2017 Wole Soyinka lecture tackles linkages between basic education and electricity

2017 Wole Soyinka Lecture Tackles Nexus Between Basic Education, Electricity
Hamid Bobboyi, Universal Basic Education Commission (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 right to basic education at this year’s Wole Soyinka Centre Media Lecture Series, scheduled for Thursday 13 July 2017 at the Shehu Musa Yar’Adua Centre, Abuja by 10am.

The annual lecture will comemorate Wole Soyinka’s 83rd birthday. It is themed, “Light Up, Light In: Interrogating the nexus between electricity and basic education in Nigeria”.
The lecture 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 Wole Soyinka Centre for Investigative Journalism [WSCIJ]  intends to use the occasion to launch the Regulators Monitoring Programme (REMOP) which is conceived as a media initiative aimed 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, according to Motunrayo Alaka, Centre Coordinator at the WSCIJ, will  include a three-month monitoring of twelve newspapers, the publication of status and annual reports on UBEC and NERC, stakeholders’ meetings, capacity development program 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.

The Wole Soyinka Centre for Investigative Journalism (WSCIJ) is a not-for-profit, non-governmental organisation with social justice programmes aimed at exposing corruption, regulatory failures and human rights abuses with the tool of investigative journalism.