All is set for the sixth annual conference of the Guild of Corporate Online Publishers (GOCOP) scheduled for Thursday, October 6 at Sheraton Hotel, Ikeja-Lagos.
This year’s conference which is holding barely five months to the 2023 general elections will provide a roadmap for political actors and the various publics on the need to play by the rules and conform to acceptable electoral behaviour.
GOCOP Publicity Secretary, Remmy Nweke in a statement on Monday said this year’s theme would focus on “2023 Elections: Managing the Process for Credible Outcome”.
The Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof. Mahmood Yakubu will be the keynote speaker while the founder, Centre for Alternative Policy Perspectives and Strategy (CAPPS) Dr. Umar Ardo will chair the event.
Panellists at the events include human rights activist and Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), Mr. Ebun-Olu Adegboruwa, former Inspector General of Police, Dr. Solomon E. Arase, and Dr. Chichi Aniagolu-Okoye, Regional Director, Ford Foundation (West Africa).
The statement further quoted the chairman, 2022 Conference Committee, Mr. Ken Ugbechie saying that major brands have lent their support for the event.
While listing Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Access Bank Plc, Unity Bank plc and Globacom as partners he revealed Delta and Lagos States as partners.
Others are; Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA), Chevron Nigeria Limited, and Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC).
“Before now, GOCOP 2022 conference has announced earlier partnerships with the Nigeria Incentive-Based Risk Sharing System for Agricultural Lending (NIRSAL Plc.), Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), Nigerian Content Development & Monitoring Board (NCDMB), and Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), as well as the First Bank Plc, Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas (NLNG) Limited, The Presidency, Wema Bank, Nigeria Ports Authority (NPA) etcetra.
Highlight expected at this year’s conference, he said, is a 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 took podium in 2019 to 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 recollected.
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.”
