Edith CHUKU
Godwill Ayibakepre Waribugo has won the Bayelsa State governor, Senator Douye Diri’s design contest for the creation of the logo to mark the 30th anniversary of the state.
While Waribugo won the grand prize of N3 million naira, four other contestants; Prosper Jerome, Daniel Youdeowei, Ibo Tamarapreye and Success Azibapu Eligha, won the consolation prize of N150,000 each.
465 designs were received by the ministry within the allocation period for submission of entries, out of which over 350 were AI-generated.
The logo to mark three decades of the creation of the state was unveiled on Wednesday, by the governor, with the theme: “Bayelsa @30: Celebrating Legacies.”
Diri accompanied by the Commissioner for Information, Orientation and Strategy, Mrs. Ebiuwou Koku-Obiyai, unveiled the logo during the 197th State Executive Council meeting in Government House, Yenagoa.
The governor commended the ministry for giving young Bayelsans the opportunity to participate in the contest to create the logo, describing it as a demonstration of his administration’s commitment to encourage participatory democracy.
He called on young Bayelsans to continue to be creative, industrious and develop their scientific and technical skills as the world advances into the era of Artificial Intelligence (AI).
“I am happy that Bayelsans were given the opportunity to participate. Nobody knows it all.
“This is one way to assess a government where the citizens participate in the process. It is not only when we budget that citizens participate.
“There are things in our various ministries that you need to tap from the people. And I could not have done otherwise when this was brought to my attention. And you can see the level of productivity and ingenuity of our youths.
“That is why I keep saying everywhere that the youths of Bayelsa are not lazy. It is clear that our youths are productive.
“The commissioner said some of the entries were AI-generated and were disqualified. I don’t agree with that as we are in the AI age already and some of them could have been considered for their creativity. So, let me on behalf of government apologise to those who submitted AI-generated entries that were disqualified because we are moving our state towards the AI generation.”
Speaking earlier, the Commissioner for Information, Orientation and Strategy, Mrs. Ebiuwou Koku-Obiyai, presented the five finalists for the logo design competition to the governor and the executive council.
According to her, the logo idea represented three decades of resilience, culture, oil and gas, aquatic heritage and the indomitable Ijaw spirit.
