Introduction Eleven years and the dialogue goes on
It was, as it has been for the eleventh straight year, a rich gathering of rulers, politicians, academics, diplomats, media chiefs, other professionals, labour and civil society activists as well as women and youth leaders. The 11th Edition of the Daily Trust Annual Dialogue took place at Transcorp Hilton Hotel’s massive Congress Hall in Abuja yesterday and, what an event that was.
The theme of the 11th Dialogue was Incumbency and Impunity in Politics; Safeguarding Our Democracy Beyond 2015. Some people feared that a discussion about impunity could scare off many men of powers, but many courageous ones among them turned up. Deputy Senate President Ike Ekweremadu was present as Special Guest of Honour. Speaker Aminu Waziri Tambuwal just failed to make it and he sent profuse apologies along with a representative, Hon Victor Ogene, deputy chairman of the House Committee on Media. Governor Kashim Shettima of Borno State, an intellectual who strayed into power, showed up in person.
The three guest speakers were a woman and two men, all of them tried and tested in the fight for citizens’ rights and against impunity. Ms Ayo Obe, Dr. Jibrin Ibrahim and Barrister Festus Okoye have between them spent several decades fighting impunity in Nigeria under military and civilian dispensations. None of them sported an AK-47; the weapons in their arsenals are sharp legal minds [Obe and Okoye], sound academic training and experience [Ibrahim], a long track record of civil society work [all three], pain staking monitoring of elections [Okoye] and brilliant intellectual penetration of issues [all three].
Impunity for the most part is a breach of the laws and no one dared to quote the law wrongly at the Dialogue because the occasion’s chairman was a grandfather of the law. Justice Alfa Modibbo Belgore held every available judicial office in Nigeria over several decades and retired as Chief Justice of Nigeria [CJN]. His very presence at the event was a blow to impunity and it was also a reminder to critics of impunity that the best recourse to fighting it is the law, though political and other agitation will not hurt.
It was just as well two of the state agencies in the centre of the action to combat impunity towards 2015 were well represented at yesterday’s event. INEC Chairman Prof Attahiru Jega was personally present while Inspector General of Police Mohamed Abubakar was represented by Assistant Inspector General Sulaiman Baba, a rare breed of intellectual police officer. When this cop rose on two occasions to speak, there were high expectations among the audience that impunity was about to speak up. When he sat down a few minutes later, necks were stretching to have another look at the first police officer in recent memory to impress a Nigerian seminar audience.
Yesterday’s Dialogue had been preceded by an evening of glitz but also of great substance, the Daily Trust African of the Year Award that took place at the same venue on Wednesday. The man who was honoured was African Development Bank [ADB] President Dr. Donald Kaberuka. He had advanced a revolutionary concept of financing key infrastructure projects across the African continent. Kaberuka pointed out that no fast economic progress is possible without infrastructure, but very wisely added that infrastructure however strategic must be accompanied by good management and maintenance.
That the man being honoured was Africa’s top banker attracted to the event a battery of Nigerian bankers and finance men and women, including Finance Minister Ngozi OkonjoIweala, central Bank of Nigeria Governor Sanusi Lamido Sanusi and several bank GMDs. United Bank for Africa, the Nigerian bank with the deepest intraAfrican reach and which has been sponsoring the $50,000 prize since the program’s inception five years ago, turned out in force. Its Group Managing Director Mr. Phillips Oduoza was present alongside his predecessor Mr. Tony Elumelu, who was the man who approved the rich partnership with Media Trust on the African of the Year Project.
All told, Wednesday evening and Thursday morning recorded major contributions to intraAfrican solidarity, the search for visionary contributions to African development and the hard tackling of impunity and bad governance in Nigeria. This 8-pade special pull out will hopefully provide you, our dear reader, with a useful glimpse into yesterday’s Dialogue.
MAHMUD JEGA Associate Director [Editorial] Media Trust Limited