By Adeleke Oluwadamilola Testimony
Thousands of students of the University of Ibadan gather every year at the New Faculty Lecture Theatre (NFLT) for a couple of weeks to have intellectual conversations. On the side, there is an exchange of massive joules of body heat, acquisition of phone numbers of potential partners and, of course, banter.
If you have not heard, Jaw War is the biggest public speaking and debate competition in West Africa. It is held every year and hosted by the Literary and Debating Society of the University of Ibadan (TLDS, UI). For many reasons, Jaw War always makes the headlines. When it is Jaw War season, other popular topics on X (formerly Twitter) have to make way for UItes with the Jaw War hashtag. Yes, it is that big.
The competition has two sides: inter-faculty and inter-hall. Speakers either represent their faculties or their residential halls and face off in pairs. The ones with the highest scores move on to the next level alongside a “best loser”, which is the faculty or hall that lost to their own opponent but had the highest score among other losers.
UItes have gathered in their numbers every year for more than a decade to cheer for their representative speakers. And if their halls or faculties get knocked out, they still come to “hate watch”. But these days, a certain question is necessary: do they actually come for the debate?
Over the years, it has been a tradition for the opposing sides to drop witty banter against each other. This happens before the competition in WhatsApp banter groups between non-speakers and also on stage through the debate speakers during their speeches. Nowadays, it is easy to notice that most UItes are more interested in the retorts and pay very little attention to the topics of discussion.
If you braved the intense heat that clouds the atmosphere in NFLT on a day when students are gathered for Jaw War and dared to walk in, you would likely see people snapping their fingers or nodding their heads. You might even find some letting out loud cheers during the speakers’ speeches, which is against the rules.
But if you went a step further to ask them the topic of the debate, only 3 out of 10 would know. Not because the voices of the speakers are inaudible or because it is not projected on the screen. The other 70% just hardly care about the institutional, national and global matters being dissected by the speakers.
Let’s be honest: just like chicken stock to a soup, the banter adds flavour to the debates. But the stock is not the soup. Jaw War is for intellectual conversations, not just witty remarks and clever comebacks.
Whatever we make of this event is what will be handed down to the generations to come. If we want to promote critical thinking, we should be keen on the weightier matters.
