On Wednesday, the 29th of September, the opening ceremony of Jaw war, widely acclaimed the biggest public speaking event in Sub-Saharan Africa, was held. The prelude to the competition had sparked excitement and piqued interest in UItes supporting their constituencies – Hall’s of residence and faculties. However, the course of the opening ceremony and the subsequent fixture on Friday are significantly punctuated with questions, complaints and tones of dissatisfaction from the representatives and the larger audience alike.
ZHPO garnered that these grouses center around general discontent with the poor functioning of the sound system used for the debates. Aisha, Awo Hall’s first speaker in the first leg of the hall category’s first round shared her opinion. When asked how the condition of the sound system might have affected the quality of the speakers’ (representatives) delivery, she said, “the poor audibility affected a lot of speakers’ delivery, doing a disservice to the efforts put into their preparations and I believe TLDS owes us an apology for that. It is one of the major reasons some results are contested.”
Joy, Idia hall’s first speaker on the first day of the competition also corroborated the point, emphasizing that the successful organization of Jaw war is largely contigent on a well functioning sound system, afterall the competition is a speaking one. She said, “In organizing a public speaking competition, the speaking should come first before anything else.”
However, the point may be given that some speakers were able to project clearer than others, as was observed with Faithful, the first speaker on the first day for Kuti hall. Nonetheless, it is inequitable to argue that all representatives should have managed the microphone well since some could, especially as the voice projection from the sound system was notably low and unclear enough to amplify the average voice pitch of the speakers.
On the subject, Joy elaborated that, “the condition of the sound system is advantageous to aggresive speakers since they ordinarily raise their voices. But not all speakers use the same style. Delivering a speech requires voice modulation which could be low or high at different points, and taking pauses mid-speech, to give the intended effect. Being monotonously high or low would usually not produce the expected effect. So, having to speak at a high pitch all through due to the bad condition of the sound system can affect the quality of the delivery.“
Aisha also noted that the sound anomaly might have impacted the judges’ assessment of the speakers. She said, “the terrible sound system is only half of the problem, which brings me to the judging. I don’t believe poor audibility should be used to mark down any speaker who spoke using the faulty sound system, and if it wasn’t used it raises more questions than it does answers.”
Interestingly, in the first leg of the debate between Independence hall and Alexander Brown Hall (ABH), John Eriomala, second speaker for Independence hall had to undergo the avoidable pressure of starting his speech all over as he was barely audible. In contention, ABH clamoured for equal treatment demanding that their second speaker as well be given the opportunity to deliver his speech again. When asked if he felt pressurised by the incident, he responded, “Yes, it did. I didn’t expect the reaction that followed the judges’ decision (to restart my speech). Fortunately, it had minimal effect on my eventual performance and thankfully we were able to secure the win.” He however commented that, “frankly speaking, Sub-Saharan Africa’s most important public speaking event deserves better.”
Ayeni Otito, the TLDS President however holds a different view of the situation. When approached by a ZHPO correspondent at the venue on the first day, he explained that several hours went into testing the sound system at the venue, including a dress rehearsal in preparation. When asked about the complaints about the sound system he indicated that several reports of such have filtered but he can’t be blamed as he wasn’t the sound guy. He pointed out that the microphones used are machineries and they get worn after use for a long time.
Aisha, speaker from Awo hall, decried the organization on the first day, saying, “the whole thing is messed up and it’d be better for TLDS to get their acts together before more people lose interest in Jaw war. In all, the first day’s event was definitely not the Jaw war we had looked forward to for 94 weeks/662 days/15,888 hours/953,280 minutes/57,196,800 seconds.”
Aisha might have been prophetic in this wise as the audience turnout on Saturday, the third day of the event, was unquestionably and significantly low, In spite of the fact that the competition was still in the first round. An unfortunately different record from previous editions.
Reacting to the unsettling situation, David, a member of the audience on the first day said, “the sound at the Jaw war events have been abysmal. This is a double headed issue as it affects both the speakers and the audience. The audience barely hear speakers when giving their speeches.” Another member of the audience who pleaded anonymity said, “With all the planning that went into the widely acclaimed Jaw War, a proper sound system should have number one priority. Alas, it wasn’t.”
By and large, the organization of Jaw war this year has met with major discontent. It is hoped that the subsequent rounds will show significant improvements.
