The Minister of Works and Housing, Babatunde Raji Fashola, will on Thursday 8 September deliver the 2022 edition of TheNiche Annual Lecture.
The lecture, an intellectual fiesta aimed at proffering solutions to some of Nigeria’s most daunting problems, is organised by TheNiche, an online media platform.
The lecture will be held at the Agip Recital Hall of the Musical Society of Nigeria (MUSON) Centre, Onikan, Lagos. Fashola, former Governor of Lagos State, will speak on the theme “2023 elections and the future of Nigeria’s democracy”.
Alhaji Tanko Yakasai, First Republic politician, human rights activist, former Liaison Officer to late President Shehu Shagari and founding member of the Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF), will chair the event.
Many high-profile political and business leaders, including Anyim Pius Anyim, former Secretary to the Government of the Federation, as well as leading presidential candidates in the 2023 election are expected to grace the occasion.
A statement by Ikechukwu Amaechi, Managing Director/Editor-in-Chief of TheNiche, said the lecture was timed to sensitise Nigerians to the issues that should inform the leadership recruitment next year.
Amaechi, who said the “choice of both the lecturer and chairman was a product of painstaking deliberations,” also emphasised that, “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 panellists include Prof. Victor Chukwuma, Fellow, Astronomical Society of Nigeria and the Nigerian Institute of Physics, and Mr. Martins Oloja, Managing Director and Editorin- Chief of The Guardian.
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 lectures could not be held in 2020 and 2021 due to COVID-19 restrictions on public gatherings.