Hello all,

The moderators of this section have decided to introduce a monthly debate session as a way of raising the intellectual value of the section.

We are aware that debate goes on everyday here and indeed every thread is a debate, but the difference this would make is that it is going to be moderated and there shall be winners.

DATE:
We are proposing last Saturday and Sunday of every month (6-8pm Nigerian time, to be dubbed 'Weekend of Titans' or 'Political el-Classico' or any other fanciful name to add some colour to it)). First round on Saturday and final on Sunday. We are starting this October.

TOPIC:
The topic shall be drawn from contemporary political issues or any other topical issue. As much as possible, we shall avoid very sensitive and emotional topics.

DEBATERS
There shall be 4 debaters in each cycle (month), to be paired and the 2 winners slug it out at the finals. Debaters will be arrived at through voluntary indication of interest and/or nomination by members.

COORDINATORS
The Mods shall be coordinators and will not be part of the panel of judges.

JUDGES
We shall have a standing panel of 10 judges, nominated by members and mods. But only 5 shall be used in a round of debate. The 5 shall be arrived at based on their expertise on the subject, neutrality, non-connectedness to the topic etc. In choosing judges, consideration shall be given to posters known for their neutrality or middle-course approach to issues. e.g where Sanusi's CBN is being discussed, I cannot be part of Judges based on my history on NL.

My partner will come in to chip in more things.

Your input and opinion are welcomed in the meantine.

UPDATE TUESDAY, OCTOBER 10, 2012

UNVEILING THE 10 WISE-MEN!!!

After 48 hours of extensive deliberation on and off this thread, taking into consideration popular opinion as well as our educated discretion, we have come up with this list as our Standing Pool of Judges:

1, COOGER: Cooger has been on Nairaland for more than 4 years and has been a valuable member of the forum, contributing to different topics in different sections. He brings to the table versatility and experience. He is also well-known for his command of the queen’s language

2, SISI_SKILL: Sisi_skill is well experienced in judging online debates, being on board of the panel of judges that successfully executed the Literary section debate in July 2012. She has been active on Nairaland for many years and understands the dynamics of the forum and psyche of the members.

3, AJANLEKOKO: Highly sought-after Ajanlekoko is Nairaland’s resident career consultant. He is a respected voice on many issues and not known for frivolities. We expect Ajanlekoko to bring to bear his acclaimed maturity and expertise in multi-disciplinary matters and critical thinking.

4, EZIACHI: [/b]Eziachi is a Nairaland veteran and one of the encyclopedias of Nigerian political history on Nairaland. He is a well-respected figure in this section. It is this rich background in political knowledge that Eziachi brings to the team.

[b]5, PHYSICSQED: Physics is one of the most cerebral political analysts on Nairaland. He is also well known for his fact-based debating skills, a tool that will be useful as a judge in this programme.

6, E-GUERILLA: e-Guerilla is another well-respected intellectual on Nairaland. He adds to the team analytical depth.

7, IBIME: Ibime has been on Nairaland for more than 5 years and has continued to add value to debates from his repertoire of knowledge and experience. He brings balance to the team, as the other 9 wise men.

8, Ogugua88: Ogugua is well known for the logic of his analyses and presentation. He will be useful in spotting the logic of arguments in our monthly debates.

9, LONDONER: The man from London is a leading intellectual on Nairaland, adding candour and colour to threads. We have so much confidence in his ability to dispassionately dissect arguments in his judgment.

10, TALINA:[/b]In my brief citation on the 9 judges above we have left out their tribe and region of origin for obvious reasons, but we are safe to introduce Talina as a Canadian. Talina brings international flavour and insight into the team.

We do hope our judges will justify the confidence reposed in them as unbiased umpires.

Ladies and gentlemen, join me in wishing these TEN-WISE MEN success in the assignment.


UPDATE OCTOBER 11, 2012

[b]PROCEDURE IN 5 STAGES

1, Choosing of topics
2, Choosing of debaters
3, Choosing of 5 judges from our pool of 10
4, Debate proper
5, Post-debate discussions

NOTE: All planning(steps 1-3) will be taking place in this mother-thread, but special dedicated thread shall be opened for each debate, to be opened few hours to debate. W

1, CHOOSING OF TOPICS
This shall be thrown open, suggestions taken from everyone, and topics arrived at by consensus. Topical and developmental issues shall be given preference. 2 topics shall be arrived at, one for first round, another for final. Or same subject but different angles as points of debate in first round and final.

2, CHOOSING OF DEBATERS
This can be by voluntary indication of interest and/or nomination by another member. At the end of the day, we shall settle for 4 debaters for each cycle(month). Topic will also play a role in settling for debaters.


3,CHOOSING OF 5 JUDGES
We shall contact all the 10 judges and confirm their availability on the debate day. If we have positive answer from more than 5, we shall use our discretion to settle for 5. Rotation will also be considered.

4, DEBATE PROPER
Debate thread shall be opened at least 3 hours to the commencement, where the rules, brief Nairaland citation of debaters, list of judges, shall be posted. The thread will then be locked till 5 minutes to start of debate when the coordinators shall declare the debate open. The debaters can then post their arguments within 20 minutes. Then, the debaters will be given another 20 minutes to take on one another, fault opponents arguments etc. Then another 20 minutes for judges to throw their questions at each of the debaters and debaters to respond. Then we shall take 1 question from audience(viewers) based on first post, first recognized basis. Note that the viewer/audience rep is only to ask question and not endorse/fault an argument.

While the debate is going on, any comment other than from debaters, coordinators and judges shall be hidden and the poster risks 2 hours ban from Politics section. When it's time to take a question from 1 viewer/audience, the coordinator will announce.

Then the judges will compile their results and email to the coordinators, who will aggregate and announce the results on the thread.

We expect the exercise to take between 2-3 hours.

5, POST-DEBATE
Then the thread shall be declared open for regular Nairaland discussion and comments.


October topic - page 16

November edition - page 24

December edition planning - page 29

Great...finally we have a politics section debate. How will the debater be chosen?

The moderators of this section have decided to introduce a monthly debate session as a way of raising the intellectual value of the section.

Well done guys. Good to note you have listened to the suggestion of some of us that the politics sections should be a more useful 'tool' to Nigeria and Nigerians , as an Arena of ideas, instead of the 'Jerry Springer' Stadium it currently is. With this move, you set a precedence for civil discussion that will hopefully be entrenched and accepted generally by users of this forum.

Interesting!. . . Can we suggest topics too?

The success or otherwise of the exercise and the ability to achieve the bigger picture of intellectualizing discussions here depends on everyone of us.

A good number of Nigeria's policy makers and pundits actually come here to read these stuffs. I know Pat Utomi does, I know el-Rufai does, I know many politicians do, that is why some of them have planted their boys here to project their image.

So, we need to raise the level of discussion on this forum so that the potential can be achieved.

Dotman01: Interesting!. . . Can we suggest topics too?

Yeah, free to suggest topics, and if passes consensus and scrutiny, will be considered the topic for the month.

afam4eva: Great...finally we have a politics section debate. How will the debater be chosen?

Through nominations and voluntary expression of interest.

Wao this is good.

But please avoid choosing topics that would make the thread a battle ground for tribal bigots.

Thumbs up.

CrazyMan: Wao this is good.

But please avoid choosing topics that would make the thread a battle ground for tribal bigots.

Thumbs up.

Sure, sensitive and emotional topics will be avoided.

This just crosses my mind.

Can we start with these guys?

1, Ekt-Bear - Politics section poster of the year 2010
2, Gbawe - PS POTY 2011
3, Katsumoto - Runners-up 2010
4, Onlytruth - Runners-up 2011

This sounds interesting?

Or better still, can we use them as judges? Every year, PS POtY and their runners-up are inducted into our panel of judges.

What do you guys think?

Jarus: The success or otherwise of the exercise and the ability to achieve the bigger picture of intellectualizing discussions here depends on everyone of us.

A good number of Nigeria's policy makers and pundits actually come here to read these stuffs. I know Pat Utomi does, I know el-Rufai does, I know many politicians do, that is why some of them have planted their boys here to project their image.

So, we need to raise the level of discussion on this forum so that the potential can be achieved.

Totally correct. Jarus, I see you and OAM4J as decent guys. I am just surprised this has not happened earlier. I have been saddened that a powerful forum like this, which should naturally be used to put our leaders under pressure and make them understand we are their boss, is a congregation ground for rancour, e-fights and ethnic bigotry. Anyway, better late than never. As I said earlier, this may just set a precedence that will impact positively on how we discuss here. Good one guys.

Jarus: This just crosses my mind.

Can we start with these guys?

1, Ekt-Bear - Politics section poster of the year 2010
2, Gbawe - PS POTY 2011
3, Katsumoto - Runners-up 2010
4, Onlytruth - Runners-up 2011

This sounds interesting?

You can't use people such as these as judges. They're as bias as they come and are involved in partisan politics in one way or the other. While Gbawe ia probably a card carrying member of ACN, ekt-Bear and Katsumoto are bias for anything Yoruba which includes ACN. Same goes for Onlytruth, who's bias for anything Igbo.

afam4eva:
You can't use people such as these as judges. They're as bias as they come and are involved in partisan politics in one way or the other. While Gbawe ia probably a card carrying member of ACN, ekt-Bear and Katsumoto are bias for anything Yoruba which includes ACN. Same goes for Onlytruth, who's bias for anything Igbo.

I agree. But they can debate.

Also, do you have anybody with balanced, near-neutral member of the forum with moderate view in mind that you can nominate as Judge?

I am suggesting Max Siollun, but he is not a regular member.

Demdem2: [b]Good Initiative. Kudos to u guys.




_{jarus, abegi set me free. banned wrongfully by pyguru}

Don't worry, ban expires by 11.02 am, that's next 15 minutes.

Jarus:

I agree. But they can debate.

Also, do you have anybody with balanced, near-neutral member of the forum with moderate view in mind that you can nominate as Judge?

I am suggesting Max Siollun, but he is not a regular member.

I will suggest Abagworo, even though that his line of thought sometimes scares me. But he can be a neutral judge. I will also suggest edo.girl. I'll think of more people later. It's really hard to find an impartial judge on Nairaland these days.

Nice one, this means one can pick up one or two things instead of the utter chaos which is occasionally apparent, resulting in the drowning of good ideas.

Apart from announcing winners, is it possible to transform the solutions into something meaningful? Like, contact legislators/politicians or at least create ‘best practice’ solutions to known issues / some kind of knowledgebase for people in power? I know Jarus mentioned Pat Utomi and El rufai, but I mean people who are already there and capable of making a difference.
That way, even a Nairalander who finds him/herself in power one day, might remember this forum and put these ideas into practice.

This is a welcome idea and i believe it will create a more friendly environment for us to share our views on our current political landscape.

And as a way to contribute, I will like nominate myself as a Judge in the first Debate session.

cheers

Thank you all for your support of this idea. We indeed want this debate to count and become a reference point to many of our politicians.

We want to get our panel of judges right. We need about Five people with at least 2 ladies. So we welcome more nominations. You can also nominate yourself.

I nominate Sisi_kill and Coogar among the judges.

afam4eva:
You can't use people such as these as judges. They're as bias as they come and are involved in partisan politics in one way or the other. While Gbawe ia probably a card carrying member of ACN, ekt-Bear and Katsumoto are bias for anything Yoruba which includes ACN. Same goes for Onlytruth, who's bias for anything Igbo.

You make a good point here. The forum should seek out forumers who have shown, under all conditions, they are truly neutral, non-partisan and generally stand up for what is right and just.

Let us look for 'Judges' like Eziachi, Pukkah, eGeurrilla, Ajanlekoko, Paddy Lo, Northsharp, Ufeolorun, Kilode, Rossikk, Sagamite, Mikeansy, Akanbi Edu, Haka Nai, Nagoma, HNosegbe, Ballabriggs, Jason123, Ogugua88, Edo girl et al. I think those sort of posters , even when controversially 'passionate' now and then, can be trusted entirely to be fair to all.

In fact, to even gain more neutrality, we should consider non-Nigerian Nairalanders who know Nigeria well and tend to be fair like Bennyboy and Akwasi. Judges should be those who are civil and tend to be able to view things dispassionately.

Also feel free to oppose any nomination you disagree with, and state your reasons.

We (moderators) will pick the final 5 judges from the nominations that are not effectively opposed.

Good development. I like to feature as a judge. Well, unless the organizers feel otherwise. In any case, there are few individuals with commitment and tenacity such as myself, and moderating/judging seems to be my forte.

What say you?

^^^

Guy, free me jare. I am addressing reasonable folks like Jarus, and OAM4J

PointB: Good development. I like to feature as a judge. Well, unless the organizers feel otherwise. In any case, there are few individuals with commitment and tenacity such as myself, and moderating/judging seems to be my forte.

What say you?

You can make a very good moderator. Infact, you're the best in Nairalander as it pertains to moderating. But as far as judging is concerned...I can't also feature as a judge because even though i try as much as possibly to be unbiased, you'll still feel that tribal affiliation in my posts.

Demdem:

In a public forum like this, u are addressing all. Dont u get it? better adjuust ur post to specifically suggest such.

In this instance, I am specifically addressing Jarus and OAM4j. How many times do you want me to say that?