Semi-finalists Emerge in Nigeria Info’s Student Debate Tournament

Ebiti Yusuf

Nigeria’s radio station, Nigeria Info, has announced the commencement of the semi-final rounds of the 2022 edition of the “I Beg To Differ” Student Debate Tournament after the selection of top-four contestants who successfully displaced over 200 participants that registered for the debate competition.

The semi-finalists, who are secondary school students between the ages of 13 and 17 years in Lagos State, engaged in diverse intellectually-stimulating conversations on complex socio-economic and political issues impeding the growth and development of the nation. It is on this backdrop that the debate sessions featured global and national issues aimed at developing the psychological abilities of Nigerian youths in order to develop their overall critical-thinking skills.

Commenting on the progression of the competition, the Chief Executive Officer of Cool FM, Nigeria Info, and Wazobia FM, Serge Noujaim,  expressed his excitement about the quality of the second edition of the debate tournament.

“I would like to use this medium to state that I am actually impressed with the quality of the second edition of the “I Beg To Differ” Student Debate Tournament.” 

The debaters for this edition have demonstrated that Nigeria truly has a brighter future ahead of her through their ability to intelligently maintain a stance on both global and national issues that are currently on the front burner. The students who have scaled through to this stage of the debate tournament should consider themselves champions as they have put in impressive efforts. As such, we, as a youth-focused brand, hope that the experiences garnered through the various stages of the competition would be put into good use in the future,” he said.

Also commenting, the General Manager, Corporate Affairs for Cool FM, Wazobia FM, and Nigeria Info, Femi Obong-Daniels,  noted that Nigeria Info remains committed to enhancing youth-development initiatives across the nation.

He said: “We at Nigeria Info remain committed to ensuring that Nigerian youths are provided with diverse youth-led initiatives that seek to promote the development of their skills and abilities. This is because we understand that the youths, particularly in Nigeria, are an integral part of the overall success the nation strives to achieve. It is on this premise that we are confident that the “I Beg To Differ” Student Debate Tournament is one that is uniquely designed to develop both the speaking abilities and the confidence level of Nigerian youths.” he stated.

The “I Beg To Differ” Student Debate Tournament is a youth-driven initiative of Nigeria Info that seeks to develop the mental strength of Nigerian youths through the promotion of healthy debate sessions on global and national issues.