Winners emerge in Sifax blue economy debate

By Samson Echenim

Students from the Department of Law, Lagos State University have emerged winners of the 2019 Maritime Blue Print Competition after defeating law students from nine other universities.

The competition, sponsored by Sifax Group, is one of the activities of the Taiwo Afolabi Annual Maritime Conference, which is in its fourth edition and held in partnership with the Maritime Forum of the Faculty of Law, University of Lagos.

At the end of the keenly-contested debate involving the two finalists- University of Lagos and Lagos State University, the trio of Tiamiyu Hezekiah Toheeb, Enifeni Ibrahim and Emmanuel Omotayo Johnson from the Lagos State University emerged winners with 67 points while the University of Lagos team of Mubarak Agboola, Otitoola Folajimi and Alao Omeiza Joshua emerged runners up with 65 points.
Other schools that participated in the debate include: Bowen University, University of Ilorin, Babcock University, Afe Babalola University, Crescent University, University of Ibadan, Obafemi Awolowo University and University of Benin.

The schools debated on the topic: “Achieving the Blue Economy Dream in the Nigerian Maritime sector.”
Speaking on the competition, Taiwo Afolabi, group executive vice chairman, Sifax Group, praised the winning team for their doggedness and well-researched presentations. He noted that the competition’s key objective of stimulating university students’ interest in the maritime industry is gradually being fulfilled.

He said: “The quality of the thoughts and styles of delivery by the students have been very encouraging. This has shown that the competition on an annual basis is yielding its desired results. This competition will go a long way in stimulating the interests of the students in maritime business. SIFAX Group will continue to partner the Maritime Forum to make this a sustainable initiative.”