Students from public schools in Abia State, representing Nigeria, have emerged overall champions at the 2026 International Schools Debate Championship held in Doha, Qatar.
The Abia students, who represented Team Nigeria, defeated competitors from several countries to win the biggest prize of the competition — the Best International School Debate Team award.
The team also returned with four major trophies and 12 laurels after competing against teams from countries including Jordan, India, Qatar, the Philippines and Kenya.
The achievement was disclosed in a statement issued on Sunday by Ukoha Ukoha, Chief Press Secretary to Abia State Governor Alex Otti.
The 2026 championship was coordinated by the Vocara Institute and hosted by the QatarDebate Centre at Georgetown University, Doha. The competition featured more than 84 groups from eight countries.
Team Nigeria was presented by Presidential School Debate Nigeria and was made up entirely of students from Abia public schools. The team comprised Christian Chinweotitom Esther, Chikodi Maureen, Akamnonu Franklin, Ifeanyichukwu Prisca and Simon Divine.
Led by the Executive Chairman of the Abia State Universal Basic Education Board, Amb. Lydia Onuoha, alongside representatives of the Presidency and Presidential School Debate Nigeria, the students successfully navigated the preliminary rounds.
They defeated competitors from the Philippines, Jordan, India and Qatar to secure a place in the finals, where they went on to claim the overall championship.
Apart from the Best International School Debate Team award, the students also won the Overall Best Team – Junior Category, Best Leadership Award and Best Debater Award, alongside 12 other laurels for outstanding performances.
Reacting to the achievement, Ukoha said, “This historic victory has once again demonstrated the strength of Abia’s new education model under Gov. Alex Otti and the intellectual capacity of students in Abia public schools. The Abia Debate Team has made Abia and Nigeria proud.”
The state Commissioner for Basic Education, Elder Goodluck Ubochi, also expressed excitement over the students’ performance, describing the feat as evidence that the government’s efforts to transform the education sector were yielding results.
“We feel elated now. What we are doing is that we are transforming the educational sector, and this outcome now is one of the expectations, and they are indicators that what we are doing is working”.
Ubochi said the state government would host and celebrate the students upon their return, adding that they were not the only Abia students who had achieved remarkable results in national and international competitions.
“Let them come back first. When they come back, we are going to host and celebrate them. They are not the only ones. There are others that we are going to unveil by the time we celebrate all our victors together, the winners.
“We have a lot of them. One student won the national essay competition organised by the All Nigeria Confederation of Principals of Secondary Schools (ANCOPSS) nationally. So we have a handful of them that we’re going to celebrate.
“So we are waiting for them to come back. We will organise when we will celebrate all the contingents that have represented us well in one form of competition or the other.”
