UNIBEN student wins Commonwealth essay contest | EduCeleb
Abdussalam Amoo
1st November 2017
A medical student at the University of Benin, Joshua Borokinni, has emerged third place winner of the 2017 Royal Commonwealth Essay Competition.
Out of a total of 12 , 300 youths from Commonwealth countries who took part in the competition , Borokinni was the only one from Nigeria and Africa . He emerged second runner- up and bronze medallist after Annika Turon -Semmens from Australia and Hiya Chowdhury of India , who bagged the gold and silver medals , respectively , in the senior category of the competition .
The Royal Commonwealth Essay Competition (also called the Queen’s  Commonwealth Essay Competition) is the world ’ s oldest schools ’ international writing competition managed by The Royal Commonwealth Society since 1883 .
Every year , the competition offers all Commonwealth youths aged 18 and below the opportunity to express their hopes for the future , opinions of the present and thoughts on the past through the written word .
The theme for this year ’ s competition was A Commonwealth for Peace, with topics that challenged young writers to consider peace at every level , from the personal to the political to the pan-Commonwealth .
In recognition of their achievement , the winners and runners – up in the contest will visit London and participate in a series of educational and cultural events scheduled to hold in November .
An excited Borokinni could not hide his feelings after learning about the results of the competition and the fact that he had done Nigeria and Africa proud .
“This award will definitely push me further to do more exceptional things that will showcase Nigeria and Africa to the world , ” he said .