At Lion’s peace poster contest, Chinaza, others emerge winners

A special art competition sponsored by Lions Club around the world for youths in schools and youth groups these past 30 years ended recently with 12 years old Isaac Favour Chinaza of Dynamic Comprehensive College, Ota, Ogun state, sponsored by Lagos Egbeda Lions Club, District 404B3, clinching the first position. The second prize went to Kreem Hamed, while Asuquo Divine came third.

This year’s theme was ‘Dare to Dream’ and it gave children everywhere between the ages of 11 and 13 the opportunity to create posters expressing their vision of peace as well as inspire the world through art and creativity.

Interested clubs began to adopt schools for sponsorship in September and all the districts, D404A2, D404A3, D404A4, D404B2, D404B3 and D404B4, had their individual district peace poster contests.

Winners at the district level converged on Lagos for the finals, where judges scored contestants based on age, relevance and theme, originality, use of space, mastery of theme, as well as, technical proficiency and ability to talk about their work.

In his welcome address by Multiple District Coordinator, MD 404 Nigeria, Lion Ibrahim Jide Bello, said, “Dare to Dream has to do with dreams and visions of the young ones. To dream is not just a hope or a desire, it is a path, a goal and ambition, achieving that dream of course is hard work, so, this year, we are giving the young ones the task to see how they will turn the dream of a peaceful world into reality.”

Bello said the contest would give young ones opportunity to transform their vision of peace into reality and also help them to inspire the world through arts and creativity.

“Our youths are full of ideas waiting to be transformed, hence, the decision of our association to encourage youths in the areas of arts and creativity,” he said.
Bello further encouraged the youth that “having a dream is not enough unless translated to reality through goals and strategies. For our youth to stay focused; there must be direction and activities to enable them realise their dreams.”

Multiple Council Chairman, MD 404, Asiwaju Ayobola Samuel, said: “The idea is to ask the contestants, to turn their dream of a peaceful world, into reality. For years, Nigeria has been participating in this contest but has never been fortunate to win the grand prize, hope we will break the jinx this year.”

President of Abeokuta Harmony Lions Club, a renowned lecturer in fine arts, Lion Badiru, who has taught 35 years at every level of education in Nigeria, said, “many of the young ones do not have mentors, they don’t have a journey they want to embark on, so, it is important for us to dream, how big our dream is determines how far we can. I want to challenge the young ones; the journey to stardom is not by wishful thinking. If you see somebody that is excelling, you must aspire to be like that person.”