Akwa Ibom Governor, Godswill Akpabio, will deliver this year’s NewsAfrica Global Lecture entitled “Delivering the Dividends of Democracy: An African Experience” in London on August 7.
The event, which will be held at the Dorchester Hotel, will be followed by an award dinner where Akpabio will be honoured as the NewsAfrica Leader of the Year 2014. He is the second person to be so voted in the 14-year history of the magazine. The first was Kofi Anan, then UN Secretary-General, who was so voted in 2002.
A press release issued Thursday in London by Moffat Ekoriko, publisher of the magazine, says Akpabio is expected to share with an international audience, his formula for transforming what was once a backwater of development into Nigeria’s fastest developing state.
The lecture, coming close to Nigeria’s presidential elections next year, will be keenly scrutinised by the international community which is interested in gaining insight into Nigeria’s political direction.
Organisers of the event note that Akpabio’s achievements are such that the performance of other office holders is measured in relation to his.
NewsAfrica’s Leader of the Year is an African on the continent or in the Diaspora who has demonstrated unique leadership capabilities in tackling the problems of development, inequality, poor leadership or crisis bedevilling the continent.
It is the prime international newsmagazine covering Africa and Africans in the Diaspora. Founded in 1999, it circulates in 44 countries.
