The Nigerian Copyright Commission on yesterday unveiled winners of the 2023 National Essay writing competition.
The competition is meant to promote creativity among secondary school students, while at the same time improving their knowledge of copyright and its negative impact on the economy.
Over 600 entries were received for the three different categories- essay, poem and short stories.
In the Essay category, Fridaous Ojulatayo Ikeoluwa of Muslim Model College, Ibadan, Oyo State, took home the first prize, an HP laptop.
Egwu Favour Onyekachi of Government Secondary School, Kurudu, FCT came second while Angel Myra Mbanya of Olumawu School, FCT came third.
In the Spoken Words/Poem, Kesley Kalu Chibuike of St. Augustine College, New Nyanya, Nasarawa State, won the first position and went home with an HP laptop.
Solihull Abdullahi of Essence International School, Kaduna state came second while Sahara Isa-Yahaya of Joel Model Secondary School, Abuja came third.
In the short story category, Kamarachi Laura Ibeneme of St. Augustine School, New Nyanya, Nasarawa State, came first. Bello Beraccah Morolayo of Saint Anthony Secondary school, Ilorin Kwara State came second, while Egbung Osowoaji Sarah of St Augustine School, New Nyanya, Nasarawa State came third.
Speaking at the prize giving ceremony, NCC Director General, Dr. John Asein assured the students that the commission will publish their works.
He assured them that it would publish the best of the write ups as a series.
“It is because of this young one’s and the need to ensure that copyright is not just in the books but it brought to life and made to touch life that is why we embarked on this National creative writing competition for secondary schools.
And I promise you, this being the first edition will not be the last edition.
“We are going to do it again next year. We will start early next year, and I am sure that by next year, the judges will be totally overwhelmed.
” I have read some of the essays, the short stories and the poems and I just said, who!. And what I have said to myself and I think management of the commission will agree with this, is that we will not leave them as scripts to be discarded.
“We are going to publish the best of the best. So before the end of this year, Trust me we will come up with publications arising from these publications.
And that might just be one series that we are going to run with and from year to year we would be publishing what our children are saying.
They should be listened to if indeed we believe that the future belongs to them.
“We need to create space for them even if the policy says that their voices would be part of programmes and activities and proje to that we would use to build their future.
Aisha Augie, Special Adviser (Digital Communication Strategy) to the Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning in her keynote address expressed worries over the rise in digital piracy, which she said has become a perennial problem to the book industry.
She said piracy has affected millions of intellectual works which has also affected revenue.
“With the rise of digital media, Piracy has become an increasing problem in the book industry. The effect of piracy is a problem because it has affected the book industry globally. ”
Speaking on the impact of the piracy on the book ecosystem, Augie said,”With millions of unauthorised books being distributed online every year, from popular best sellers to niche titles no book is immune from piracy.
“Statistics state that 62 million books were pirated in 2020 alone. This represents a significant loss in revenue for both authors and publishers.”
Also, the Minister of Education, Adamu Adamu expressed hope that the competition will be beneficial to the students and that it will facilitate the growth of creative writing skills and promote national unity.
Adamu Adamu who was represented by Mr. Oluwasegun Shobogun also Stressed the importance of writing skills, saying, “Possession of skills in essay writing will help in creating valuable and convincing piece. ”
He stressed that the competition will encourage creativity among Nigerian Children.
He also said that the current curriculum contains all needed writing skills for the children to be great in life.
The General Manager, Music Copyrigjt Society of Nigeria, Mr. Louis Udoh commended NCC for the initiative, saying such initiative will help refocus Nigeria students.
He said, “We really commend the efforts of NCC, for engaging these students. I believe that with this kind of activity, we will begin to refocus the students in Nigeria .”
He therefore urged the students to continue to be creative as it is the emerging wealth in Nigeria.
Assuring NCC of the society’s support, Udoh said, “At SCSM, we are connecting creativity with prosperity.”
