The 2025 edition of the Nduka Obaigbena National Secondary Schools Essay Competition (NOSSEC) rounded up with Ray Iserioghene Mukoro emerging as overall winner of the competition.

Similarly, the second position and first runner up went to Princewill Ogenhevwegba Kaizee while the third position and second runner up went to Egarievwe Unique Efetobor.

Their performance was contained in a report signed by Abiodun Adeniyi, Professor of Communication, Baze University, Abuja.

The competition was facilitated by Citizens Advocacy for Social and Economic Rights, CASER; where Frank Tietie, a legal professional lead as the Executive Director.

Tietie while speaking with reporters in Abuja, said the competition was inspired to project the impact of Nduka Obaigbena, Chairman of the ThisDay/ARISE Media Group, who went through Government College Ughelli, Delta State.

According to CASER, the competition brought out the creative writing, critical thinking, and fact-based expression, pillars of responsible journalism in young students, who might want to pick up journalism career in the future, just like Nduka Obaigbena.

Tietie explained that the National Secondary Schools Essay Competition seeks to counteract the growing threat of misinformation, online abuse, and the decline of ethical communication, by promoting integrity, clarity, and accuracy in public discourse.

His words, “We are actually looking at inspiring millions of lives because we are in an age of social media, we just needed to put this structure in place to also put some reward mechanism to inspire these children. I can tell you that what is happening today is being watched by a large number of young people.

“It is not only when they do all sort of mischievous videos in social media, but young people can also be encouraged to do something that are constructive that are in line with the goal of education while they are in school.

“So this is an essay competition, they are being rewarded for it, they are being showcased for their ability to conduct research on a person who himself, I am talking about Prince Nduka Obaigbena who is an inspiration to his generation, July 14 is his birthday, we thought we should do this competition and announce the winners on this day and to have a lecture presentation which Dr Sam Amadi has done to showcase the essence of broadcasting in an age where it is being threatened by Artificial Intelligence”.