By Deborah Asantewaah SARFO
With her impeccable and attention-grabbing speech captioned ‘Enjoy the Ride’, a student of the Roman Ridge School – Maame Abenlema Amihere – was crowned the winner at the 15th edition of The Young Debaters (TYD) competition.
As the seventh speaker for the day, she delivered a speech centred on the theme for this year’s edition – “We know what we are, but not what we may be” by William Shakespeare using her personal life and that of other people, emphasising that “the beauty of life is not in the final destination rather the twist and turns, the ups and downs”.
Emerging as the star for the day, she earned the honour of representing the country at the International Public Speaking Competition (IPSC) 2025 in the UK. Other prizes include £300 per diem, an engraved plaque and a 2-week camp in AIX sponsored by Ashesi University.
The public speaking competition was spiced with inspiring speeches from guest speakers from academia, entertainment, law, medicine and education who contributed to the theme for the contest.
The 2025 edition started in November 2024, with students from Labone SHS, The Roman Ridge School, Chemu Technical and SOS Herman Gmeiner International College going through the preliminaries, semi-finals and to the national finals.
Coincidentally, the finals had 10 young girls battling for the prestigious opportunity to represent the country at the IPSC 2025, the cash and the bragging rights at the TYD 2025 champion.
The first runner-up position surprisingly went to another student of The Roman Ridge School, Malavika Santhosh; and Kimberly Soussoudis of SOS Herman Gmeiner International College took the second runner-up position.
The former’s prize includes AFS Intercultural Programmes (virtual), an engraved plaque and a 2-week camp in AIX sponsored by Ashesi University while the latter had a Culturous Cultural Exchange from Home (virtual), an engraved plaque and a 2-week camp in AIX sponsored by the same institution.
However, all finalists received novels from celebrated Ghanaian authors: Bisi Adjapon and Michael Ohene Effah, a certificate of achievements and medals of distinction, among others.
In her welcome address, the Convenor of TYD Ghana, Eugenia Tachie-Menson, underscored the importance of the competition in offering each speaker the freedom to shape their message and a platform that “nurtures a generation that will not only speak but be heard”.
She stated that lack of public speaking skills has led to many avoidable mistakes, especially among young people venturing into leadership roles, media and other professional spaces.
Maame Abenlema indicated that the contest theme inspired her to write a speech centred on her personal experience, which she believes captured the hearts and minds of judges.
She expressed her excitement about representing the country at the IPSC in May this year and urged the youth to step out of their comfort zone to participate in such competitions, emphasising that “it will unlock their potential”.
Reminiscing the journey over the last fifteen years, the Programme Manager of TYD, Salome Dzakpasu, noted that every edition is unique with exceptional speakers, however, she maintained that the youth must take advantage of social media to broaden their knowledge, especially with local and international current affairs.
For his part, the Barrister, Solicitor of the Supreme Court of Ghana and judge of TYD, Edem Michael Lithur, noted that TYD 2025 had high standards.
