Babatunde Fashola, Minister of Works and Housing, will deliver the keynote address on the 2023 elections at a democracy lecture organised by TheNiche, an online news platform, on Thursday.
TheNiche Annual Lecture 2022 will be held at the Agip Recital Hall of the Musical Society of Nigeria Centre in Onikan, Lagos.
This was revealed in a statement made public.
Fashola, former governor of Lagos State, will speak on the theme, ‘2023 elections and the future of Nigeria’s democracy’ while Alhaji Tanko Yakasai, veteran First Republic politician, human rights activist, former Liaison Officer to late President Shehu Shagari and founding member of the Arewa Consultative Forum will chair the event.
Many high profile political and business leaders, including former Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Senator Anyim Pius Anyim, as well as leading presidential candidates in the 2023 elections are expected to grace the occasion.
A statement by Ikechukwu Amaechi, Managing Director/Editor-in-Chief of TheNiche, said this year’s lecture which holds exactly two weeks from the flag off of the campaigns for the 2023 elections was timed to sensitise Nigerians on the issues that should inform the leadership recruitment exercise next year.
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Amaechi, who said the “choice of both the lecturer and chairman was a product of painstaking deliberations,” also added, “besides the two tested democracy giants, a panel of five discussants drawn from the academia, media, civil society, political class and the INEC will interrogate Fashola’s lecture in real time.”
The panelists include, Prof. Victor Chukwuma, Fellow, Astronomical Society of Nigeria and the Nigerian Institute of Physics, and Mr. Martins Oloja, Managing Director and Editor-in-Chief of The Guardian newspaper.
Others are Dr. Dakuku Peterside, former Director-General NIMASA; Mrs Ene Obi, Country Director ActionAid Nigeria, Convener Situation Room, and Mr. Festus Okoye, INEC National Commissioner and Chairman, Information and Voter Education Committee.
The discussions would be moderated, Mr. Anthony Kila, experienced lecturer and public speaker, Jean Monnet professor of Strategy and Development, Director at the Centre for International Advanced and Professional Studies.
