By Yinka Adeniran
Winners emerged over the weekend in this year’s edition of public speaking competition organised for undergraduate students of the University of Ibadan (UI), tagged Super Bowl.
The 2019 edition, which is the seventh in the series, also celebrated the premiere institution’s 70th anniversary.
According to the convener of the event, a lecturer at the Department of Communication and Language Arts, University of Ibadan, Dr. Bisi Olawuyi, Super Bowl aimed at, among other things, enhancing development of leadership capacities, improving public speaking skills, personal confidence of students and enhancing the relevance of the ivory tower to the larger society by encouraging innovation and competition among students.
The grand finale of the competition which held at the Alumni Hall of the Institution saw Nwodo Jesse, a 200-Level student of English emerge overall winner; while David Olanema, a 400-Level student of Education and Bolaji Olayide, a 100L student of English were the first and second runners- up.
Olawuyi said he started the competition in 2007 to provide a platform for students to interact within the the university community with a view to presenting strong leadership models for the youths.
He said: “The assumption is that young people are too playful and disconnected from the Nigerian reality. But given my interaction with students, I discovered that they have more to offer than people can actually imagine.”
In the first round of the competition, the contestants spoke on the theme: “The Reconstruction of a Nation”, in which they were expected to advance the conversation on the rejuvenation of Nigeria and develop a workable blueprint for Nigeria’s reconstruction in the face of migration and brain drain, so as to make those in diaspora eager to return home.
The second round had as theme: “University of Ibadan at 70: Sustaining the Legacy, Raising the Bar”, to celebrate the university’s achievements.
It required each of the contestants to present a speech entitled: “If I were the Vice Chancellor,” for them to demonstrate practical and achievable steps to launch the university to the next level of exploits before the end of the next decade.
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The third round of the contest was Pix-Prompter, in which the contestants were expected to give an extemporaneous short speech on an impromptu picture shown to them.
Addressing reporters, he said the students’ debate of the central theme showed that many young people still believed in Nigeria; therefore, a lot could still be done to discourage brain drain among the youth.
“We should not lose hope in this country. If you listen to the speeches of these young guys, you will discover that they still have a semblance of hope.
There is a ray of hope for this country but young people want to leave the country at the slightest opportunity. So the question is, what can we do to ensure the best of our brains are retained here?”
Next year, Olawuyi said the competition would involve students from other universities.
At the end of the competition, 10 contestants who made it to the final round out of 45 were given consolation prizes.
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