November 2, 2016
The Ashesi Debate Society edged out five other tertiary institutions to emerge winners of the maiden edition of the Model Democracy debate held at the British Council, Accra, Ghana. The debate, organized by Edufair Ghana Foundation, focused on the need for the youth to contribute intellectually to the discourse on national development in Ghana.
The competition involved teams from the University of Ghana, University of Professional Studies, Accra, Zenith University College, Lancaster University, Ghana Institute of Journalism and Ashesi, squaring off in multiple rounds on the motion, In this era of Ghana’s democracy, would you argue for the winner-takes-all approach or proportional representation approach, as the tool for national development?
“This topic revealed the crust of the current problem we have in selecting leaders in our country at the moment, using The Winner Takes All strategy,” said Kwabena Twumasi Ankrah ‘19, member of Ashesi’s team. “It’s a mechanism that fosters exclusiveness and political marginalisation. The debate gave us the chance for an intellectual discourse on how better we can achieve inclusiveness, fairness and a holistic representation of the country through proportional representation and I’m glad we were able to convince the judges why this is so.”
The final round saw the debaters from Ashesi, Bryan Achiampong ’18 and Kwabena Twumasi Ankrah ’19, take on the team from University of Ghana. In the end, the Ashesi team was crowned overall winners of the competition, receiving a cash prize of three thousand Ghana cedis, sponsored by The Royal Bank.
“Winning the debate is a remarkable achievement, as it is our first program of the semester and definitely a step in the right direction,” said Bryan Achiampong ‘18. “As the Ashesi Debate Society we intend to further this success on further platforms to influence perceptions and spark a hope in the promise of African youth in relation to leadership.”
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