FOR these young minds, technology is critical to the advancement of Nigeria, hence their advocates for adoption of technology at the 2020 SystemSpecs Children’s Day Essay Competition.
Before COVID-19 caused St. Anthony’s Grammar School Ijebu-Mushin in Ogun state to shut down physical activities, the school had imparted enough knowledge in David Onuoha-Okoro and his sister, Praise Onuoha-Okoro who emerge first in the junior category and ninth position in the senior category respectively of the 2020 SystemSpecs Children’s Day Essay Competition.
This was ahead of about 2000 other promising youngsters from ages 9 to16 across Nigeria who had also sent in entries for the contest.
The yougsters’ story to stardom was full of optimism and and display of knowledge.
11-year-old David and his sister, Praise (13) had heard about the competition on their school’s WhatsApp platform. With the encouragement of their English teacher and their father and also relying on the knowledge garnered from the Civic Study classes, they submitted their entries.
David said: “I got the inspiration to write from my Civic Studies note, particularly through the topic, ‘National Consciousness,’”
The ideas from that note with his original thoughts of how technology could hasten the attainment of a better country, formed the foundation of the ideas that won him an internship placement at SystemSpecs, a brand new a high-performance laptop and a high impact headphone, among other prizes. It also afforded him the avenue to share his bright ideas with the world!
To achieve the Nigeria of his dreams, David believes that leaders and followers have vital roles to play: “We can achieve the Nigeria of my dreams when everyone cooperates with the authorities and when the people in authority enhance the adoption of technology in Nigeria,” he said.
“I look forward to a Nigeria where all schools have access to the internet, interactive boards in classrooms, e-learning availability even in rural communities and conducive environment and well-equipped libraries,” David had written in his essay.
Commenting on the development, father of the two youngsters, Barr. Innocent Onuoha-Okoro, said: “In a competition, you either win a prize or an experience,”
This clearly was the mentality that helped his children attain success well ahead of hundreds of other participants.
For Toluwase Soniran of Baptist Academy Obanikoro Lagos, who emerged 3rd in the senior category of the competition, the story is a bit different. “I heard about the competition through one of my sister’s friends who had seen the poster and sent it to me. She said it was worth giving a shot.”
He started writing less than two days to the submission deadline. “The experience of writing, trying to meet the deadline, was frantic,” he said.
Brining with a smile, when his was announced among the top entries, he could not contain his excitement: “Merely looking at the statistics of entrants, I was blown away. Even though I believed in what I had written, the statistics did not appear to have been in my favour. I never expected the competition to be of this magnitude,” Toluwase said.
Giving a glimpse into the Nigeria of his dreams, he shared a vision of “a world superpower, a haven for technological tourism. Advanced transport systems. Young people and everyone being able to access IT. People thinking as innovators and trying to make the world and our country better.”
Fikayo Aremu, on his part, provided his 10 years old son Toluwalase – who emerged in 2nd position in the junior category, with the competition’s banner. “I knew it was the kind of things he loves to do, and the first thing he said when he saw it was, ‘I am going to win.’ He came up with his ideas and wrote them one by one. His mom and I encouraged him to research online if he needed to know more. He wrote everything himself! We are really excited at his performance.”
The younger Aremu described the experience of writing the essay as “fine and also very fun.” He would love to see Nigeria become a developed country with the use of technology. His ideas include, among others, the use of technology could improve security, achieve uninterrupted power supply and position Nigeria as a leader in telemedicine and engineering.
Like him, Akorede Otuforowa, 12, of Corona Secondary School, Agbara, Ogun state who came third in the junior category envisions a prosperous and technologically advanced country.
The Nigeria of his dreams is one where online schooling, electric trains and cars, internet of things, artificial intelligence and such other advancements are the norm and not an exception.
The SystemSpecs Children’s Day Essay Competition is part of the leading Nigerian technology firm’s corporate social responsibilities geared towards advancing the country’s capacity development and preparing its young population to take charge of a technologically-enabled future.
The 2020 edition, which was the first, received from all geopolitical zones across the country – and all states except seven.
