By Enyeribe Ejiogu
At almost 15, Miss Chinenye Onyekwelu, an SS2 student in Anambra State, is the kind of candidate the Registrar and Chief Executive of the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB), Prof Ishaq Oloyede, loves to see register for the Universal Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME), through which young Nigerians secure admission into public and private higher educational institutions.
What could be the reason for Prof Oloyede’s excitement at seeing candidates like her, you may ask? The simple answer is that Onyekwelu has been fired up by her performance in the quiz competition on cancer awareness organised for senior secondary school students in Anambra State as part of the activities of the Arming Our Youths (ArOY) Health Promotion Campaign initiated by the Onyebuchi Chris Ifediora (OCI) Foundation International.
By time she will register for UTME in 2026, Onyekwelu will be 16 years. In a brief phone chat with Sunday Sun following her winning the third position in the quiz competition, she indicated that she is looking forward with great excitement to the day she will register for and excellently pass the UTME to secure admission on merit into Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka, to study Medicine just like her role model, Prof Onyebuchi Chris Ifediora, a distinguished alumnus of Unizik and professor of Family Medicine, who is also the President of OCI Foundation International, which began in Nigeria but has now established presence in Australia, United Kingdom and some other countries just like the umbrella tree whose straight horizontal branches and broad leaves provide cool shade from the heat of the sun.
Like the umbrella tree, OCI Foundation has been providing financial shade, through academic scholarships awarded to brilliant students from indigent families. Recently, three fresh medical graduands who won the Pathology Prize established by Prof Ifediora in the Unizik medical school received their awards at the induction ceremony held for 125 new qualified medical doctor produced te university, thereby joining the very long list of health professionals that have either been beneficiaries of the CYFED Scholarship scheme of the foundation or other forms of financial assistance to support their quest for academic laurels.
It is noteworthy that Ifediora made distinction in Pathology at the Nnamdi Azikiwe University where he studied and qualified as a medical doctor before heading to Britain for postgraduate studies and eventually gaining higher professional qualifications and then specializing in Family Medicine in Australia.
Pathology is a course taken as part of the 3rd MBBS medical examination of Unizik. The recipients for 2025 OCI prize were Dr Goodness Chidimma Joseph, Dr Kosisochukeu Somkenechukwu Orizu and Dr Jennifer Ikechukwu Maduka. The “OCI Foundation Award for Excellence in Pathology” was established on August 6th, 2024, and is to be awarded annually. In addition to a certificate of award, the winners will get cash reward.
“The award is aimed at inspiring improved overall academic performances in medical training,” Ifediora said in a letter to the Vice Chancellor of Unizik. Like a large number of other Nigerians, Ifediora is pained and disturbed by the situation of Nigeria’s healthcare delivery system which is deeply challenged in all aspects. Rather than just bemoan the situation, Ifediora has taken the more sustainable route of contributing to the training of healthcare professionals in Medicine, Pharmacy, Nursing, Medical Laboratory Science and other health sciences.
As he puts it, “Through OCI Foundation, we are building, mobilizing, training and equipping a new army of healthcare professionals with knowledge and skills that will enable them contribute to changing the narrative in Nigeria’s health sector and to meet the health needs of humanity.”
Apart from supporting undergraduates in the health sciences and some other fields, Ifediora believes strongly in the catch-them-young concept. It follows from the observed tendency of some teenagers who attend secondary schools established by arms of the military services (Navy, Airforce and Army) and then go on to the Nigerian Defence Academy to earn degrees in their preferred disciplines and join the armed services.
Recognising the benefits of this concept, Ifediora said OCI initiated the Arming Our Youths (ArOY) programme, to spread awareness about health issues and particularly educate people at the grassroots about breast and cervical cancer. The programme was then deepened with the quiz competition. The 4th edition commenced in 2024 and featured participation by the 265 public senior secondary schools under the six educational zones across Anambra State. Six zonal winners eventually emerged in the drawn-out stiff competition. The six zonal winners then participated in the grand finale, which was won by Nzube David Okeke Daniel from Community High School, Nawfija in Aguata Zone. Second position went to Miss Esther Chiamaka Eze (St. Johnbosco Secondary School, Unubi in Nnewi Zone), who plans to study Literature in the university and become a renowned writer like Chimamanda, Chinua Achebe, Cyprian Ekwensi and Wole Soyinka. Miss Chinenye Jennifer Onyekwelu (Awka zone) took the third position, but her mother, a secondary school teacher, told Sunday Sun in a phone interview that her daughter is not dispirited at all. The fourth winner was Virginia Ezenwa while Kingsley Igboanugo came sixth.
Interestingly, Onyekwelu told Sunday Sun that what is significant about her coming third is that she has become more determined to excel next year, to win the first prize and succeed Nzube Okeke, a very quiet and reticent teenager who does not speak much but is fully focused on studying Computer and Communication Engineering at Nnamdi Azikiw University, Awka.
The Arm Our Youths (ArOY) Health Promotion Campaign is an initiative of OCI Foundation International created to “empower Nigerian youths to be a vanguard against breast and cervical cancers, the two major cancers that kill women.”
The OCI Anambra ArOY Youth Health Campaign Schools Challenge, otherwise known as the Anambra AHCSC has been running for four years, and has been endorsed by Harvard University as an “effective anti-cancer awareness programme. It was incorporated into the regular curriculum of all public senior secondary schools in Anambra State, after the state government officially commissioned the ArOY project for its schools on October 10, 2019.
The quiz component of the ArOY campaign was added in the 2021-2022 academic session and it is run collaboration with the State Post-Primary School Service Commission.
Under the programme, OCI celebrates and rewards the students, teachers, and schools that steadfastly excel in ArOy Health Campaign. The desire of OCI is to scale up the programme to the national level and hold nation-wide quiz competitions as part of supporting the compulsory integration of the ArOY campaign into the curriculum of all Nigerian senior secondary schools.
In pursuit of this goal, OCI sponsored a Bill in mid-2023 which was passed by the National Assembly, which will make ArOY a national campaign.
A lecturer at Unizik and Media Consultant to OCI, Dr Njide Ezeonyejiaku, is spreading awareness about breast cancer and cervical cancer at the grassroots in Anambra State since inception. Equally pleased is the OCI Anambra State Champion, Lady Joy Ulasi, formerly associated with the Post Primary Schools Service Commission, PPSSC, Anambra State.