The Wole Soyinka International Cultural Exchange (WSICE) has announced the winners of the 2023 Essay Competition, which is the 14th edition of the annual youth mentoring and mental capacity development initiative.
The competition focused on Nation Building, Good Governance, and National Development and a record number of 111 entries were received from 50 schools, from which 89 finalists were selected through a rigorous process of adjudication by a panel of literary workers and social workers. 
Akoki Aaron Mojolaoluwa, a Senior Secondary School (SS) 2 student of Adedokun International School, Ifo, Ogun State, emerged as the Grand Prize winner of the WSICE 2023 Essay Writing Competition. Olugbenga Dominion Mojolaoluwa and Ezima Chinasa Margaret were the first and second runners-up, respectively.
The WSICE aims to mentor youths to imbibe the culture of participating in socio-cultural and political discourses in their environment. It enables the young ones to engage in healthy dialogue about national and international issues, testing the creativity and intelligence of the participants and building their self-esteem.
The announcement of the Essay winners coincides with the 89th birthday anniversary (July 13) of the Nobel laureate, Wole Soyinka, the eminent literary artiste, teacher, and rights activist,, whose exemplary life and career as a global culture icon and humanist, inspired the project.
