On Sunday, Veritas University, Bwari emerged as the winner of the My Nigeria – Our Nigeria debate competition, as they beat four other schools in the finals of the three-month-long competition which was themed around democracy, governance, citizenship, and national values.
The My Nigeria – Our Nigeria debate competition, or #MyNigeriaDebate, which was organised by Yiaga Africa in partnership with the All-Nigeria Universities Debating Championship (ANUDC) and supported by the Open Society Foundations, started in April with zonal rounds taking place in the six geopolitical zones of the country, with four schools participating in each zone.
Different topics were explored by the students drawn from themes of the competition: should voting be made compulsory for all eligible voters; has the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) outlived its purpose; can we say democracy is the only legitimate form of government; should we eliminate immunity for certain public officials, and many more. For the competition, the British parliamentary debate format was adopted – this meant that each debate had the roles of Opening Government and Closing Government, Opening Opposition and Closing Opposition.
The zonal rounds kicked off on 24th April simultaneously in the South-East and North-West geopolitical zones.
In the South-East zone, the Imo State University, Owerri was the host school with its neighbours, the Federal University of Technology, Owerri; the Michael Okpara University of Agriculture, Umudike and Caritas University, Enugu. The host school upstaged its visitors to emerge as the winner for the zone.
The North-West zonal round was held in Kano with the Federal University, Dutse; the Kebbi State University of Science and Technology; the Yusuf Maitama Sule University, Kano and the Bayero University, Kano as the host. Four rounds of debate later (and a lot of parched throats from intense debating), the slot for the zone in the national finals was picked by the Federal University, Dutse.
The next cities to host the #MyNigeriaDebate were Port-Harcourt and Abuja for the South-South and North-Central zones respectively.
The South-South zonal debate was hosted by the Ignatius Ajuru University of Education, and had the University of Calabar, the University of Benin and the Rivers State University of Science and Technology participating.
After hours of verbal sparring on various topics, the University of Calabar emerged victorious to proceed to the national finals.
In Abuja, the Veritas University, Bwari hosted the North-Central zonal round with the University of Ilorin, the University of Abuja and the Nasarawa State University as the participating schools. After four rounds of debate, the host school, Veritas University had scored the highest points and earned the right to be the zonal champion.
The final zonal rounds of the debate took place in Lagos for the South-West and in Maiduguri for the North-East on the 29th and 30th of April respectively. As it was in other zones, four schools competed fiercely and debated passionately on the topics given to them.
In the South-West, the University of Lagos hosted the debates with the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ife, Osun State; the Tai Solarin University of Education, Ijebu-Ode, Ogun State and the Federal University of Technology, Akure, Ondo State as the other competitors. The Obafemi Awolowo University edged out the other schools to emerge as the winner and will be carrying the hopes of the zone at the finals.
For the North-East, the University of Maiduguri played host to the Yobe State University, the Gombe State University and the Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University, Bauchi as the other competitors. At the end of the fourth round of the debate, University of Maiduguri emerged the winner of the North-East zonal rounds bringing to an end the zonal rounds of the #MyNigeriaDebate.
The winners of the zonal rounds proceeded to the semi-finals where they were joined by the Ignatius Ajuru University of Education and the University of Ilorin who were the highest second-placed teams in the three southern and northern zones respectively.
After the semi-finals, four teams were left to compete for the grand prize and the rights to be called national champions: Veritas University, Abuja; University of Ilorin; the Imo State University and the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ife.
The packed audience at the National Institute for Legislative and Democratic Studies (NILDS) were treated to an entertaining and enlightening debate final as the teams did justice to the topic: “Should local government elections be handled by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) or by state independent electoral commissions (SIECs)?”, which has been a topic of national discourse lately.
At the end of the debate, Veritas University won the grand prize of N1.5 million while Obafemi Awolowo University and Imo State University came second and third respectively, winning N1 million and N750,000 as their prizes.
Speaking at the finals, Yiaga Africa’s Executive Director Samson Itodo said that the competition was inspired by the need to provide a platform for young people to express their ideas for solving pertinent issues of governance in the country.
“These are tough times for our country as Nigerians are unhappy. But where will the solutions come from? It is from we Nigerians, and this is why we thought that it is important to get young people sharing ideas on how to solve the problems of our country, as this is what citizenship is really about,” he said.
A member of the Veritas University debating team said the debate has inspired him to spend more time learning more about governance in Nigeria, and his responsibilities as a citizen.
“Apathy is not just about abstaining from voting. It is also about not being concerned about governance as Nigerians. What this debate has exposed me to is that we need to know more about our country’s governance, the Constitution and laws, and importantly, our duties as citizens,” he said.
Another debater from the Ignatius Ajuru University of Education said that the theme of the debate made her think deeply about the problems of Nigeria.
“There is every likelihood for someone to just talk about Nigeria’s problems and wish someone else will solve it. But with this competition, I am able to sit down and look at the problems, and also ask myself what would I do to solve it if I had the opportunity to do so,” she said.
“I am definitely a different person in thought as I have gone from being a citizen asking someone to solve the problems, but seeing myself as having the potential to solve the problems.”
