The Annual Intra-Command Debate and Quiz Competition of the Chief of the Naval Staff, Vice Adm. Ibok Ete-Ibas, has taken off in Calabar, the Cross River state Capital.
Declaring the competition open on Thursday at the Nigerian Navy Secondary School Calabar, the Flag Officer Commanding Eastern Naval Command, Calabar, Rear Adm. David Adeniran, said it was designed to encourage learning and analytical reasoning among students.
The Flag Officer, who was represented by the Command Staff Officer, Rear Adm. Abraham Adaji, said that the competition was initiated by the Directorate of Naval Education to promote public speaking and peer review.
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The competing schools were Nigerian Navy Secondary School Calabar and the Nigerian Navy Secondary School Borokiri, Port Harcourt.
According to Adeniran, the two-day competition is to enhance teaching and learning in Nigerian Navy secondary schools.
“The competition is broken into debate and quiz session. It is designed to encourage learning and analytical reasoning as well as research among our students.
“We expect the students to exhibit what they have been taught and show their public speaking skills. It is our earnest expectations that the competitors will do justice to the topics.
“At the end of the day, a team will emerge winner because of their debating skills and points.
“We must pay keen attention to the issue that will be raised so that irrespective of who wins, we must have learn some lessons that will help us as a nation,’’ he said.
The topics of the debate were: Misplaced Societal Values are Responsible for Students Dwindling Interest in Education and Agriculture, a tool for Economic Development in Nigeria, not oil.
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Navy Secondary School Calabar, spoke against the topic while their Port Harcourt counterpart spoke in favour of the topic.
In her remarks, the Commandant of Navy Secondary School Calabar, Commander Odufa Kadiri, said the yearly competition was organized by the Nigerian Navy to promote learning and public speaking among the students.
Kadiri explained that in 2018, Navy Secondary School Calabar hosted the Chief of the Naval Staff National debate and quiz competition, adding that it was a thing of joy for the school to also host the 2019 intra command competition.
“The competition is a two day event, we hope that at the end of it, our students will be better equipped with the lessons of the debate and it will go a long way to broaden their knowledge and values,’’ she said. (NAN)
