In what seems like the dominance of University of Ilorin (UNILORIN) students in the Chartered Institute of Personnel Management of Nigeria (CIPMN) annual essay competition in the last 4 years, a student of the University of Ilorin, Deji Atoyebi has once again emerged the first runner- up in the 2015 edition of the essay contest.

The award was presented to Deji alongside other winners during the 47th Annual National Conference of the institute held at the International Conference Centre, Abuja recently.

Deji, who is a 200-level Political Science student, was the first prize winner in the essay competition organised by the Union of Campus Journalists (UCJ), University of Ilorin chapter in May this year.

The budding essayist emerged the second prize winner alongside Osita Chidoka (the star prize winner) and Olawale Atanda (the second runnerup) from the University of Nigeria, Nsukka (UNN) and the University of Lagos, Akoka, respectively.

This year's essay topic titled: "Winning the War against Corruption in Nigeria through the promotion of our ethical values," was contested by 111 students in 33 tertiary institutions across the country, out of which seven entrants (featuring four Unilorin students) were invited for their defence earlier in October.

In his post-award remark, Deji expressed joy for achieving the feat, saying "I never imagined I could win and I give thanks to God for that."

When asked how he attained the feat, he explained: "When I got the information about the essay competition last session, I immediately swung into action. I had to stay back after my exams to attend the CIPMN essay clinic organised by the UCJ, Unilorin chapter which was really helpful to me, and also to obtain the reference letter from the Registrar's Office. So, during the long term break, I began writing the essay competition. For me, it was challenging, because in the course of writing the essay, my laptop got crashed, and I had to start all over again, this time on a desktop computer. Due to these challenges, my entry was submitted about 10 minutes before the deadline in August. Then, in September, I was invited for the defence and eventually took second position."