Students to Compete for N1.7m Prizes as 2026 Mike Okonkwo National Essay Opens

Senior and junior secondary school students across the country have been invited to enter the 2026 Bishop Mike Okonkwo National Essay Competition. Entries opened on March 16 and will close on June 30, 2026.

The topic of this year is ‘Democracy at the Crossroads: Electoral Credibility, Judicial Integrity and the Future of Nigeria’.

Interested students must submit an essay of not more than 1,200 words, including their full names, location/address, telephone number, class, age, school name and location, principal’s name, and principal’s telephone number.

All entries should be emailed to essay@trem.org. Hard copies can also be submitted at the TREM International Headquarters, Gbagada, Lagos.

The star prize is N800,000, a laptop, and a plaque. The winner’s school will receive a desktop computer and a plaque. The first runner-up will receive N500,000, a laptop, and a plaque, and the school will receive a desktop computer. The second runner-up will get N400,000, a laptop and a plaque. The school will also get a desktop computer.

According to Rev. Anthony Samuel, Corporate Affairs Department, TREM International Headquarters, Lagos, since its establishment in 2004, the annual essay competition aims to develop good writing skills, foster critical thinking, and encourage engagement with trending national issues through academic narratives.

“It has attracted over 20,000 student participants and serves as a significant platform for intellectual discourse on national issues,” said Samuel.

He said that the competition was instituted as part of the corporate social responsibility of Bishop Mike Okonkwo, the Presiding Bishop of The Redeemed Evangelical Mission (TREM), adding that it is tied to his annual birthday celebration, enabling Nigerian students to display and engage in intellectual discourse on national issues.

With over 30 years of dedicated ministry, Okonkwo preaches the power of the Word to a multicultural audience and leads a ministry with more than 180 branches in Nigeria and ten countries worldwide.

Recognised as an apostle to this generation, he has impacted millions, serving as a father to many and a pastor to pastors globally. Beyond the pulpit, he is a conference speaker, crusade evangelist, author, and television and radio host, as well as a respected voice advocating balanced Christianity in Nigeria.

He studied at the Morris Cerullo School of Ministry and Covington Theological Seminary in the USA and holds several doctoral degrees and honorary awards.

As a committed advocate for the less privileged, Okonkwo founded the Empowerment for the Less Privileged (ELP) Foundation, an NGO that alleviates hardship through hospital donations, free vocational training centres, preparatory schools for secondary students, health awareness campaigns, and scholarships for talented students.

Under his leadership, TREM has over 250 pastoral staff and outreach ministries that serve the unreached, including prison outreach for inmates, Word Ambassadors who organise crusades in towns and villages, and the ‘We Care’ Ministry, which provides relief items, food, basic medical care, short-term loans, and support for petty trading to help the less privileged become self-sufficient.

He is married to Bishop Peace Okonkwo, and they have a daughter.