Ayafa Tonye Amada and Richard Uyok have emerged overall winners of the maiden edition of the Lagos Debate Open (LDO) hosted by the University of Lagos.
Ayafa Tonye Amada of Covenant University paired with Richard Uyok of University of Calabar (as is the practice with Debate Opens) and they both outmatched other debaters and delegates to win the Open.
A pair of the University of Ghana, Legon and University of Calabar came second; while the teams from Universities of Port Harcourt and Lagos (the host) came third and fourth.
Last September, Covenant University beat all odds to beat traditional strongholds among public universities of the ANUDC. It shattered the records of ANUDC by being the first private university to win the tournament and went ahead to also produce the best individual debaters and speakers in the championship.
In the literary and debate circuit in Nigeria in which private universities are far behind and thus established a separate private universities debate championship, Covenant University has dared the odds by boldly entering into the conventional debate unions and emerging tops.
In 2017, a senior faculty of the University who also founded and has led Covenant University Literary and Debating Society (CULDS) since 2014, Professor Sheriff Folarin emerged as the National Vice-President of the ANUDC and chaired the Council of the organization at the last tournament at the University of Ilorin.
The 5-day Lagos Debate Open Championship (LDO) brought together various individuals and universities across Africa and beyond to participate in the British Parliamentary (BP) style of debate, the fusion of culture and intellect makes this championship stand out among many others as participants would not only engage issues but proffer solutions to them.
