During my days in secondary school, it was compulsory for all the Art students to be a member of the Literary and Debating Society. Since I was an art student, I joined the society and became an active member. The primary motive for the club is to represent the school in debating competitions. Every student wants to be a member to have the opportunity to express themselves.
So, every Wednesday, we held club meetings and training on public speaking and how to marshal our points when the need to argue to win comes up.
One of the days, I had to represent the school in an inter-school debating competition titled: Science has done more harm than good to our society.
Since our school was mandated to speak in support of the motion, we started making research on the problems created by science. We did find many such problems.
On the D-day. We arrived at the venue of the competition. There were many schools represented by their debaters. The hall was filled to the brim and the lightning and stage wowed me.
Soon, the event began. I was the chief speaker of my school and I was to speak for five minutes to defend the topic of discourse.
Other debaters have mounted the stage and have presented their points. They indeed spoke their hearts on the stage. As they spoke, my confidence level rose.
In all there were about eighteen schools represented in the hall and we were the twelfth to be called. As soon as the moderator mentioned my school, the audience clapped while my group gave me a standing ovation as I mounted the stage. I took over the mic and started off.
Good morning, ever attentive audience,
Panel of judges,
Time keeper,
And my co-debaters.
I am Ifeanyi Onyearugbulem,
From Scholars college.
I am here to nail the coffin that,
Science has done more harm than good to our society.
At this juncture, the audience gave a resounding round of applause to me. Just then, I lost the next word to speak. It was like the stage should open up and swallow me. I had to devise something to escape the imminent shame. So, I put off the mic so that no one could hear what I was saying.
From one end of the stage to the other I moved with a perfect geariculation like I was killing the topic.
While that was going on, the technical crew were wondering what would have happened to the mic. Already I have spent over four minutes of the time allotted for my speech.
They brought another mic as the approached, I quick put on the mic in my hand and closed the debate, saying:
I hope with these points,
You are convinced beyond reasonable doubt,
That science has done more harm than good to our society.
😂🤣😂🤣😂🤣
The audience cheered once again as I dropped the mic and walked down to meet my group.
***First Published Here
