By Adesina Wahab

Daughter of the late Afro Beat legend, Fela Anikulapo Kuti, Yeni Kuti, has said the family organises an annual secondary school debate in his memory to inculcate the virtues of boldness, courage, discipline among others in the young ones.
She stated this yesterday in Lagos during the finals of the 11th Felabration Secondary School Debate organised in memory of the music legend.
The topic for this year’s competition was “Talent flight is the real cost of corruption.”
“We are trying to impart knowledge in these young ones. You know it takes boldness, courage, discipline among others to stand before a crowd and talk. We need to build these qualities in our children. Moreover, people knew Fela as somebody who would speak truth to power, no matter who is involved.
“We have been doing this for years. It was about three years ago that some corporate bodies came on board to support us. You also saw that we had a dance performance by some children, this is to catch them young and to develop the innate talents in them,” she said.
Yeni also expressed satisfaction with the performance of students from public schools in the competition.
Also speaking, the Chief Judge of the competition, Mr Christopher Abiodun Borha, described debate as a civilised way of having conversation.
“In a debate, people will speak for and against, but that does not mean they would be vulgar or descend into abusing each other. Each person will marshal his points. Debate teaches many lessons, among which is that it makes one a good listener. This is because you have to listen to what the other person says for you to know how to react,” he noted.
After the 10 schools that made it to the finals spoke on the general topic, the top five picked a topic each from a pool and spoke on them after a few minutes break
At the end of the competition, Oke Abdulraham of Kings College came first and was given a laptop and a Samsung phone. Kiibati Ige of Vivian Fowler Memorial College came second and was given a Samsung tablet and a Samsung phone, while Babalola Aishat of Gbaja Girls Senior Secondary School was adjudged third and won a Nokia tablet and a Samsung phone.
All the 10 schools that made it to the finals got a Yamaha keyboard each.