As part of efforts aimed at making the state an enabling environment for child development, the wife of the Governor of Cross River State, Mrs. Obioma Liyel- Imoke, three years ago started the Calabar Carnival Essay competition among secondary school pupils.
Since then, the competition, which falls under the ASFAC (a state fit for a child) program, an initiative of Mrs. Imoke, has been growing from strength to strength as more school children are beginning to reckon with the annual event. And as children are an integral part of the society, the Carnival commission introduced the essay competition into the Festival Calendar as measure of reviving and encouraging the declining reading culture amongst the youths of the State and nurture budding writers who might one day grow up to be the next Chinua Achebe or Chinamanda Adichie and do the state proud.
The competition is split into two categories. The secondary and tertiary with panel of judges drawn from tertiary institutions across the state. This year’s contest also recorded the highest number of entries since it began, drawing in over 200 entries from both secondary schools and tertiary institutions.
However, with this year’s theme Our Strength and resilience; the bedrock of our future and the task of interpreting it by the competing bands of the Calabar Festival, the youths did a fantastic job at unraveling the theme at the Carnival Calabar Essay competition.
At the end of the exercise, a-16-year-old Shiam Christopher Shiam of the University of Calabar International Secondary School won in his depth analytic exposition, pin-pointing unity, peace and resourcefulness of a people as the source of our resilience and bedrock to our future by emerging winner in the Secondary Category and walked away with a plaque, a lap top and a scholarship worth N50, 000.
Eval Sylvester Eduh of the Department of Geology, University of Calabar, equally impressed the judges with his speculative essay on peace and culture and humility being the hallmarks of our resilience and bedrock of our future to clinch the top prize in the tertiary category.
He was rewarded with a plaque, a desktop computer and a scholarship worth N70, 000. Prizes were also given to the first and second runners-up in both categories and to the Institutions with the highest entries with winners presented with mini laptops, books and educational materials to equip their libraries.
According to Elenda Osima Dokubo, Executive Secretary of the Carnival Commission, during the prize presentation to the winners ‘the Calabar festival is not only about creating entertainment, but the calendar of events are carefully designed to not only empower people economically but to also to enhance their socio- cultural development as well.’
Mrs. Liyel-Imoke, the Mother of the day, impressed by the record number of entries for this year competition, declared that the youths had indeed done her ‘proud’. She offered a word of advice to the youths urging them to resist the addiction of the Internet and ‘make reading a habit’ as reading ‘widens the Imagination’.
The Commissioner for Education, Prof. Efiong E. Efiong, described the competition as “an exciting moment,” commending Senator Liyel Imoke’s administration for its ‘aggressive’ reforms in the educational sector which he said has strengthened the quality of education delivery in the State as it is through competitions of this nature that one can mirror the quality of education that is given to our children.”
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