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All hail brilliant Adeyeye, winner of Oando marketing writing competition

By Daniel Anazia
16 April 2016   |   4:59 am
For young, beautiful and brilliant Adeyeye Adetola Rachael, a medical doctor, currently observing the mandatory one year houseman ship at the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital (LASUTH), Ikeja, writing comes natural.
From left: CEO, Oando Downstream Mr. Abayomi Awobokun, (2nd left) presenting the award of N400,000 to Dr. Adeyeye Adetola Racheal, (2nd right) Winner of Oando Marketing Plc 2016 Feature Writing Article themed ‘Sustainable Business Solutions to Tackling Climate Change in Developing Countries’; Mrs. Kemi Songonuga (left) Finance Manager, Oando Marketing Plc and Mr. Seun Adeosun (right), Head, Marketing Communications, Oando Marketing Plc.

From left: CEO, Oando Downstream Mr. Abayomi Awobokun, (2nd left) presenting the award of N400,000 to Dr. Adeyeye Adetola Racheal, (2nd right) Winner of Oando Marketing Plc 2016 Feature Writing Article themed ‘Sustainable Business Solutions to Tackling Climate Change in Developing Countries’; Mrs. Kemi Songonuga (left) Finance Manager, Oando Marketing Plc and Mr. Seun Adeosun (right), Head, Marketing Communications, Oando Marketing Plc.

For young, beautiful and brilliant Adeyeye Adetola Rachael, a medical doctor, currently observing the mandatory one year houseman ship at the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital (LASUTH), Ikeja, writing comes natural.

The medical personnel at the Eko Club Atlanta Outreach emerged winner of the maiden Oando Marketing Writing Competition with the theme, ‘Environmental Sustainability’. Her essay was selected among 150 entries, which were judged on quality of writing, strength of analysis, grammar, punctuation, layout and theme. She was rewarded for her brilliance with a cheque of N400,000.

Commenting on the competition at the award presentation held at Oando Marketing Plc corporate headquarters in Apapa, Lagos, the chief executive officer, Abayomi Awobokun, said that the competition is one of such initiatives adopted by the company to support the Africa Skills Initiative (ASI) development promoted by the World Economic Forum.

He said, “The Nigerian educational sector is in need of a revamp and pointing fingers is not the solution. Everyone has a role to play; competitions like this motivate individuals, especially, young adults to develop their writing skills. The quality of intellectual conversations is on the decline, libraries lack patronage because the statistics for people that read is so low.

“We recognise that such issues are one of our responsibilities, and we are hopeful to see the growth in terms of literacy and a rise in the academic abilities and the employability of our young adults. One of the central points of the ASI is to accelerate economic growth by improving the literacy levels in the bourgeoning youthful population whilst helping organisations tackle recurring difficulties encountered in finding talent to fill vacant positions — a situation indicative of the growing mismatch between available and needed skills.”

Head of Marketing Communications, Seun Adeosun, said the competition was aimed at affecting lives and educating people, adding that the initiative came as a result of the dropped literary skills as a result of the digital age.

Adeosun, who also was a judge on the competition, explained that it was designed to encourage literary skills development and eco-friendly attitude among Nigerians. “We find that the level of communication is gradually degrading. We organised the competition to give our consumers an opportunity to express themselves by writing on a topic that has a global appeal and impact on the world,” he said.

According to him, the initiative is part of the organisation’s corporate social responsibility, and the theme revolved around climate change, a deliberate attempt to make solutions available for developing countries to adopt earth-friendly actions.

On the selection process, Adeosun said all the articles went through a rigorous and unbiased process before the winning article emerged, adding that the success criteria as communicated while the competition lasted included thoroughness of research, quality of analysis and argument, grammar, logical arrangement of thought, and innovative input of existing Oando environmentally-friendly business initiatives.

He stated that interested participants were required to highlight impact of business activities on climate issues and proffer sustainable business practices that can improve the environment leveraging some of Oando Marketing Plc business initiatives.

Adeosun said since the competition commenced in February, the feedback had been impressive, adding that the company’s intends to continue with it in the coming years with a view to improve literary skills and communications, build stronger leaders out of Nigerians.

“The writing competition was designed to encourage the development of literary skills, enhance human capital development and entrench a reading culture in the bourgeoning youthful population in Nigeria, and it was open to all our social media followers,” he stated.

In her response, Adeyeye, who expressed delight about her success, said though it was a bit challenging writing on climate change, she entered the competition not with the intention of winning, but to broaden her knowledge.

She thanked the downstream arm of Oando for creating such platform for creative minds and urged them to continue with the competition. She dedicated her success to God, and thanked members of her immediate family for their supports.

“I got my sister to proof read and correct some grammatical errors for me, and my younger brother assisted me in typing at some point when I got tired, and another cousin of mine helped convert from Microsoft Word to PDF. My family was really there for me,” she said.

Adeyeye advised youths to reduce the time they spend on social media, saying, “if there is really anything that has watered down English Language, it is because of the use of words on social media. You see a lot of wrong English on social media these days; nobody really sits down to check what the textbooks are saying, and that has accounted for the high failure rate in examinations.”

According to her, “people should be on social media to be informed;” adding that she got details of the competition on company’s facebook page. She described reading and writing as a hobby and further emphasized that apart from her profession, writing has always been an activity she enjoys, hence her willingness to participate without hesitations despite her busy schedule.

The feature article writing competition is one of such initiatives adopted by Oando Marketing Plc to support the Africa Skills Initiative development. There is also the Teens Can Cook initiative and the Oleum Academy, where mechanics are trained to improve their mechatronics skills and competencies are amongst other successful programmes Oando Marketing Plc has instituted.

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