Constitutional Lawyer, leading human rights and anti-corruption crusader, Dr. Tunji Abayomi, the immediate past Inspector General of Police, Mr. Solomon Arase, and fearless journalist, Dare Babrinsa, will lead other eminent Nigerian professionals, to a roundtable on corruption at the Nigerian Institute of Journalism, NIJ, Ogba, Lagos, next Wednesday, November 1, 2017.
Other speakers at the event include: Professor Chioma Agomo, former Dean, Faculty of Law, University of Lagos; Dr. Jide Johnson, Deputy Provost, Nigerian Institute of Journalism; Mr. Dare Babarinsa, co-Founder of TELL news magazine and Managing Director, Gaskiya Media Group; Mrs. Funke Egbemode, President Nigerian Guild of Editors and Managing Director/Editor-in-Chief, The New Telegraph Newspaper; as well as Mr. Steve Nwosu, Deputy Managing Director/Deputy Editor-in-Chief, The Sun Newspaper.
The roundtable, a brainchild of the Sustainable Development and Transparency Foundation, SDTF, an anti-corruption non-profit organisation, has as theme: Best Strategies In Engaging The Youth In Nigeria’s Anti-Corruption War.
The event aims at sensitising the youth, especially journalism students, on how to recognise the early symptoms of the cancer, its disastrous consequences, and how to avoid the pitfalls that could predispose them to the demeaning disease.
Explaining the motive behind the theme, Shola Oshunkeye, SDTF’s Executive Director, said the youth were targeted “because they represent a significant portion of the population and are generally more receptive to social change and political transformation, since they may have less interest in maintaining the status quo.
“Second, in Nigeria, the youth have become part of the most vulnerable group of citizens that suffer the most from the consequences of the misdemeanours of those in charge of the country’s destiny. Through the corruption epidemic that has ravaged Nigeria since the onset of this democracy in 1999, the aspirations of the youth have either been amputated or stunted. Millions of Nigeria’s youth face uncertain future due to no fault of theirs. As a result, engaging them in the war against the cancer of corruption is essential for success.”
During the roundtable, Oshunkeye assured, “the speakers, very eminent Nigerians they are, would dig deep into their wealth of experience, as accomplished and widely respected professionals in law and journalism, as they speak to the theme pragmatically and in ways that would make the audience appreciate the need to imbibe the right values; and develop zero tolerance for corruption wherever they may find themselves. This is even so because the student journalists are the society’s future watchdogs and indispensable foot soldiers in the anti-graft war.”
The Sustainable Development and Transparency Foundation, SDTF, is a non-profit and non-partisan anti-corruption organisation. It aims to use well sourced information, investigation, civic education and value re-orientation programmes to contribute to Nigeria’s rebirth; and help engender a cleaner nation where best practices in governance, business and other spheres of life are held sacrosanct.