UHAS Debate Society Makes Second Appearance at the Annual Universities Debate Championship

The UHAS Debate Society since its inception has participated in a number of highly competitive tournaments which include The Ghana Universities Debate Championship, Accra Open, Genesis, and Hogwarts Round Robin, just to mention a few, all of which the Society made great strives. This year marked the 2nd appearance of the UHAS Debate Society at the Ghana Universities Debate Championship.

Ghana Universities Debate Championship 2018, marking the 5th Anniversary since its inception, took place at Tamale in the Northern Region. The tournament took place from the 13th of July to the 19th of July, 2018.

Universities that participated were the University of Health and Allied Sciences (UHAS), University of Ghana (UG), Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), Cape Coast University (UCC), and the University for Energy and Natural Resources (UENR).

The UHAS Debate Society had quite a number of able teams to present but due to virtually non-existent support from school management and the SRC, the society could only present a team as opposed to 10 and 8 presented by the likes of UG and KNUST respectively. UCC and UENR also had 5 teams each.

However, the team, aside self financing, received cash boosts from some benevolent individuals of the University.

The UHAS team was represented by Samuel Nii Amarlai Nathan and Nanam Amenyedu. Unfortunately the team couldn't reach the semis unlike last year, after they narrowly missed out on reaching the knockout stage after the preliminary 9 rounds of the competition.

In the Public Speaking category however, Samuel Nii Amarlai Nathan went all the way to the final where he emerged as part of the top 5 public speakers placing 4th overall amongst 56 competitors.

Nanam Amenyedu also reached the semis of the Public Speaking Adjudication contest and also emerged as the best institutional speaker from UHAS, an award he is picking up for the second time.

Despite the challenges faced by the team, it was admirable that they managed to win some awards.

In an exclusive interview with the president of the Society, Mr. Nanam Amenyedu, he lamented that help from the University management and the SRC has not been encouraging at all. He could recall these two parties assisting them once during last year's Universities Debate Championship in Sunyani.

In concluding our discussion, Mr. Nanam spoke passionately about how as a young university, debate would be a major tool to create more relevance citing it as an intellectual sport.

He urged Management and the SRC alike to be of more assistance in making debate prominent on campus by showing up at events in which the society is participating and also assist the Society, financially more especially, in featuring tournaments.

By: Yeboah Bernard Gyampo
bengyam234@gmail.com
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