Oluwatoni Adesanya, a student of Greensprings School, Lagos, has won the second prize in Kemper Human Rights Education Foundation’s (KHREF) essay competition 2020.
Oluwatoni Adesanya’s essay titled: “Human rights violations masquerading as COVID-19 interventions: The Nigerian experience”, was adjudged second best, and awarded $500 prize in the international competition, which received about 100 entries from 17 different countries.
According to Oluwatoni Adesanya:
“This winning came as a surprise to me because it was a bit difficult to write the essay at first. My inspiration came from the problems that surfaced in Nigeria during the pandemic and the looting of palliatives donated by the private sector. To do the writing, I had to carry out a research on human rights, the origin of COVID-19, and how governments across the world responded to the pandemic. Websites of credible international organisations such as the United Nations, World Health Organisation (WHO) and the Centre for Disease Control (CDC) were valuable for my research. I also read reliable Nigerian newspapers, and consulted websites of CACOVID and human rights organisations in Nigeria.
I want to say thank you to my English teachers for teaching me how to conduct proper research and hone my writing skills. I also want to thank my parents and relations for their constant support.”
She noted that her essay was written to enlighten the public on how some COVID-19 policies breached human rights, and how low-income and poor Nigerians have been badly affected by these policies.
Adesanya explained that her writing was to draw attention to some of the problems confronting Nigerians and call government’s attention to them.
Principal at Greensprings School, Anthony, campus, Mrs. Magdalene Okrikri, expressed satisfaction with Adesina’s achievements adding that she was the valedictorian of elementary school class of 2020.
“I am happy that she continued performing exceptionally in everything. She has shown that all the quality education received from Greensprings Pre-school, Elementary and now Secondary School, is paying off extremely well. I know she would win many more awards both locally and internationally.”
The Kemper Human Rights Education Foundation (KHREF) is a non-profit corporation established in 2008. It seeks to motivate students to contribute their effort towards creating a world where everyone’s human rights are realised, by sponsoring essay contests and other human rights-oriented academic activities.
