Protocol;
Your Excellencies, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen, and members of my constituency, the Media, and those following our live streaming online, permit me to express my pleasure in welcoming you all to the 13th Anniversary Lecture of Realnews Magazine, Nigeria’s first Online Magazine. We appreciate your sacrifice, support and invaluable contributions, especially at a time when the world is in a frenzy to round up activities for the year. We give special glory to God Almighty for making this day possible.
At Realnews, we are joyful that our Guest Lecturer, Dr. Musa Adamu, is here with us. We are grateful that you made time out of your very busy schedule to honour our invitation. We also appreciate the efforts by Dr. Sule Ya’u Sule to ensure that you are here today. Please join us to welcome all ICPC officials here present, especially those in the Protocol Unit led by Mr. Ahmed, who liaised with us to ensure your safe arrival.
We are equally thrilled that Honourable Justice Ayotunde Phillips, former Chief Judge of Lagos State and Former Chairman of the Lagos State Independent Electoral Commission (LASIEC) and Chair of today’s occasion, is here. Her Lordship, you are warmly welcome. We gladly welcome our discussants, Lasbery Chioma Oludimu, Vice President of Global Operations and Managing Director of Yellowcard Financial Nigeria Inc., Dr Favour Femi-Oyewole, Group Chief Information Security Officer, Access Bank Plc., and Mr. Abdul Rahman, M. Mustapha, Chief Operating Officer, Intelligence & Security Services Support Sector, National Financial Intelligence Unit, and all distinguished guests here too numerous to mention. We thank you all for honouring us with your presence.ersary lecture comes with a mixed bag. While celebrating our 13th anniversary, we were shocked on November 17 by the news of the death of Mr. Dan Agbese, a co-founder of Newswatch Magazine, and under whose tutelage I honed my skills in investigative journalism for 14 and a half years before setting up the Realnews Magazine Online. Oga Dan supported us and attended all Realnews lectures physically or followed them online I crave your indulgence to please stand for one-minute silence in honour of Octogenarian Dan Agbese, one of Nigeria’s finest journalists, an intellectual stalwart, a master of prose and author of many books. May his soul and the souls of the faithful departed rest in peace. Amen!
The hurt notwithstanding, a consolation is that for the first time in the history of ouranniversary lecture series, we have a discussant, who shares a birthday with Realnews Magazine. We are happy to celebrate with Lasbery Oludimu, whose birthday is today, November 19. Happy birthday, Lasbery!
The anniversary lecture series is one way Realnews contributes to nation-building and development by providing a platform for policy change-oriented discussions by professionals, scholars, technocrats, and decision-makers on the way forward for our great nation and Africa. From 2014, the lecture series has focused on elections, economy, security, challenges of Leadership in Africa, Africa’s political transitions, developments in oil and gas sector, integration of the African Market, the threats of drug abuse among African youths, and illicit funds flow to the African economy, among other topics.
Today, we are deepening the discussion on illicit funds flow in Africa due to popular demand after the 2023 lecture on a similar topic. But this time we are expanding the conversation to cyber-security and the effects of illicit funds flow on the African economy. Illicit financial flows have become a major drain on the African economy and a major concern to the whole world because of its attendant negative effects on the socioeconomic development of the continent. The topic presents an opportunity for the experts assembled in this room to share their thoughts on how the Global Corruption Accountability & Dollar Sanitization Act can assist Africa in curbing tax evasion or financial crimes and illicit financial flows, which have robbed countries on the continent of the necessary funds for development.
The United Nations estimates that US$50 billion is lost annually through illicit financial flows, which is twice what Africa gets as official development assistance. Illicit financial flows also stand on the way of African countries like Nigeria, meeting the Sustainable Development Goals and Africa’s development master plan on Agenda 2063 for prosperity and inclusive growth. This is especially important given the recent U.S.-Nigeria collaboration that led to the repatriation of the US$52 million reportedly siphoned out of Nigeria by a former minister of petroleum resources and her accomplice.
We have assembled experts from the public and private organisations on cybersecurity and Fintech companies to shed some light on this topical issue and suggest the way forward.
We narrowed down on our Guest Lecturer today because of his pedigree as the anti-corruption chief and AU’s chair on recovery of corrupt assets. We have no doubt that our panel of discussants have the relevant expertise, knowledge, and experience to illuminate the topic further.
As usual, I would like to appeal to my journalist colleagues to ensure that the message from here today is heard across Africa and beyond. Of course, at Realnews we will ensure that we do our part by giving the widest publicity to this important lecture and the discussions.
Realnews boasts a crop of seasoned journalists who believe strongly in the tenets and ethics of the profession. We are convinced that journalism as the Fourth Estate of the Realm can contribute to building a free, fair, and just society where fundamental human rights are respected and where citizens enjoy the freedom to pursue their interests without let or hindrance. Our motto at Realnews is: “For God and Humanity.”
in the Eyes of the Media Volume 1 – 4; Pathways to Political and Economic Development of Africa, and Paragon of Journalism Volume 1 and 2. We are working on several manuscripts and require sponsors for their publication. These are some of the ways we raise money for our free-source online publication, with investigative journalism, as our first love.
In addition, we also welcome whistle-blowers in the world of Realnews magazine. Rest assured that all information provided will be handled with the highest sense of responsibility and confidentiality.
Realnews Magazine is all about investigative, robust, and excellent journalism. We are your partners in development, and together we will build a strong and virile society where all will be free and happy to live and invest in.
Before I conclude, permit me to appreciate and welcome members of the Realnews Hall of Fame, here present and those Online. The Realnews Hall of Fame is our modest way of honouring Lecturers and Speakers at our Anniversary Lectures for their contributions to knowledge and national development. We also honour Realnews Ambassadors.
Permit me to also thank members of the Realnews team chaperoned by Mr. Goddy Ikeh for their commitment, hard work, and sacrifice; Mr. Paul Ejime, a Global Affairs Analyst, for his editorial guidance, Mrs. Comfort Coleman, CEO, Nekego Resources and Sir Eze Emecheta, CEO, Elvis Group, for their encouragement and advice.
I cannot end this address without thanking government institutions and corporate organisations that made this year’s Realnews Anniversary Lecture possible with their support and advertisements. These are the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited, Nigerian Content Development Monitoring Board, Shell Nigeria, Nigerian Communications Commission, NCC, Nigerian Natural and Liquefied Gas, NLNG, Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, Zenith Bank, Access Bank, National Emergency Management Agency, and Johnwood Hotel. We are most grateful to you all.
I also welcome those following proceedings on live streaming and via Facebook and YouTube from different countries. We appreciate you all.
Thank you for your attention and welcome one and all!
God bless Realnews! God bless Nigeria, God bless Africa.
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