UNICAL WINS FIRST NIGERIA UNIVERSITIES DEBATE

University of Calabar (Unical) has come first at the All Nigerian Universities Debate Championship (ANUDC). The debate which was hosted by Unical had the theme “Corruption, Insecurity and National Development”.

The five day event featured nine Nigerian Universities. In a chat with the Dean of Students, Prof. Eyong U. Eyong who is also the Chairman Local Organizing Committee, he blamed the poor participation on the then ongoing ASUU strike which took the University students home.

The first day of the debate was the opening ceremony and training session for the debaters. It was presided over by the Speaker, Cross River State House of Assembly, Rt. Hon. Larry Odey.

In his remark, Prof. Eze Bassey, who is also the Convener of the event welcomed the participants to the event and highlighted the format with which the event will take. He encouraged the debaters to express boldness while making presentations and also reiterated that the aim of the event is to promote the spirit of debate which is one of the keys to solving societal problems.

The Chief Host and the Vice Chancellor of the University of Calabar Prof James Epoke declared the event open with an opening address. While giving the remark, he said that Unical is committed to its aim of promoting teaching and learning by exploring avenues that will boost the intellectual exposure of the students and also giving them opportunities to participate in national and global competitions like ANUDC.

The opening ceremony also featured the formation of the Nigerian Debate Council which membership is drawn from each institution.

The debate had a total of six rounds, quarter final, semi-final and grand finale. Uncial took the first position in all the rounds apart from the fourth round which it left for Uniport.

The debate format used was the British Parliamentary Debate format. The debate topic for the grand finale was: “this house shall take the decisions of the National Conference to the National Assembly for ratification”.

After the grand finale, Unical’s Archibong Emmanuel and Aka Augustine had the highest points of 1980 and 1978 respectively. Charles from University of Port Harcourt (UNIPORT) had 1610.

Unical took the first position leaving the second and the third positions for Uniport and Imo State University, respectively.

University of Lagos (UNILAG), Bayero University Kano (BUK), Cross River State University of Science and Technology (CRUTECH), Micheal Okpara University of Agriculture Umudike (MOUAU)and University of Uyo (UNIUYO) took 4^th, 5^th, 6^th, 7^th and 8^th positions, respectively.

In a chat with our Campuslight, MOUAU’s Nkemakolam Agommuo said that the challenge has been with the debate format used. “The Parliamentary Debate format is a new format to us. It is not fully in use in this part of the world. We are not used to it. I hope that next time we shall have enough time to develop more on the format.

On his own, Unical’s Aka Augustine, described the Parliamentary Debate Format as an internationally adopted format. “The format is an international standard. In Unical, that is the standard with which we use to train our debaters. We have to invest more in intellectual development by adopting international best practices just as we do here in Unical”, he concluded.

writen by: Israel Agare