Straight Gate High School, Magodo Phase 2, Lagos, has knocked Halifield Schools, Lagos, out of the I Beg to Differ Season 9 Tournament of Champions National Debate Championship on Day 7 of proceedings.
Straight Gate defeated their fellow Lagos-based school in a debate on the topic, "Political Parties Have Weakend Nigeria's Democracy".
The Wednesday evening debate began with Straight Gate's 16-year-old Owosina Grace and 14-year-old Uzoma Shine arguing that Nigerian political parties are a gathering of individualistic people who are after their own agendas, and would quickly leave their parties at a whim to pursue those agendas.
They also argued that Nigerian political parties tend to deploy dangerous tribal and religious rhetoric in their messaging, while also shoving aside minority tribes and women as they pursue their political goals.
Halifield, represented by 15-year-old Folajim Falobi and 13-year-old Yasmina Oshinowo, opposed, stating that political parties exist to chekmate irresponsible politicians and provide a credible checkmate for the incumbent.
They also argued that political parties foster national unity.
To buttress this, they cited the formation of the current ruling party, All Progressives Congress (APC), which was formed as a merger of political parties which held sway in the South West, North, and South East, Nigeria's most prominent geopgraphical and political zones, as a backing argument.
They would fall short in presenting their points, however, leading Straight Gate to secure their first three points of the tournament and a unanimous victory from the three-member judging panel.
Straight Gate finished with 79.4 points against Haliffield’s 70.6 on the judges’ scorecards and after the collation of the public vote.
Straight Gate moves on to the Round of 12, where they will debate the top school in Group C as they aim to become the champion of champions in the Tournament of Champions, I Beg to Differ Season 9 National Schools' Debate.
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