Brilliant performance : 19 Years Old OAU Student, Esther Olanrewaju Wins FOAMSC 2025

Brilliant performance :
19 Years Old OAU Student, Esther Olanrewaju Wins FOAMSC 2025

R-L :  first line: Winner, Esther Motunrayo Olanrewaju; 1st Runner Up, Egbetade Aanoluwa Elijah, and 2nd Runner Up, Akinpelu Oluwaseun Abdul-samad in a group with the Convener of the AMSAY Conference, Mr Sylvanus Obasi (Middle, 2nd line) flanked by the speech panel of judges after announcing the FOAMSC winners during the 9th AMSAY Conference held in Lagos on Tuesday

It was a brilliant performance and exciting moment, as Esther Motunrayo Olanrewaju, a 19-year old indigene of Lagos State and 200 level law student of Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Osun state emerged the 2025 winner of Fola Ojutalayo’s Annual Maritime Speech-Making Competition (FOAMSC), a maritime industry oratory competition.

In what can be described as exceptional performance, Esther defeated two other finalists, Egbetade Aanoluwa Elijah, another student of Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU) and Akinpelu Oluwaseun Abdul-samad, a student of Federal College of Fisheries and Maritime Technology (FCFMT) to emerge victorious at the final stage of the competition held in Lagos, at the sidelines of the 9th Annual Maritime Students and Youth Conference, organised by Platforms Communications.

As the winner of the 4th edition of the competition, Esther won the sum of N250,000 Cash Prize, an Award Plaque and a Certificate of Oratory Excellence; whereas the First Runner-Up, Egbetade Aanoluwa Elijah won N125,000 cash prize and a Certificate of Oratory Excellence; even as the Second Runner – Up, Akinpelu Oluwaseun Abdul-samad won N100,000 Cash Prize, as well as Certificate of Oratory Excellence.

Speaking while presenting the award to the winner, the inspirer of the speech competition, Capt. Dr Fola Ojutalayo commended Esther and the runners up for putting up a competitive display of their oratory skills.

He urged them to continually horn their speaking skills and also read articles on maritime topics, in order to gain more knowlegde on maritime subjects, so as to become future eloquent speakers on maritime topics.

Earlier in his opening address, the convener of the AMSAY Conference, Mr Sylvanus Obasi hinted that the speech competition was conceived and integrated into the AMSAY Conference programme initiative since 2022, with a view to challenge Nigerian maritime students to contribute intellectually to the development of the sector while also using the initiative to discover and groom eloquent speakers amongst maritime students.

Meanwhile, the 2025 AMSAY Conference, which has the theme, ‘Automation and Digitalisation of Maritime Operations’ featured Special Addresses, Paper Presentations, Panel Discussion, Awards of Academic Excellence, as well as Question and Answer session.

The event was unique and well attended, as about 250 participants graced the occasion, including representatives of government agencies, captains of maritime industry, professionals organisations, corporate companies and different maritime schools with their students.