Entries have opened for this year’s Bishop Mike Okonkwo National Essay Competition where secondary school students across the country will compete for various prizes and cash awards.

A statement from the Corporate Affairs Department of The Redeemed Evangelical Mission (TREM) International Headquarters, Lagos, said entries opened on March 16, and would close on June 30.

The topic for this year’s competition is “Democracy at the crossroads: Electoral credibility, judicial integrity and the future of Nigeria.”

In the statement signed by Anthony Samuel, it directed that submissions should be emailed to [email protected], while hard copies can be dropped at TREM International Headquarters, Anthony Oke Bus Stop, Gbagada, Lagos.

The first-place winner will receive a cash prize of N800,000, a laptop, and a plaque, while the winner’s school receives a desktop computer and a plaque.

While the first runner-up will go home with N500,000, laptop, and plaque, the second runner-up will take home N400,000, laptop, and a plaque. Their schools will be rewarded with desktop computers.

The yearly essay competition for Nigerian secondary school students is aimed at developing good writing skills, fostering critical thinking, and encouraging engagement with trending national issues through academic narratives.

Since it kicked off in 2004, the competition has attracted over 20,000 participants and serves as a significant platform for intellectual discourse on national issues.

The initiative was part of the cleric’s corporate social responsibility and tied to his yearly birthday celebration, enabling Nigerian students to display and engage in intellectual discourse on national issues.

As a committed advocate for the less privileged, Okonkwo founded the Empowerment for the Less Privileged (ELP) Foundation, a non-governmental organisation that alleviates hardship through hospital donations, free vocational training centres, preparatory schools for secondary students, health awareness campaigns, and scholarships for talented students.

Working alongside his wife through the Women of Global Impact initiative, the cleric sponsors free cervical screening for rural women and provides yearly food and clothing donations to less-privileged women, especially widows.