El-Rufai Awards Scholarships To Debating Team In Kaduna
Kaduna State Governor, Nasir El-Rufai. Image: NAN
Students who represented Kaduna state in the International Debating Competition for High School Students have been awarded scholarships and cash gifts by Kaduna stae governor, Nasiru El-Rufai.
Gov. El-Rufai, who received the students at the Government House, Kaduna, donated the sum of one million naira to them for making the state proud.
“We are proud to be the best in the country and for representing Nigeria internationally. And beyond that, you have proven that our public schools can compete favourably with any other school in the world.
“I, therefore, congratulate you for being good ambassadors and making us proud,” he said.
The governor also appreciated the efforts of Ministry of education in making the student realize their full potentials.
He further urged the winners to build on their foundation.
While briefing the governor on the outcome of the debate, the team’s coach, Anas Abubakar, expressed appreciation to the governor for recognising their efforts.
Abubakar, who is a part three student of Biochemistry at Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, said they were the first set of Nigerians to win the competition in the past three years of participating in the international debating competition.
“In three of the eight years of Nigeria’s participation in the international debate for high school students, we are the first set of students from Nigeria to have won matches that qualify us to participate at the finals.
“We won debate matches against countries like the USA, Netherlands, Hungary, Cyprus, Turkey and Bulgaria,” he said.
The coach further disclosed that, this year, they participated at the British Parliamentary Debating Format, where they also won matches against most countries they debated against last year.
According to him, the team scored the best runner up in the Europe World Debating Competition Championship.
The six students, who represented Nigeria were drawn from government schools across Kaduna State.
Abubakar, one of the participants has been in debates since his secondary school days.
