On Saturday, 24th January, 2025, the University of Ibadan British Parliamentary Debate Society concluded the finals of the 4th edition of its annual CLASH event, which was held at the iconic Bower’s Tower, Oke- Aremo, Ibadan.
This year’s edition was themed, “Sankofa: a return to the source”, and it featured new things such as a centralised competition tab, more participating teams and more preliminary rounds spanning from January 12th to 24th. This year’s edition also featured important personalities from the Nigerian Debate Community, persons like Olayinka Esther and Mascot, a WUDC 2025 participant, who took part in training participants. Additionally, Ajake Israel, a current ANUDC debating champion, and Deborah Peter, a prominent UI debater,, both served onthe the central Tab.
At the end of the Competition, the final was won by Team Tableshakers, made up of Kareem Sakeenah, the previous UCJ Creative Editor, and Elechi Ifeanyi, two prominent faces in UI debating circles. They also doubled as the overall 4th and 5th best speakers, respectively.
Coming in second place was Team Isi Mmri, made up of the former UCJ VP Admin and a one-time winner of Jaw war, Ogunleye Moboluwarin and the current UCJ EiC, Emmanuel Utibe. On the back of good results throughout the competition, they emerged as the second-best and first-best speakers in the competition overall, respectively. Emmanuel Utibe also emerged as the best speaker in the finals event.
Further making the podium was another team of UItes, Team Orisun made up of Renowned Debaters Gbadebo Iman and Yoriju Olayinka. The last team that narrowly missed the podium was a team from OOU, made up of Olamijulo Ogunkilede and Rachael Adetola.
Also receiving recognition was Afeezah Wojuade who was the overall 3rd best speaker with her team just barely missing out on the finals.
The event also featured a handover ceremony of the society to a new set of executives, with Akinjare David taking over the reins as the new Captain of the society and head of the ABH arm, and Elechi Ifeanyi emerging as the deputy Captain of the club and head of the UI arm.
Other executives included: Head of Recruitment and Strategy, Emmanuel Utibe; Head of Research, Eriomala John; Deputy Head of Research, Ashanga Esther; and Head of Publicity, Ogunleye Moboluwarin.
Speaking during the handover, the outgoing Captain of the society emphasised her gratitude towards all those who attended Clash 4.0, and she talked about how her tenure as the captain really stretched her in many ways. She encouraged all hands to be on deck to continually move the society forward.
