presentation was concise, expository and with a great command of the language. The clincher for this essay was that a plagiarism check returned a 100% unique result. A rarity for an opinion piece. What a beautiful way to join the fold. Well done Abdulrazaq, we have no doubt you will produce more winning texts.
A judge had this to say about Peace’ ability: For me, she is the runaway favourite for Week 23. Her creative talent found expression in a story in which she was in her full element. She dealt with a cultural issue with potentially damaging social effect and was able to draw the nexus between cause and effect, with drama and a bit of poetry. Her prose was smooth, the narrative was engaging, and she showed herself an authentic creative talent. She has been around the top in this series for a while, and this week she made it easy for me to pick her.
Congratulations Peace, keep writing.
Once again Johnson Onyedikachi was impressive in There Are No Shortcuts. Uchenna Nnoli was surprised to read that he is a teenage writer and made this commendation: This week, he competed at the top level and earns my motivation and support token of N5,000 consolation price. He is a budding talent and should keep working on his art.
Congratulations Johnson.
Feedback:
In Just Because They Lack Beards, Ebube Ezeadum had a strong theme around women empowerment, he had good use of language and his prose was easy to follow. This essay could have won on any other day. The writer holds a lot of promise.
Oluremi Daniel and Humble Ogbonna have always made top quality contributions, and impressed with My View On Marriage and Stay Connected? respectively. Oluremi told a vivid and gripping story with an excellent first-person narrative. His flow, vocabulary, tenses and parts of speech were all superb. The story graduated very well to a wonderful crescendo. While Humble intelligently articulated some pros and cons of WhatsApp groups and even though an in-depth analysis would have led to a more detailed conclusion, he nevertheless made plausible suggestions. Great work.
The other essays were equally good and successive judges continue to commend the improving standard of the competition. Thanks to all who have been a part of the journey and like I tweeted last week. Something good is coming our way soon..stay tuned!
