Hamid Bobboyi, Universal Basic Education (UBEC) Executive Secretary, Anthony Akah, Acting Chairman, Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC), Edward Kallon, United Nations, Humanitarian Coordinator/UNDP Resident Representative, Obiageli Ezekwesili, Senior Economic Advisor, African Economic Development Policy Initiative, Olabisi Obadofin, Professor of Counselling Psychology, Lagos State University (LASU), Gbemiga Ogunleye, Provost, Nigerian Institute of Journalism (NIJ) and Imeh Okan, Project Manager, USAID Energy, Power Africa Nigeria, will be examining the nexus between electricity and basic education at the Ninth Wole Soyinka Centre Media Lecture Series, scheduled for Thursday 13 July 2017 at Shehu Musa Yar’Adua Centre, Abuja by 10am.
The annual lecture will this year mark Wole Soyinka’s 83rd birthday. It is themed, “Light Up, Light In: Interrogating the nexus between electricity and basic education in Nigeria”. The event seeks to contribute to strategic thinking and provide a veritable opportunity to raise critical questions and national debate on issues surrounding basic education (Sustainable Development Goal 4) and electric power availability and affordability (Sustainable Development Goal 7) in the country; ranging from the importance of the sectors to development, to the relationship between them, to issues of standard, to the challenges with politics, to the depth of media reportage of the issues, among others.
Importantly, the WSCIJ intends to use the occasion to launch the Regulators Monitoring Programme (REMOP) which is conceived as a media initiative geared at reporting the activities of regulators, including successes and failures, in a bid to promote proactive disclosure of information, transparency and accountability. The MacArthur Foundation supports the pilot phase of the programme with focus on electricity and basic education.
Other activities lined up for REMOP include, a three-month monitoring of twelve newspapers, the publication of status and annual reports on UBEC and NERC, stakeholders’ meetings, capacity development activities for reporters and students of journalism, investigative reporting projects and social media campaign, on the issue of regulation as it relates to electricity and basic education.
Admittance to the lecture event, which will be moderated by Alkasim Abdulkadir, a journalist and the Director of Victims Support Fund, is open to the media, industry experts, private sector leaders, government ministries and agencies, pressure groups, policy makers, students, members of the diplomatic corps and other stakeholders in the civil society.