₦airaland Forum

Ekiti State Governor, Mr Biodun Oyebanji has gifted Ekiti-born Miss Adeolu Oluwadamilola who recently emerged winner of Africa Spelling Bee competition, her coach, and her school, St. Lawrence Metropolitan College, Ado Ekiti cash gifts worth N8 million.

The Governor equally pledged to sponsor the Spelling Bee African champion, together with her mother and coach to the world championship holding in China later in the year.

Speaking while receiving Adeolu, the Africa Spelling Bee Champion, her mother, Mrs Oluwabunmi Adeolu; School Proprietor, Mr Lawrence Oluwafemi and her coach, Mrs Esther Omolayo in his office in Ado Ekiti on Monday, Governor Oyebanji said his administration remains committed to prioritizing education as a central pillar of development.

Commending Miss Oluwadamilola for bringing honour to Ekiti State and Nigeria, the Governor described her achievement as a reflection of the state’s long standing tradition of academic excellence. He added that the feat underscored the value of diligence, discipline and excellence for which Ekiti people are widely known.

Speaking further, the Governor explained that since the inception of his administration, deliberate efforts have been made to reposition the education sector through strategic investment in infrastructure, capacity building for teachers, provision of learning materials and policies aimed at improving the quality of teaching and learning across the state.

He added that his administration has ensured a deliberate balance between what is being taught, how it is being taught and where is being taught, adding that concerted efforts are also being made to align the curriculum with the demands and realities of the 21st century

While congratulating the African spelling bee champion for the feat, the Governor said his government would continue to support and reward excellence in all sectors, particularly in education sector in order to encourage students and teachers to strive for greater achievements and uphold the state’s reputation as a centre of academic distinction

The Governor urged students across the state to remain focused on their studies, stressing that hard work, determination and discipline remains the surest path to success, while assuring that government would continue to create an enabling environment for them to thrive.

“Damilola has once again demonstrated what Ekiti people are known for, diligence, hardwork, honour and excellence and I am so proud of her. As a government, in that last three and half years, we have done everything humanly possible to reposition the education sector in Ekiti State from the primary, secondary to tertiary education system and we are also looking at informal education”

“Our strategy is to ensure that we strike a balance between what is being taught, how is being taught and where is being taught because for you to have the best in that sector, the content and the curriculum must be alive to serve the need of the state, the country and globally.

“After conquering Africa, what is next is to conquer the world, I leant that she will be going to China to represent Africa, the state will sponsor her, the mother, her coach and two others from the school and as a token of appreciation, the state government will give Damilola two million naira, her coach, one million and the school, five million naira”. the Governor asserted

Earlier in his opening remarks, the proprietor of the school, Mr Lawrence Oluwafemi who commended the State Government’s education policies particularly the Governor’s intentional approach to improving the sector, said that such commitment had contributed significantly to the recent successes recorded by students across the state

Describing the Governor’s gesture as a strong affirmation to his commitment to rewarding excellence and hard work in the education sector, Mr Lawrence noted that the recorgnition would further inspire both student and staff of the school to remain dedicated to academic excellence and discipline.

The Spelling Bee Champion, Miss Adeolu Oluwadamiloa expressed her profound gratitude to the Governor for the recorgnition and support extended to her, especially the plan to sponsor her to China to represent Africa at the forthcoming World Spelling Been competition. She described the gesture as a motivation to aim higher.

WizardOfNG:
Well-done to the young lady. Eliti used to be the citadel of higher institution excellence with it's reputation for having more PHD holders than all other States in the SW. Not sure that is still valid today though

adebayo201:
This is commendable. I hope we can give more attention to Education and Health and less to lesser things.

anonimi:
It’s not valid anymore because the governors since 1999 have failed to prioritise the people’s commonwealth for hiring teachers to make education free for all children.

Unfortunately, the situation is not different in other Yoruba states and even in the other states of Nigeria.

Makinde is a good exception for hiring 19,500 teachers in just five years.

adebayo201:
This is commendable. I hope we can give more attention to Education and Health and less to lesser things.

AngelGabbyShara:
...To sponsor winner to China for World Championship




https://osharanewsnetwork..com/2026/04/oyebanji-gifts-ekiti-born-africa.html

WizardOfNG:
Well-done to the young lady. Eliti used to be the citadel of higher institution excellence with it's reputation for having more PHD holders than all other States in the SW. Not sure that is still valid today though

lawani:
Of course not. The whole population of Ekiti is not up to the population of Ibadan. I doubt if there was anytime Ekiti had more PhDs than Oyo state

WizardOfNG:
Your talk of population of Ibadan makes zero intellectual and analytical sense. If Ibadan is more populated that Ekiti how does that affect statistical picture that sampling ratio, mean, mode, median etal present?

Sample a random group of 100k folks from Ekiti and Oyo. If Ekiti has 100 PHD holders from that sample group while Oyo has 20, the factual conclusion will be that, by ratio, Ekiti produces far more PHD holders than Oyo using comparative sampling.

Meaning Ekiti is the State, of the two, with more brilliant or academically driven people.

This is reason why samples are uses, as a critical means of establishing the comparative mean figure rather than overall population.

To me, and I am not from the State, I believe the PHD reputation Ekiti had (emphasis on had) is probably evidence based and not anecdotal only.

As a layman social scientist, the bigger question remains why the higher education prowess of Ekiti folks has not resulted in the State being one the most developed in Nigeria as would be the case elsewhere worldwide.