Arase, Adegboruwa, Aniagolu-Okoye, Ardo lineup for GOCOP conference

The 2022 conference of the Guild of Corporate Online Publishers (GOCOP) slated for Thursday, October 6 at Sheraton Hotel, Ikeja, Lagos will be headlined by experts and moral authorities from different fields of human endeavour listed to serve as panellists at the  conference.

They include the former Inspector General of Police (IGP) Dr. Solomon E. Arase,  human rights activist and Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), Mr. Ebun-Olu Adegboruwa, and Dr. Chichi Aniagolu-Okoye, Regional Director, Ford Foundation (West Africa).

The chairman, 2022 Conference Committee, Mr. Ken Ugbechie was quoted in a press statement by the Publicity Secretary of GOCOP, Remmy Nweke, as saying that the event would be chaired by the founder, Centre for Alternative Policy Perspectives and Strategy (CAPPS) Dr. Umar Ardo.

The theme for this year’s conference is “2023 Elections: Managing the Process for Credible Outcome,” while the keynote speaker is the Chairman, Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof. Mahmood Yakubu.

The statement recalled that latest partners for the event comprised Delta State and Lagos State, National Insurance Commission (NAICOM), Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA), Chevron Nigeria Limited, and Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC).

Other partners are Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Access Bank Plc, Unity Bank plc and Globacom.

The statement said GOCOP 2022 conference committee had earlier announced partnerships with the Nigeria Incentive-Based Risk Sharing System for Agricultural Lending (NIRSAL Plc.), Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), Nigerian Content Development & Monitoring Board (NCDMB), Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), First Bank Plc, Nigeria Liquefied National Gas (NLNG) Limited, The Presidency, Wema Bank, Nigeria Ports Authority (NPA) among others.

Ugbechie urged both the electorate and politicians to play by the rules and conform to acceptable electoral behaviour, especially now that the peace accord has been signed by key political actors.

He said that the conference shall be preceded with a strategic business luncheon with GOCOP partners on Wednesday, October 5, at the same venue.

Former speakers at GOCOP conferences include Rev. Matthew Hassan Kukah, the Bishop of the Catholic Diocese of Sokoto who delivered the 2019 lecture on “Economy, Security and National Development: The Way Forward”. In 2021, Mr. Boss Mustapha, Secretary to the Government of the Federation keynoted the Conference in his capacity as Chairman of the Presidential Task Force on Covid-19. He spoke on: “Post Covid-19 Pandemic: Recovery and Reconstruction in Nigeria.”

“The Guild was established to ensure that online publishers uphold the tenets of journalism in doing their jobs and our membership is a constellation of Editors and senior journalists who, having distinguished themselves in their various stations, ventured into online publishing which is both the present and future of journalism globally,” Ugbechie said.

He stressed that the conference is therefore a fitting platform for the distillation and sharing of ideas from a carefully chosen array of resource persons cutting across the entire socio-political ecosystem. GOCOP intends to use the opportunity of the conference to moderate the already tense political climate as well as to proffer solutions to current and anticipated challenges arising from the elections.