Nigerian Students Emerge Best In Africa

A three-student team of the University of Ilorin emerged winners of the first ever International Arbitration Moot Competition held recently in Laico Regency Hotels, Nairobi, Kenya.

The competition was organised by the Regional Centre for International Commercial Arbitration for Universities in Africa.

The team comprised Whyte Habeeb Ibidapo, Atoyebi John Kehinde and Razak Abimbola Medinat.

The director of the centre, Mrs. Eunice Odiri, while welcoming guests and participants to the competition, recalled how the centre, about 10 years ago, conceived the idea of an African Arbitration Moot competition. “International Commercial Arbitration is an essential skill required by modern players in the global economy to attract foreign investment, boost commercial transactions and generally promote trade and investment in the economic life of the countries of the world,” she explained.

The students contested against their counterparts from the University of Nairobi, Kenya; University of Uganda, University of Pretoria, South Africa and Burkina Faso University.

The final round was witnessed by personalities from Africa and beyond, including acclaimed father of Arbitration Law in Africa, Norman Mururu; another diplomat of Arbitration in Africa, Kariuki Muigua; Justice Kantai of the Kenya Federal High Court; Hon Amos Wako, Attorney-General of Kenya; Wanjuki Muchemi, Solicitor-General of Kenya and Dr. Chijioke Wigwe, Nigerian High Commissioner to Kenya.

The contestants were expected to submit memorials for the claimant and respondent for a hypothetical case set by the centre, while schools were graded on the memorials before oral arguments by representatives of participating universities and the final round saw two Nigerian universities, University of Ilorin and Delta State University, locking horns to claim the trophy.

The students were declared winners after scoring more points than their opponents and presented with Hewlett Packard laptops, certificates and conference bags with materials on arbitration.

A cocktail was also organised in their honour.

While expressing delight at winning the competition, Whyte said “I am very happy because we put much effort in this competition and God has seen us through. I thank God and my coach, my parents, the entire members of the Moot and Debate Society of my faculty and everyone, especially the Dean of Law, University of Ilorin.”

Speaking further on behalf of his colleagues, Whyte thanked the university’s management led by the Vice-Chancellor, the Faculty of Law and the entire university community for their support.

“For us to be the champions of Africa Arbitration Moot is not a joke and also the first to win the coveted trophy for the next one year. We hold the record of champions of Africa,” he noted.

The coach of the team and Head of the Department of Business Law, Dr. M. M. Akanbi, gave glory to God and the entire members of his faculty.

According to him, “I love arbitration and I am proud to be the coach of the champions of Africa. The school will be proud of us, especially the vice-chancellor, when we get home,” he said in Kenya.

The elated Dean of Law, Dr. Wahab Egbewole, stressed that the emergence of the faculty as the continental champion did not come to him as a surprise because of the quality of training the students have received, noting that since the arbitration competition started in Nigeria a few years back and before it was organised at the continental level, the University of Ilorin has always been winning.

The dean welcomed the development and lauded the students for raising the banner of the university aloft in Nairobi, while also expressing hope that the faculty would win again in future competitions.

Arbitration, a form of Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR), is a legal technique for the resolution of disputes outside the courts, where the parties to a dispute refer to one or more persons (the “arbitrators,” “arbiters” or “arbitral tribunal,” by whose decision (the “award”) they agree to be bound. It is a settlement technique in which a third party reviews the case and imposes a decision that is legally binding on both sides.

Other forms of ADR include mediation, a form of settlement negotiation facilitated by a neutral third party and non-binding resolution by experts.

Arbitration is also often used for the resolution of commercial disputes, particularly in the context of international commercial transactions.

The use of arbitration is frequently employed in consumer and employment matters, where it may be mandated by the terms of employment or commercial contracts.

In another development, the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Ilorin, Prof. Is-haq O. Oloyede, has strongly condemned the bombing of the United Nations office in Abuja, describing it as dastardly, dangerous, unIslamic, unfortunate and inexplicable.

Oloyede, who is also the Executive Secretary and National Coordinator of the Nigeria Inter-religious Council (NIREC), gave this condemnation while addressing members of the Nigerian Union of Journalists (NUJ), who joined him for iftar (breaking of fast) at the his Lodge.

—Bayo Adetu