Podium Maiden Edition Ends with Mass Communication Win

By Blessing Famose and Daniel Kelechi

The finals of “the Podium,” a public speaking and debate competition organised by the faculty of social sciences, was championed by the Department of Mass communication as they clinched a double win claiming the “King of tongues” title alongside emerging the overall best in the debate.

With two topics allocated among four departments, Psychology and Economics were paired, so were the departments of Mass Communication and Social Works. The former addressed the topic “Traditional education systems are antiquated and require replacement with alternative learning models,” with each team contributing substantially. The latter two departments were tasked with doing justice to the topic “Traditional gender roles are outdated and harmful to society,” with Mass Communication opposing the notion and Social Works supporting it.

The Department of Economics, Social works and Psychology amassed a total of 51, 53 and 70.1 points respectively, while the Department of Mass Communication emerged the overall winner with a total of 79 points.

Represented by Waliyat Sulaimon and Emmanuel Makinde, the chief and supporting speakers respectively. They mentioned that although they “didn’t see the win coming,” their joy knew no bounds when the announcement was made.

Sulaimon, describing the preparation for the finals as “tough, considering the fact that we won the preliminary stage,” explained that the topic they were to support was akin to “fighting a lost battle” and summarised her entire experience as “great.”

Makinde, on the other hand, described his experience as “draining, considering the pressure that came with people expecting the best delivery.” he went further to confess that he doubted the win after seeing the delivery from his co-debaters. This heightened his joy when the announcement was made that his team emerged as the winners. In his words “I was super surprised, didn’t see it coming, so the joy hit differently.”

This did not go without reference to their coach, Precious Amike, a penultimate student from the faculty of law, who disclosed that there was no secret to their win while speaking to our correspondent. In his words, “there is no single secret to winning. It is a combination of different strategies, approaches, styles, iteration and trusting in yourself that you are able to deliver on the big stage on the big day.” He went further to say that a pivotal consideration needed for situations like this would be “the ability to synthesize varied opinions on a particular topic and use that as a springboard to form your material for the debate.”

Amike, while explaining the reason behind the foolproof argument presented on the stage, mentioned the rigorous efforts put into the practice and how they were able to view the debate from the rational lens of the opponent. Butressing his point, he said, “by internalising their strongest arguments into our speech and making sure our points directly answered or decimated their major points, we saw a path to victory.” This didn’t go without commending the efforts of the debaters, their zeal, and passion for success.

Being the very first of its kind, Agbolade Isaac, head of the planning committee for the Podium and a final year student of the Department of Mass Communication, highlighted the challenges encountered. These included securing sponsorship for the event and finding replacement judges at the last minute due to the withdrawal of the intended panel, which in turn sprouted conversations regarding unfairness and bias in the preliminary stage of the competition.

All of these were taken into consideration, and judges from a different faculty presided over the finals, debunking the rumours of unfairness raised after the preliminaries. The final year student, who didn’t rest on his oars until success was achieved, explained how he saw his role as the team lead as a “privilege” expressing his excitement regarding the overall success of the event and the emergence of his department as the winners.

Speaking after the event, the President of Social Science Students’ Association (SOSSA), Adebayo Tomisin, commended the participants from the various departments that make up the faculty of Social Sciences for giving the competition their all, emphasising the impact of the competition on the unity of faculty.

“To the winners, the Department of Mass Communications, congratulations on your remarkable achievements! Your hard work and dedication have truly set a high standard for the maiden edition of the interdepartmental debate, THE PODIUM”, Adebayo said.

He further thanked his executive members, the Public Speaking Debate Committee and everyone who has contributed one way or the other to make the competition a success.