UCC Student House of Parliament Wins The 2017 Commonwealth Debate Competition

The University of Cape Coast Student House of Parliament (UCCSHP) has been crowned champions of the 2017 Commonwealth debate competition organized by the Parliament of Ghana as part of its activities to commemorate the 2017 Commonwealth Day.

The celebration which was on the theme “A Peace Building Commonwealth” saw six universities actively participating in the debate competition. The universities were Islamic University, University for Development Studies (UDS), University of Professional Studies, Accra (UPSA), Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), University of Ghana (UG) and the University of Cape Coast (UCC).

The competition which was held at the International Conference Centre started with speeches from some honorable members of the Parliament of Ghana including an address by the 1st Deputy speaker of Parliament and the reading of the throne speech, on behalf of the Queen.

The debate featured two rounds; a preliminary round which saw three universities qualifying to the finals and a final round which determined the winners of the debate.

The motion for the Preliminary round was that “Senior High School Education should be free for all citizens or is Free Senior High School education for all citizens feasible?” The preliminary round of the debate proceeded with a ballot among the competing universities to determine which university speaks for and against the motion. The results of the balloting were that Accra Technical University, UDS and UPSA were to speak FOR the motion and UCC, UG and KNUST were to speak AGAINST the motion.

The UCC team which debated against the motion was led by Hon. Enoch Lelabi, the current Majority leader and Chairman of the business committee for the House and Hon. Caleb Otabil, the current Public Relations Officer (PRO) for the House and member of the Majority bench.

They were supported by three back-up speakers, Hon. Toffick Yahaya, 1st Deputy speaker for the House, Hon. Grace Naa Korkoi, member of the Majority bench of the House and Vice President of Kwame Nkrumah Hall and Hon. Albert Kwesi Nuako.

At the end of the first round, UCC, UDS and UG qualified for the final competition whilst Accra Technical University, KNUST and UPSA missed out; UDS beating KNUST with a narrow one-point margin.

In the next round, to test the prowess of the debaters, roles were reversed. UG and UCC who spoke against the motion were now supposed to speak for the motion whilst UDS, who spoke for the motion in the preliminary round spoke against the motion. Balloting was done to determine the order in which schools will speak; UDS were to speak first, followed by UCC and then UG. Amidst some protests of inappropriateness, the University of Ghana Student House of Parliament switched speakers apparently to add to their advantage. This decision was upheld by the moderators and the final round began.

At the end of the final round, the University of Cape Coast emerged winners, followed by the University of Ghana in second place and the University for Development Studies in third place. The decision of the judges, most of who affirmed that they were alumni of the University of Ghana was unanimous.

The award, well- decorated gold cup was received by the Speaker of the House, Right Hon. Awotunde Awosika, the Debaters, Hon. Otabil and Hon. Enoch Lelabi.

Speaking to campusupdatenewsgh.com, Right Hon. Awotunde Awosika, Speaker of the UCC student parliament said “It has been three years of chase, we won silver in the past two consecutive years. This has always propelled us to work harder towards attaining gold. It’s been by daint of hardwork and despite all the institutional struggles we finally clenched our hands on the ultimate gold trophy.”

He added “for me, it is a promised fulfilled. During my inaugural speech as Speaker, I made a promise that if God smiles on us, we deliver the gold and God smiled on us indeed. We give God all Praise. UCC Students’ House of Parliament is a story yet to be told”.

The University of Cape Coast Student House of Parliament asserted herself as the oldest and dominant student Parliament House who through hard work, proactive student activism and discipline has pushed issues of students’ interest far and wide.

This adds up to the House’s earlier victory in a landmark case against a program, “Real Leadership Fair” organized by TSLC, in collaboration with UCC SRC in which a section of the program involving “Debate between the SRC Presidential and L/NUGS aspirants” was expunged from the program making the House the lone body to organize the SRC/ GRASSAG Presidential debates.