A Senior Secondary School student from Baptist Girls Academy, Obanikoro, Lagos, Ariel Olaniyan, has emerged winner of the 2026 Lychnos-International Essay Competition.
Olaniyan defeated nine others who made it to the grand finale of this year’s edition of the competition.
She won a brand new Lenovo laptop in addition to other benefits as the overall winner of the competition.
The Lychnos-International Essay Competition, designed for senior secondary school students in Nigeria, has been organised since 2014 as part of the organisation’s education initiative, which aims to encourage critical thinking, creativity, and intellectual engagement among students and aspiring writers.
The year’s competition was themed: “Reimagining Nigeria: The Role of Youth in Nation-Building and Economic Transformation.”
Speaking to newsmen after her announcement as the overall winner, Olaniyan said the competition has taught her to believe in herself.
She thanked the organisers for the opportunity to participate in the essay competition.
She said: “I had different views of what people think of the topic, what people think of our nation, and I realised that limiting yourself is something you should actually not do.
“We should learn to open our minds to different views, and when we come together with those different views, we can build our nation and build our economy.
“We should not blame it on the people around us. We should actually work on ourselves instead of like blaming the government and other things like that. That’s what I learned from here.
“I want to thank the organisers for actually allowing us to open my mind because before, I used to limit myself to, oh, what can I do for myself and what can I do for my community?
“But now I know that I can actually work on my nation, not only my community. I can start from my nation, no matter where I am. No matter the position I am in right now. No matter how small I think I am. I can actually work for my nation.”
Speaking at the grand finale, which was held at the Fidelity SME Hub, Gbagada, on Tuesday, May 12, the Team Lead of Lychnos-International, Michael Olaoye, said it is designed to inspire and incentivise students through things like essay competitions.
He noted that the competition has helped in finding smart and intelligent students and encouraged them to excel and to contribute to national development.
Olaoye said the vision of the competition is to reach and inspire more students, and he promised that the number of recipients will be doubled next year.
He said, “So, this is real. You can see the computers. So, we’ve got laptop computers for the top 10 students. People apply from Abuja. Unfortunately, some of them could not drive or fly down.
“So, firstly, to encourage them that this is real and also inspired by what we saw among the girls. We’re challenging the boys. We are asking for leaders, men, to be real good role models to boys because out of the 10, we only had one boy among them, which is unfortunate.
“So, we’re challenging the boys to go out there. We’re challenging men to be real role models for them to be inspired and to let them know this is real and be part of that.
“Our goal is to reach out to one million students. So, now we have rewarded 10 this year. My vision is that we need to double that next year. So, we’re going to double it, meaning we can’t use this location next year. We have to use a bigger location.
“So, people should be expectant. We expect to double the reach. Both people will be rewarded, and people will reach out. So, look out for the information on our website.”
Olaoye said they received 500 entries across Nigeria, and out of the numbers, the top 10 contestants were selected for the final stage.
“I understand the entry was close to 500. So, we had a certified marker, who marked for the West African Examination Council (WAEC).
“So, it was marked, assessed by her, with the same standard that they will face since they’re going to write WAEC at the end of the school year. That was 70% of the total award.
“So, we wanted to validate the authenticity of what they have done. In the age of AI, people have access to use their family or friends to help them. So, we also assessed the originality during the event today.
“So, we wanted to listen to how composed their communication and leadership skill. So, that was assessed today. So, this same examiner was very transparent, and she did a cumulative approach.
“What they scored in their rating, how did, what they had there, 30% of the overall score was what they showed there. So, overall, there’s a strong scheme.
“We use a standardised marking system to make sure it is fair and consistent with what they’re going to face when they do their work in the future.”
