Nigeria and the oil fortune, or perhaps, misfortune, is the focus for discussion at the Seventh Wole Soyinka Centre Media Lecture Series which holds on Monday 13 July, 2015 by 1pm at the Ladi Kwali Hall of the Sheraton Hotel, Abuja. Malam Nasir El Rufai, Governor of Kaduna State, former Minister of the Federal Capital Territory and former Director General of the Bureau of Public Enterprises will speak to the theme.
The lecture this year is organised by the Wole Soyinka Centre for Investigative Journalism (WSCIJ) in collaboration with the Natural Resource Governance Institute (NRGI), Pan-Atlantic University and Premium Times, to kick-start the partners’ Media for Oil Reform programme. The programme will include capacity development outreaches at various levels of the media to support the watchdog’s ability to report the sector more accurately.
Mr. Sam Omatseye, Chairman, Editorial Board of The Nation Newspapers; Mrs. Funke Kasali, Former Executive Secretary of the Petroleum Equalisation Fund; and Mr. Deji Haastrup, General Manager, Policy, Government and Public Affairs at Chevron are confirmed discussants for the event, while, Mr Tunji Lardner, Executive Director of West African NGO Network, will compere the meeting.
The plan is to use the lecture to contribute to strategic thinking on charting a way forward to ameliorate threats on oil as the main stay of the Nigerian economy and better define the media’s role in contributing to the much needed reforms.
The Lecture, an annual programme of the WSCIJ, is designed to periodically examine varying topical issues that have a reverberating effect on the perceived performance of the media on the health of our country, Nigeria, and its democracy. It has since 2009 held on July 13, Professor Wole Soyinka’s Birthday, to honour this global icon while also drawing attention to critical national issues.
Admittance to the event is open to journalists, practitioners and pressure groups in the extractive industry, policy makers, members of the diplomatic corps, and other stakeholders in the civil society.
Signed:
Motunrayo Alaka
Centre Coordinator
