A former member of the House of Representatives and facilitator of the refund of Nigeria’s excess payment to the Paris Club, Prince Ned Munir Nwoko is to deliver the 2019 University of Ibadan Alumni Association Public Service Lecture.
Unfolding this in a chat with journalists in her office over the weekend, the President of the University of Ibadan Alumni Association Worldwide, Prof Elsie Olufunke Adewoye disclosed that the theme of the lecture is “Towards Efficient Management of Nigeria’s Foreign Loans’.
The Public Service Lecture will hold at the University of Ibadan Alumni Association Multipurpose Auditorium, University of Ibadan on the 30th of August 2019, beginning at 4 pm prompt under the chairmanship of Prof Abel Idowu Olayinka FAS, Vice Chancellor of the University of Ibadan.
According to the UI Alumni President, the event will feature a showcase of the rich culture of Delta State as the programme aims in part at enhancing cultural renaissance and awareness in the country.
Prof Elsie Olufunke Adewoye further revealed that the choice of Prince Ned Nwoko to deliver the 1st stanza of the 2019 National Public Service lecture was informed by his high sense of patriotism over the years, especially the part he played in facilitating Nigeria’s excess payment to the Paris Club. She noted with delight that since the refund, many states have been lifted up from their hitherto financial insolvencies thereby leading to payment of arrears of salaries, while many state Chief Executives embarked on massive infrastructural development of their states.
She equally noted that while at the House of Representatives between 1999 and 2003, Hon. Ned Nwoko, a Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) chieftain’s initiated many populist bills that had direct positive bearing on the weak and less privileged in the society.
The Alumni Association lectures aims in part at agenda setting in the polity . It seeks to give answers to the very many nagging questions that presently confronts us as a developing nation. She stressed that over the years as part of her contribution to nation building, the association had invited very many patriotic Nigerians to use her platform in initiating healthy discourse in the nation.
While disclosing that the University of Ibadan Alumni Association propelled lectures spans over 4 decades, she averred that non graduates of the university who have made their mark in the society also contributed in the series of lectures following the decision of the Executive Council in 2011 to allow non graduands of the university address topical and germane issues using the platform of the association which is quite credible for such intellectual discourse.
She listed past National Public Service lecturers who are non graduates of U.I to include the foremost Ijaw Leader and Nationalist, Chief Edwin Clarke, the Obi of Onitsha, Obi Agbogidi Achebe, former Governor of Delta State, Dr Emmanuel Uduaghan, the former Deputy President of the Senate, Rt.Hon Ike Ekweremadu PhD, Dr Ibrahim Dankwambo, former Governor of Gombe State and Arakunrin Rotimi Akeredolu, Governor of Ondo State.
