A 12-year-old student of Gateway Schools, Enugu State, has emerged winner in a contest by Heirs Life Essay Championship. At the award ceremony held in Enugu State, the student, Princewill Ebubechukwu, in the maiden nationwide contest, organised by Heirs Life Assurance (HLA), had over 1,000 pupils submitted entries across the country.

In the contest, students were asked to submit a 500-word essay on the topic, ‘If I were the President of Nigeria.’ As the overall winner, Ebubechukwu, was presented a brand-new laptop, while his school, received the Heirs Life Essay Championship cup and N500,000 worth of books and other educational materials.

Other winners include Purity Chetachi, a Basic five pupil of Star of Hope School, Lagos, who emerged first runner-up and won a cash prize of N100,000 and Abidoye Habeeb, a JSS 2 student of Mivara Secondary School, Lagos, who won third place with a cash prize of N50,000.

The Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer of the Heirs Life Assurance, Niyi Onifade, said the essay championship, was to showcase the intellectual young future leaders.

He said: “All the students, who participated in the competition are winners. However, we can only award a few of them. Indeed, the quality of essays that we received from these students was fascinating and the winner, Ebubechukwu, expressed himself in such a remarkable way that one could easily visualise his dreams for the country.

Speaking on behalf of the star prize winner, his parents appreciated the insurance company for the opportunity given to students to compete in an educative and cordial manner, in anticipation of a better future for Nigeria’s youths.