The Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) has for the 3rd consecutive times won the Pan African Universities Debate Championship (PAUDC), becoming the first university in Africa to have attain such feet in the history of the debate championship.
The first time KNUST won was in 2018 in Tanzania and it was the first to win in West Africa since the inception of the debate championship. They won it for the second time in 2019 after a successful host and win campaign.
This year’s edition, the 13th of the PAUDC had over 40 teams participating from over 10 African countries. This year’s which was held virtually due to travel restrictions amongst other challenges caused by the covid 19 pandemic. The virtual tournament was christened Umoja Ni Nguvu in Swahili (Unity is Power) is a collaboration between the PAUDC Council, Makerere Debate Union and Royal Rhetorics.
The PAUDC uses the same structure that the British Parliament (House of Commons) use for their debates where four teams of two debate a motion.
Two teams support a motion, and two teams oppose the motion.
Debating teams are independent and compete with each other and at the end of the debate, teams are ranked from 1st to 4th.
Two out of ten teams presented by KNUST to participate in the championship broke to the grande finale to compete against two other teams from the University of Witwatersrand, South Africa.
One of the teams from KNUST, represented by Terkpertey Andrews Terku and Michael Ampah Yeboah came up in third position.
Achiaa Abena Otuo and Kojo Opoku Acheampong who eventually won the championship for KNUST spoke on the motion; “This House Believes That judicial systems should more harshly punish people found guilty of committing crimes against members of social groups who experience disproportionately high rates of violence regardless of that offender’s intent (i.e. women, ethnic minorities).”
KNUST first participated in the Pan-African debate in 2012, alongside the University of Ghana in 2012 to represent Ghana.
The university now holds the title of being the only other university in Africa to be a three-time winner of the biggest African inter-varsity debate championships.
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Source: focusnewsroom.com
