Dr. Jewel Howard-Taylor, the former Vice President of Liberia and ex-President of the Liberian Senate, will feature as the Keynote Speaker for the 4th edition of Frontier Discourse Annual Public Lecture Series and Awards.
Pacesetter Frontier Magazine, organisers of the event, announced this on Tuesday in a statement on the upcoming lecture.
It added that Femi Adesina, the Spokesman to former President Muhammadu Buhari, will headline the panel discussion which will also have Dr. Jewel Howard-Taylor and other young Africans – Dennis Mugaa, Aniekan Joseph and Chima Christian as Discussants.
Scheduled virtually on Wednesday, December 11, 2024, by 4.30pm (WAT), the Magazine in the statement signed by its Head of Southern Bureau, Doris Ewo, noted that the Keynote Speaker will speak on the topic: “Beyond Borders – Shared Pressures and the Politics of Reforms in African States”.
On the purpose of the topic, Ewo explained that in recent times, Africa continent has witnessed a resurgence of Military Coups. “Incidents of Civil Mass Protests are also sweeping throughout the continent,” she said.
“A cursory look at the Coups and Protests occurring beyond the borders of different African countries reveal some things – citizens’ agitation against the multilayered issues of horrible governance, politics, policies and their dwindling economic anti-people upshoots among African States.
“It is also noticed that external pressures come in different forms from Western countries and their allied organs, like the IMF, influencing loads of government decisions taken in African States.”
She further stated that these shared pressures beyond borders, as identified above, if left unchecked, will obviously cause a continental implosion, “now or in the future – and if this is to be avoided, there’s a need to begin to re-echo and preach the message of politics of reforms in African states.
“We hope that the lecture and panel session afford the resource persons the opportunity to propose how we can calm the troubled waters, reform the governance approach in the continent, beginning with how leaders of African States emerge, policy making, citizens’ charter and welfare, human rights, press freedom, rule of law, stronger judicial system, food security and security of lives and properties.”
Participants are to register freely via https://forms.gle/zGkDhp2jdx4y5UQG9
The event will be entirely virtual and live-streamed on Zoom, X, Facebook, YouTube and Instagram.
It will be hosted by a Nigerian Broadcast Journalist, Alex Ogbodo and has Journalist101, AnchorNews, CEO Media and OU Travel & Tours as its media partners.
Other partners are Odengene Air-shuttle Services Limited; ROWE Oil, Nigeria; Human Development Center, Nigeria; OPEANS Nigeria Limited and Selonnes Consult.
The Frontier Discourse initiative has spurred robust discussions on inclusive peace, responsible governance, societal progress and development, gaining traction in the past three years as a major platform by Nigeria’s public-private sector leaders and political class, with three successful editions.
Delegates count are captains of industries, spiritual leaders, traditional rulers, the political class, youth bodies, civil & non-governmental organizations, professional bodies, the formal sector, secondary school students, university undergraduates and honored Nigerians.
