-BY Arébíyò
Incantato is an oratory competition that involves all school within UCH. What sets it aside from other Oratory competitions like the recent Champions of the Podium is the fact that it brings together students in different associations under the umbrella of USA( UCH Students Association).Also, most of the other oratory competitions are usually limited to departments and halls of residence but Incantato tries to bridge the gap by bringing together everyone under USA, no matter the level or department.
The MC for the program, Eunice Oladeji really had her work cut out for her because most of the people in the audience were ‘first-timers’. But after a shaky start and a somewhat “hard-to-please” audience, she got the drift and made it all come together nicely. The judges were Dr Adaeze Nwashilli and Ms Dami Okoyomoh. The timekeeper was Ms Anastasia
The associations that participated in this year’s Incantato included School Of Nursing (SON), UIMSA, UADS, APS, NIMELSSA. SON had 3 representatives; Akinwole Agnes, Adegbenro Ahmed and Emiade Opeyemi, UIMSA; Odigwe Bryan, Adeniran Ruqaayah and Okeke Ugochukwu, UADS; Aliyu Zainab, APS; Oluwatoba Jumoke, Adediran Life and Adesina Olaitan, NIMELSSA; Dibia Ernesto, Olufemi Olayinka and Alao Uthman, making a total of 11 speakers
A welcome address was given by Mr Ojewale Ridwan, the chairman of the event and Dr Nwashilli on behalf of the judges told the people how points were going to be awarded and the categories.( A prepared speech category where the speakers for the evening were given 5 minutes and an impromptu speech category where they were given 1 minute ‘to make sense’)
The program took us from the captivating ‘Song of my heart’ of Mr Adesina Olaitan to the ‘Broke and Broken cries’ of Dibia Erneso. We also had vivid imagery at play through the “purgative” words of Okeke Ugo. The impromptu topics also gave them something to think about from topics like ‘The sky is red’ to ‘How I killed him’, there was also ‘My father hates me’. The audience were not left out of the fun impromptu topics and were given a slot to pick, by popular demand a speaker to proceed to the finals.
After hours of listening, the judges came to a decision that saw Okeke Ugo emerge in fifth position, Odigwe Bryan fourth, Oluwatoba Olajumoke third, Adesina Olaitan second and Miss Adeniran Ruqaayah emerging as the winner of the preliminaries. The 6th speaker to join them was Mr Dibia Ernesto as he was voted the audience’s favorite.
The finals would take place in two weeks and we hope for a more riveting and captivating time.
