Nigerian students dazzle the world at UN headquarters in New York

•The proud students at UN headquarters PHOTO: THE SUN PUBLISHING

For five secondary school students from schools in Rivers and Akwa Ibom States it was an unforgettable experience to behold the hallowed precincts of the United Nations (UN) Headquarters in New York, USA where they joined 3,000 other students from 23 countries for a week long conference in March, 2012. Africa was represented by two countries, namely Nigeria (our delegation) and The Gambia.

Every year, for the past 38 years, the UN hosts the National High School Model United Nations (NHSMUN) conference which brings together international students from all corners of the globe to deliberate on today’s burning issues. Essentially, the sessions are simulations of a real United Nations. The forum offers invaluable insights into the full range of UN activities and responsibilities.
The conference takes a problem-solving approach where the students are truly placed in the shoes of diplomats – a uniquely powerful way to educate young people about global issues.

The young delegates, in seeking solutions to these problems learn to break away from narrow self-interests and develop true international co-operation. The research and preparation required, the adoption of views and attitudes other than their own, the involvement and interaction with so many other young people from around the world, all combine to give the young people a deep insight into the worlds’ problems, to make them aware of the causes of conflict between nations and to lead them to a better understanding of the interest and motivations of others.

Each conference delegate is assigned a committee of the UN. Each committee has topics to deliberate on throughout the week-long conference. Standard UN presentation procedures are applied during conference. During the days of the conference, delegates are expected to exchange ideas (brainstorm) with other delegates in order to negotiate and work out issues in an effort to come up with conference resolutions to be voted upon on the last day of the conference. In summary, Model United Nations (MUN) conference is designed to equip students with transferable lifelong skills such as negotiation skills, conflict resolution and consensus-building, confidence-building, public speaking, internet literature research skills and social etiquette. Conference participation also fosters global citizenship.

For the Nigerian delegation to the 2012 NHSMUN, they qualified to participate after an excruciating selection process organized by a Port Harcourt-based NGO, FutureTrust Initiative for Capacity Building (FTI) in select secondary schools. Dr. Maureen Egbuche, Country Director of FTI has been involved in the selection, coaching and ultimately the participation of Nigerian Secondary school delegates to the conference since 2002. The five student ambassadors (three parent-sponsored and two FTI-sponsored), in the persons of Chukwuebuka Araka, Tolulope Olukanmi, Rahmat Udousoro, Olisaemeka Okolo and Prince Alugbara are from Bloombreed International School, Graceland Secondary School and Oginigba Community Comprehensive Secondary School in Port Harcourt and Topfaith International Secondary School, Mkpatak, Akwa Ibom State, respectively. These students flew the Nigerian flag, sorry, the flag of New Zealand.

New Zealand? Yes. By special arrangement of the conference, the student delegates represent countries other than theirs. Our delegates were assigned five committees of the UN General Assembly and two topics of debate per student including “Security Implications of a Nuclear Weapons Programme in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea,” “State-sponsored Terrorism,” “Management of External National Debt,” “The Effects of Agricultural Export Subsidies on Least Developed Countries,” “Children in the Workforce in Southeast Asia,” “Rights of Indigenous Peoples in South America,” “The Water Crisis in the Middle East,” “UN Involvement in Election Monitoring,” “Universal Jurisdiction, Intellectual Property Law in a Globalized Society.”
Working papers on the topics were generated after delegates had presented their country’s opinions on the topics of discussion. On the final day of the conference, all delegates gathered together for the plenary session where resolutions were presented to be voted on. Our delegates generated and sponsored seven resolutions. Five of the seven resolutions passed with high majority votes while two failed.

Chukwuebuka of Bloombreed International School Port Harcourt had this to say of his experience: “if I was to call this conference a life-changing experience, I’ll be lying. It was a world-changing experience. It taught me how to speak in public and how to get people to buy your ideas”. An FTI-sponsored delegate, Prince Alugbara of Oginigba Community Comprehensive Secondary School, Port Harcourt, captured his feeling succinctly when he declared: “I was really surprised with the letters some delegates sent to me after my first speech. To cut it short, this conference has given me a public speaking skill. It built my confidence in myself and made me understand that there is something deep within me which the world is really waiting for.” Tolulope summarized it thus: “this experience is definitely the springboard to greater heights for me. I also made good friends and was enlightened by thousands of other things I never had an idea of before.”

Dr. Maureen Egbuche had this to say: “The performance of the students qualified us for an increase in the number of Nigerian delegates for 2013 NHSMUN. This is the first time our delegation has been granted such opportunity since our maiden participation in 2002. All our preparations paid off indeed. To God be the glory.”
Plans are already in full gear for the three-phase selection tests for Nigerian delegates to NHSMUN 2013. Select schools in Rivers, Anambra, Lagos, Bayelsa and Abia States will participate while a test centre is being planned for Abuja.