Adeolu Oluwadamilola Oreofe, a 14-year-old student of St. Lawrence Metropolitan College in Ado Ekiti, has been crowned winner of the 2026 African Spelling Bee in the junior category. The competition took place in Harare, Zimbabwe, where she outperformed participants from over 20 African countries. As champion, Ms Oreofe won a $5,000 educational scholarship. President Bola Tinubu congratulated her in a statement issued on Thursday by his special adviser, Bayo Onanuga. Mr Tinubu described her victory as evidence of sustained investment in education, literacy and youth development. He praised her commitment to excellence and acknowledged the roles of her parents, teachers and mentors. The president said the achievement brings honour to Nigeria and inspires young Nigerians to pursue academic excellence. He reaffirmed the government's commitment to strengthening the education sector and creating global opportunities for youths. Ms Oreofe had previously placed second in the 2023 MTN Spelling Bee and the 2024 Ekiti State Spelling Bee. In 2025, she finished fifth at the African Spelling Bee and was runner-up at the Nigeria Spelling Bee.
President Tinubu credits Ms Oreofe's success to government investment in education, yet her past performances—second and fifth place finishes—suggest her rise was self-driven long before any presidential recognition. Her consistent participation and gradual climb through national and continental competitions reveal a trajectory built on persistence, not policy. The same students from St. Lawrence Metropolitan College in Ado Ekiti who once missed the top prize are now hailed as national symbols after finally winning. If excellence only counts when it wins internationally, then years of local effort were invisible until now.
💡 NaijaBuzz is an AI-assisted news aggregator. This content is curated from third-party sources — NaijaBuzz is not the original publisher and is not responsible for the accuracy of source reporting. The NaijaBuzz Take is AI-assisted editorial opinion only, not established fact. All persons mentioned are presumed innocent until proven guilty by a court of competent jurisdiction. NaijaBuzz does not endorse the views expressed in source articles.
