In Conversation with Faculty of Arts’ L & D President, Goodness Okusanya

-Mahbubat Salahudeen
The 2023 edition of Jaw War is slated to begin in less than a week. Yet again, some students within and outside the Faculty of Arts are predicting the faculty’s win in the competition. While there have been talks of preparation and meetings between members of the Faculty’s Literary and Debate Society, AFAS Press decided to discuss with one of the constituency members to know the extent at which the organization is getting ready up for the competition ahead.
In our conversation with Goodness Okusanya, a 400 level student of Communication and Language Arts and President of Faculty of Arts Literary & Debate Society, we addressed certain areas including the challenges the organization is currently facing, and the extent at which they intend to go in the forthcoming competition which begins on April 13th, 2023.
Correspondent: With Jaw War just a few days away, to what extent would you say you and your fellow members are prepared for the competition and how far do you intend to go?
Goodness: Well, we’ve been giving Jaw War a lot of effort and then we have been having back to back meetings with the speakers and members generally. Also, we are trusting God that this Jaw War is going to be a wonderful one. About how far we intend to go, to get to the finals and win. Of course there is a round after the finals; we do not mind that as well. But still, our intent is to win at Jaw War yet again.
Correspondent: You have been the president of the Faculty of Arts’ L & D for almost a year, could you tell us how you have been able to motivate your team and manage the performance of the people you lead.
Goodness: It is majorly through the help of God but on my own side, I have been able to make my members understand that we are a team and that every individualistic excellence displayed out there is a testament of the collective, secret effort in this organization. Because every person that goes on stage to represent Faculty of Arts L&D is not representing themself but the entire constituency. This is because the constituency has contributed a lot to the speech presented. It is teamwork; we do not need one person to work on an entire speech and take the glory. The glory is for the Faculty of Arts Literary & Debate Society and ultimately to God.
Correspondent: Based on your perspective, what would you say are the challenges the organization is currently facing and how do you plan on surmounting them?
Goodness: We do not have many challenges at the moment but one of the challenges we are facing is that of time for preparation. Many of our speakers are also committed to their halls of residence so it is not easy getting them to write speeches.
Although people do turn up a lot with speeches, it has not been easy getting those who are members of L&D societies at their halls to submit speeches as well.
I will be optimistic about how we have been able to manage the challenges we have. And somehow, the Faculty of Arts is gaining a lot of precedents over other halls and faculties in the university.
Correspondent: As the president of AFAS L & D, we believe you are very much aware of what goes on in the organization. How would you rate the commitment level of your team members, particularly the rookies in your midst? Would you say they exhibit the much needed dedication and passion to win the competition for the second time in a row?
Goodness: I would rate my rookies 9/10 because they are always very punctual and committed to speech writing. Also, I must admit that I have not seen rookies on this level before and that is something I respect them for.
Correspondent: The inter-faculty draws say the Faculty of Arts will be going against the Faculty of Science in the preliminaries. Your opponent is a heavyweight, do you think they might give you a hard time making it to the quater-finals?
Goodness: I am not someone that brags. The Faculty of Science will be a worthy opponent and I do not underrate them because I have lots of respect for great people in that faculty but I believe that since God is for us, no one can be against us. We are going to get to the quater-finals and there is no doubt about that. They will be a worthy opponent but we will definitely win.
Correspondent: In 2021, you alongside the then AFAS L & D president represented the faculty in the final which you eventually won, we would like to know if you plan on participating in this year’s JawWar competition or you intend to make room for other members to shine and make a name for themselves as well
Goodness: Well, I really do not mind if my rookies or any other members go out there and get the job done. I do not wish to expose some of the internal issues but for certain reasons, I will have to speak, not in a bid to shut others down but as a result of necessity. However, if I see people who can speak better or deliver better speeches, they will definitely speak but until we can someone with that commensurate experience, I will still have to speak. So yes, I will participate in this year’s Jaw War.
Correspondent: Aside from Jaw War, University of Ibadan makes room for other sorts of debate competitions including rookie’s competition, Super Bowl etc. Do you have any plans laid down for an intra-faculty debate among the 12 departments in the faculty?
Goodness: Absolutely! We have plans for an intra-faculty debate and that will be during the AFAS week, for the L&D day. Also, we have had some competitions where some of our rookies represented us. For example, one of our rookies spoke at JCI during the inauguration. Then, the one for AFAS week, we will be having a lot of our rookies speaking on that day and we are also going to be having an intra-faculty debate.