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AFRICADO Foundation and its partners held a national debate championship for secondary school students in Abuja to develop their thinking skills and engage them in meaningful conversations around national issues in the country.
Founder and Chief Executive of Africado Foundation, Mr Richardson Ojeka said the debate was organised by Africado foundation, Boys lead foundation in collaboration with Christian Aid and ActionAid on Wednesday in Abuja.
Ojeka, who is also a youth corps member said the objective of the national debate championship was to give opportunities to youth to develop their eloquence , thinking skills, have reasonable and meaningful conversations around national issues.
He said: “We believe that the students are the future of tomorrow and they should begin to have meaningful conversations in the country about national issues to ensure that their future is secured .
“The debate gives the students the platform to share their thoughts , their experiences while building their confidence at the same time.
“This is a personal Community Development Service project and we are doing it in collaboration with other partners. ”
Ojeka explained that invitations were sent out to schools and the schools that honoured the invitation were invited .
He said that they were classified in different groups and at the end of the group stages, they had the knock out stages where the finalists were selected .
“ We have seven schools competing, four of them who made it to finals and are competing against each other for the first ,second and third positions.
“The first place position will get a trophy, gold medals and N100,000 ,the second position will get a plaque and silver medal while the third place position will get a plaque and bronze medal,”he said.
Ojeka said that the best speaker would get a cash gift of N20,000 and the best organised school would get a plaque.
He added that the teachers who trained their students well would also be given awards.
Ojeka said although the Federal Government was trying in the education section ,however ,there was still much work to be done .
He said:”‘There is need to strengthen the education system and we found out that most of the public schools students are not exposed to technology and it is very important. ”
Ojeka therefore , called on the Federal Government to strengthen the institutions that they already have and empower the youths through support programs such as this.
At the end of the debate , Junior Secondary School, JSS Alungu Lungu won the first prize, JSS Kubwa III emerged the second, while JSS Dutse Sagwari took the third position.
Miss Faith Eugene ,that came first from Junior Secondary School Alungu Lungu commended the organisers of the event and urged other well meaning Nigerians to follow their example .
“When I heard about the debate ,I began to prepare and pray that I win it ,I had to stop every other thing and focused on learning and I am glad I won,”she said (NAN)
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Tags: ActionAid Africado Foundation Mr Richardson Ojeka
