One Day Governor Reigns In Lagos

Amidst pomp and ceremony, 16-year old Miss Lilian Ogbuefi, who won the last Spelling Bee Competition today, reigned as the One Day Governor of Lagos State, Southwest Nigeria.

Ogbuefi emerged winner of the Spelling Bee competition in April, paving way for her to become the 12th One Day Governor. She just passed out of Senior Model College, Kankon in Badagry.

The One Day Governor and her retinue of executive members embarked on her tour from the State House, Marina where she visited the wife of the Governor, Abimbola Fashola and was briefed about the workings at the State House.

From there, she moved to Honeywell Noodles where the top management of the company took her round the facilities and entertained the guests.

Ogbuefi led her team to the Lagos State Government Secretariat where she visited the Public Service Office, PSO and was received by the Permanent Secretary, Lateef Abari, who took her round the ministry and briefed her about the workings at the PSO.

The one day governor also visited the Lagos State Ministry of Education and was received by the permanent secretary. She was taken round the ministry and was briefed by the permanent secretary and was given gifts.

Oguefi visited the State House, Ikeja, where she presided over a mock executive council meeting while the Governor, Babatunde Fashola paid her a visit and pledged to cooperate with the administration of the one day governor.

She later visited her school, Senior Model College, Kankon in Badagry where she was received by joyous students of the school.

In April, Ogubefi put up a sterling performance to defeat 56 other contestants to win the Spelling Bee competition.

After winning the competition, she said “I am so excited, I didn’t really believe I was going to win. I was kind of scared, and I was not fully prepared because I only memorised like 16 letters, but God was on my side and the prayers by my mummy saw me through.

“I didn’t know about three of the words but some words have tricks to which they can be spelt. Most French words end in letter ‘e’ and Greek words that sound like letter ‘f’ are spelt with ‘ph’, that was how I was able to spell them,” she said.

Ogbuefi commended her teachers for the coaching and the New Era Foundation for establishing the Spelling Bee competition for educational development in the state.

She said the competition has impacted tremendously the development of the students and engaged them in healthy competition.

For winning the competition, Ogbuefi was presented with a trophy and a cash prize of N250,000 as well as several cartons of Honeywell Noodles by one of the major sponsors of the competition.

Ireti Ogedengbe of Oke-Afa Comprehensive Senior Secondary School, Ejigbo and Chibueze Jonathan of Sanya Senior Grammar School, Ijeshatedo came second and third and won trophies along with N150, 000 and N100,000 respectively.

—Kazeem Ugbodaga