Africa will be represented by Nigeria’s Veritas University at the World Universities Debate in Madrid, Spain, in June 2023, and the Intercontinental Debate in New York, slated for April 1, 2023.
After winning the All African Universities Debate, which was recently held at Stratford University in Nairobi, Kenya, the University secured the slot.
Nigeria won the All African University Debate Championship for the first time thanks to the victory. Veritas University won after defeating more than 100 other universities from various parts of Africa.
Speaking to journalists in Abuja, the Vice Chancellor of the University, Reverend Father, Professor Hyacinth Ichoku, announced that the team would now represent Africa at the Intercontinental Debate in New York on April 1, 2023, and the World Universities Debate in Madrid, Spain, in June 2023, respectively.
The VC said, “It is great news for us, it is great news for Veritas University, it’s great news for Nigeria, it’s great news for our students and everybody, underlying the fact that yes, we cry about the quality of education in Nigeria, falling standard of education, challenges in the education sector but it also means that things are happening and we are excelling in some areas and so this is a glorious moment for us.”
Winning the championship, in Ichoku’s opinion, opens up new opportunities because these students will represent Africa in the intercontinental debate that will begin on April 1 in New York and will also travel to Madrid, Spain, to represent Nigeria in the global universities championship that will also take place in June.
The belief and unwavering support of the institution, according to Edwin Ochiedo, Team Lead of the Veritas students’ competition-winning team, was a key factor in their achievement.
“When I said belief, it meant something. Our Vice-Chancellor wanted us to go, so he believed in us more than we believed in ourselves, that was enough push.
So, imagine someone who is spending the money pushing you to go there, so, there was something there. So if he can see that belief, there is no reason why we don’t see it. So when we went there, our job was simple and we assure him that we were going to win,”
“The only opposition we saw was ourselves and we had no choice but to win,”. Ocheido said.
Yetunde Oshinowo, Ayanfe Amanda Tonye, and Uguru Grace are also on the team.
