Citizens Intervention and Accountability Network ( CIAN) has launched the Presidential Advocacy Essay for all secondary schools in the country and young Nigerian pupils in The Diaspora.
Samson Abraham Ayefu, Committee Director of Project made this known at a press briefing held in Lagos yesterday.
According to him, the ongoing competition will come to an end in November while the winner goes home with N1m, the first runner-up gets N750,000 and second runner-up gets N500,000 respectively.
“The advocacy project will give the youths the opportunity to advocate for leadership that will represent and champion their interests while lending the charge on Nigeria’s educational development agenda.
“It is also intended for national intervention and the plight of 13.2million out-of -school children who make precarious living from almsgiving, to begging, and from hawking on the street to selling in traffic, coupled with different kinds of child labour that denied them of a future they could have secured for themselves, their families, their communities and their country Nigeria.
In the same vein, Candyfidel Onwuraokoye added that education is the bedrock of development and basic currency of knowledge economy. It is intriguing to see how education takes a back seat in our resource allocation priority.
“Getting out-of-school children back into school will require a strong political will, in addition to massive budgetary spending that will address the multiplicity of socio-cultural, political and systemic challenges responsible for the near collapse of Nigeria’s educational system.
Shedding more light on the essay competition, Candyfidel hinted students should visit the organisation’s website, www.cian.org to create a profile, submit their essay on Microsoft word, paste or attach the document on the webpage. The essays must be between 500-800 words and only one submission per student.