The Nigerian Conservation Foundation (NCF) has rewarded 12 students with a N1million in the 15th edition of NCF and Aduke Alakija Memorial National Schools’ Art and Essay competition.
The competition is part of NCF’s education and awareness programme in the formal school system.
According to NCF, environmental education is a key focus of the NCF in reaching the Nigerian students and youths across all levels of education, hence the establishment of the annual National Schools’ Art & Essay competition in honor of one of its founding trustees, late Aduke Alakija.
Speaking at the award presentation, Adedamola Ogutuka, staff at Environmental Education, NCF said, “Children are the agents for change and getting to read about the earth in preparation of the essay is a great step to conserve the earth. The whole initiative of the competition is to preach about environmental conservation.”
The foundation explained that the reward was given to students with outstanding performance in the competition, who carried out standard research on environmental conservation and sustainability.
Ayodele Mercy, one of the students awarded said the award serves as a call to awake the consciousness of all on anything that faces as a threat to the earth, because there is only one earth
“I sat down and actually thought of what’s happening to our earth right now and what we can do to stop it. Environmental sustainability is the best thing for us to look at right now on how to stop air pollution, and manage our waste properly to preserve our earth because there is only one earth,” she said.
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The winners of the years editions were Adegbola Marvelous Toluwani, Alawode Abdul-lateef, Oyelola Moyosola, Ayodele Mercy Kehinde, Ademuluyi Oreoluwa, Precious Nneoma, and Udoh Destiny Godwin.
Others were Subair Destiny, Usman Amirat, Adesina James, Giwa Omolabake Naomi, and Opayemi Emmanuel.
However, the competition was divided into the junior category and the senior category. The art competition was open to anyone between five and 18 years old, while the essay competition was for anyone between 12 and 18 years of age, in full-time education.
