The University of Cape Coast (UCC) House of Parliament has won the 2017 Commonwealth Day Debate Competition. The debate was organised by the Ghana House of Parliament to commemorate this year's Commonwealth Day, which fell on 13 March at the International Conference Center in Accra. The competition, which brought together student Parliamentarians from UCC, University of Ghana (UG), University for Professional Studies (UPS), Islamic University and Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), was on the theme ' A Peace Building Commonwealth.' The competing Universities debated on the motion " Should SHS education be free for all Ghanaians and Is free SHS feasible in Ghana?" Team UCC, which debated against the motion was represented by Hon. Enoch Lelabi, the Majority Leader and the Hon. Caleb Otabil, a Member of the Majority bench, who also doubles as the spokesman for the House. At the end of the contest, UCC House of Parliament emerged winners and received a Gold, whilst UG took silver for placing second followed by UDS winning bronze. KNUST placed 4th, UPSA earned the 5th position and Islamic University took the 6th position, with no medal. The first Deputy Speaker of Ghana's Parliament, Hon. Joseph Osei-Owusu, who was the guest speaker for the occasion, commended UCC House of Parliament for their impressive performance and commiserated with the other participating universities student parliaments. He urged them to be disciplined by observing the rules and regulations of their schools since the nation looked up to them to take the mantle of leadership in future. Hon. Osei-Owusu, who is also the Member of Parliament (MP) for Bekwai, urged the students to cultivate the habit of reading and research to enable them to broaden their knowledge-base and debating skills. He used the occasion to give brief history of the Commonwealth Day. For his part, the Speaker of the UCC House of Parliament, Rt.Hon. Awotunde Awosika, who received the Gold trophy on behalf of the House, expressed gratitude to Ghana's Parliament for organizing the debate. He commended his colleagues for the hard work and team spirit which earned them the enviable position. Rt.Hon. Awosika gave assurance that UCC House of Parliament would eschew all forms of complacency and defend the trophy in the next debate, which will come off in March 2018. In attendance were Zenith University, Accra Technical University, Accra Academy, and many other private institutions. The event was graced by scores of MPs, including Hon. A.B.A Fuseini, MP for Sagnarigu, Hon. Peter Notsu, MP for Akatsi North and Hon. James Klutse Avedzi, MP for Ketu North, who also double as the Deputy Minority Leader. In 2016, UCC House of Parliament won silver for taking the second position, while UG and KNUST took the Gold and Bronze medals for placing first and third positions respectively.
