2014 CVL ANNUAL LECTURE SYMPOSIUM – Citizen unites to Combat Poverty
On the 6th of February 2014 the 11th annual CVL lecture/ symposium marking 10 years since the founding of the Centre for Values in Leadership will take place at the prestigious Nigerian Institute of International Affairs (NIIA). Unique to this 10th anniversary is that it ups the game beyond listening to good speakers focusing on values for leadership for the next generation.
The 2013 lecture featured a broad range of speakers from the Sultan of Sokoto, to State Governors Kayode Fayemi and Peter Obi with US congressmen Jerry Weller and Chicago Entrepreneur Tony Hoti and Abuja clergy man Fr. George Ehusani and former Governor Donald Duke moderating. In the quest to ramp up value from the high level of investments in the series, the 2014 lecture seek to take the benefits beyond the seven hundred or so who attend and media reports of the talkfest. How do citizens walk the talk from the event to change society for good through direct activeness? This is the reason the 2014 CVL lecture/ symposium aspires to being a watershed event.
To that effect the topic for 2014 is proving particularly useful. Leadership and the scourge of poverty in Africa’ was chosen as the theme for 2014 before the idea of using the symposium to jumpstart citizen volunteer and self-help initiatives flowing from the year’s theme to develop leadership talent of citizens in their immediate community, and solving real problems raised by the theme for the year.
To activate broad citizen connect to the programme the plan is to have viewing and participation centers for the symposium which will metamorphose into a workshop. Halls across the country and in one or two Diaspora location will host several hundred people at each location to follow this conference discussion and have local discussion of application of values and ideas for growth and development of the local economy. Using the Google hangout application a number of the locations will feed into the Lagos main auditorium and interact, including raising questions, and feeding into the main location local ideas for combating poverty.
The expectation is that people in the numerous conversation stations that will be used as viewing points, will result in volunteers who will work in teams to engage aspects of phenomena that result in poverty. They will remain local intervention teams working with CVL club members who use our idea of the pedagogy of the determined to socially engineer growth.
Three main speakers, three special guests, and four discussants located on three constituents, will talk to the challenge of leadership and the scourge of poverty in Africa. The volunteers will draw from presentations by the Keynote Speaker, the World Bank’s Chief Economist for Africa, Marcelo Guigale; Agriculture Minister Dr. Akinwumi Adeshina will speak to the economic practical aspects of poverty in the human condition and its alleviation; and Bishop Matthew Hassan Kukah will explore the philosophical realm of wealth, poverty and human destiny. The event will be Chaired by Senator Ken Nnamani, Former Senate President, Federal Republic of Nigeria.
From these presentations those who desire to volunteer to walk the talk regarding poverty will group into four working groups around agricultural extension services, entrepreneurship extension services, health care services, and education.
Mobilizing from Feb 6 is to boost volunteerism for social change this will get further push in the walk the talk walk planned for March by members of the CVL club. It is a walk in Lagos designed to encourage people to walk their talk for the common good. The sensitizing for citizen self help is also planned for introduction into the regular CVL programmes such as the monthly RMF and LWT Tribute series.
CVL invites reflections on its core purpose for 2014: reviving volunteerism to advocate the common cause. We are truly persuaded that man was created as gifts to each other: This view of the native essence of man informed the special guest invitation list. The UN Secretary General, Ban Ki Moon who must be reviewing in the State of the Millenium Development Goals, as 2015 approaches; and even more so the case for a Vatican Representative, which inspired by Pope Francis is giving dignity to those who are poor. Then there is the example of Brazil under Inatio, Lula Da Silva in bridging the Gini index that greatly divides the rich from the poor of a nation. This is why he is the third special guest of honour invited.
The high point of the day, in my opinion, will go to Tola Sunmonu who as a young undergraduate at Stanford led an initiative to influence agriculture in Nigeria. Her testimony should make volunteers feel like champions.
We welcome ideas on what more we could do with the initiative.
About 2014 CVL Annual Lecture Symposium
BRIEF ON THE CVL ANNUAL LECTURE
The CVL Annual Lecture which holds every 6th of February is one of the important programmes of CVL (Centre for Values in Leadership) and a key instrument we have adopted to constructively contribute to nation building and national development. CVL makes no material gain from organizing this programme. The 1st CVL Annual Lecture took place in 2004 at NIIA Lagos and it was held in partnership with the Nigerian Institute of International Affairs (NIIA).
Prominent among our past speakers are:
- Prof Richard Joseph, Director of African Studies at North Western University in the USA, and former Special Adviser to US President Jimmy Carter.
- Prof Ibrahim Gambari, Under-Secretary-General and Special Adviser to the UN Secretary General.
- Prof Peter Lewis, Director of African Studies at Johns Hopkins University, USA
- Lady Olga Maitland, MP (Sutton & Cheam) UK.
- Mr. Richard Dowden, Director, The Royal African Society and Former African Editor of the Economist.
- Comrade Adams Oshiomole, Executive Governor of Edo State.
- Mr. Babatunde Raji Fashola, Executive Governor of Lagos State and a host of others.
- Hon Jerry Weller, 7 term 14 years Republican Congressman in the US Congress.
- Dr. Oby Ezekwesili, Former Minister of Education, Federal Republic of Nigeria.
- Alhaji Mohammed Sa’ad Abubakar, Sultan of Sokoto
THE 2014 CVL ANNUAL LECTURE SYMPOSIUM: LEADERSHIP AND THE SCOURGE OF POVERTY IN AFRICA
On Thursday February 6, 2014, we will hold the 11th CVL Annual Lecture Symposium. It will hold at NIIA by 10:00am. This year we will be discussing: Leadership and The Scourge of Poverty in Africa.
The Distinguished Speakers are:
- Mr. Marcelo M. Giugale, World Bank Chief Economist to Africa
- Dr. Akinwumi Adesina, Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development;
- Bishop Matthew Hassan Kukah, Bishop of Sokoto Catholic Diocese
- Inatio Lula Dasilva, Former President of Brazil
- Ban Ki-Moon, UN Secretary General
- Chairman of event, Senator Ken Nnamani, Former Senate President, Federal Republic of Nigeria
CVL ANNUAL LECTURE, GOOGLE AND COOLLINK PARTNERSHIP, AND NATIONAL TRANSFORMATION
This 11th edition has been strategically designed to reach more than 5,000,000 young people through television live coverage and Google Apps especially Google Hangout and You Tube. We will be working with many partners to set up at least 12 internet streaming viewing centres and 36 Television viewing centres across the country to serve as platforms for live participation and interaction in the Annual Lecture. The grand and long term plan of deploying resources of the volunteers that will spring from the 12 viewing centres and 36 Television viewing centres across the nation is to work with them in our 2014 youth transformation projects as: 1. Entrepreneurship Extension Services Volunteers. 2. Agricultural Extension Services Volunteers. 3. Literacy Campaign Volunteers. 4. Health Services Volunteers
These four areas will be the walk your talk intervention for 2014. We insist that talk is cheap and each should demonstrate commitment by doing something – Just do it. The volunteers will develop specific community programs to help the poor in those communities increase productivity by first developing a vision of self beyond poverty using the CVL pedagogy of the determined which inspires human freedom to create value. They will also use electronic town hall meetings to build strategies in subsequent months for empowering the poor in those communities to develop a mindset change and create wealth through self-mastery and education intervention.
This event will kick-start a national transformational project to fight poverty in Nigeria. In this project, we will be working with the World Bank, the Federal Ministry of Agriculture, the Bank of Agriculture and a host of other stakeholders to provide specialized empowerment and skill acquisition training, vocational training, training on farming skills and financial support to young men and women across the country. In recognition of your organization’s exceptional dedication to the good of humanity and the development of our country – Nigeria, we request your organization to partner with us in this project. We look forward to welcoming you on board.
Over the years we have partnered with the following organizations in hosting the CVL annual lecture:
NIIA 2004- Till date
Vmobile Nigeria 2006
Dangote Group 2006
Bank PHB 2008
Mutual Benefits 2010
GTB & Wema Bank 2011
Airtel Nigeria 2012
Exxonmobil 2013
Arik Air 2013
Other partners include: Nigeria breweries, Coca-Cola, UAC, Tantalizers, Edgewaters, Associated Bus Company (ABC), Virgin Nigeria, Businessday Newspapers, Guardian Newspapers, Channels Television, STV, TVC, Vivante Media Limited, Guinness Nigeria Plc, and a host of others. These partnerships have greatly and positively impacted the lives of thousands of Nigerians who have attended the CVL annual lecture since 2004.
Speakers
1. Marcelo Giugale
Director, Poverty Reduction and Economic Management
Marcelo Giugale is the World Bank’s Director of Economic Policy and Poverty Reduction Programs for Africa. A citizen of Argentina and Italy, he holds a PhD and a MSc in Economics from The London School of Economics, and a Suma-Cum-Laude BA in Economics from Universidad Católica Argentina.
Marcelo Giugale (The World Bank Group)
Marcelo Giugale is the World Bank’s Director of Economic Policy and Poverty Reduction Programs for Latin-America. An international development leader, his twenty years of experience span the Middle East, Eastern Europe, Central Asia and Latin-America, where he led senior-level policy dialogue and over fifteen billion dollars in lending operations across the development spectrum. He has published widely on economic policy, finance, development economics, business, agriculture and applied econometrics. Notably, he was the chief editor of collections of policy notes published for the presidential transitions in Mexico (2000), Colombia (2002), Ecuador (2003), Bolivia (2006) and Peru (2006). His opinion editorials are published in the leading newspapers of Latin-America and the USA. He received decorations from the governments of Bolivia and Peru, and taught at the American University in Cairo, The London School of Economics, and the Universidad Católica Argentina. A citizen of Argentina and Italy, he holds a PhD and a MSc in Economics from The London School of Economics, and a Suma-Cum-Laude BA in Economics from Universidad Católica Argentina.
2. Dr. Akinwumi Adesina
Hon Minister of Agriculture and Rural Dev.
Akinwunmi Adesina has won the Rockefeller Foundation Social Science Research Fellowship in 1988, which initiated his career in international agricultural development. He has worked in senior research positions in international agricultural research centres of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research. He joined the Rockefeller Foundation, New York, as a senior scientist for Africa in 1998 and later served as Rockefeller Foundation representative for Southern Africa, based in Harare, Zimbabwe (1999-2003).
Dr Adesina was a lead organizer of the Africa Fertilizer Summit for African heads of state in 2006. He was instrumental in framing the soil health policies adopted there by over 40 African governments, the African Union the New Partnership of African Development (NEPAD), and other leading global development institutions. Mr. Adesina has worked in senior research leadership positions at IITA, WARDA and ICRISAT. In July 2007, he received the YARA Prize for the African Green Revolution in Oslo for his pioneering work with agricultural inputs and agro-dealer networks in Africa.
In 2008, he was honoured with Purdue University’s College of Agriculture Distinguished Agricultural Alumni Award, for his inspiring leadership in spearheading transformative change in African agriculture. In 2009, Mr. Adesina was appointed into the UN Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) Advocacy Group that will drive the rapid achievement of the Goals across the globe. UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon described him as an “eminent personality’’ who had shown outstanding leadership in promoting the implementation of the MDGs.
Dr Adesina holds a PhD in Agricultural Economics from Purdue University (USA). He is currently serving as the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development of Nigeria, a position to which he was appointed in July 2011. He is married to Grace and together they have two children, Rotimi and Segun
2. Bishop Matthew Hassan Kukah
Matthew Kukah is a Catholic Reverend Father and former Secretary-General of the Catholic Secretariat in Nigeria. He served on Nigeria’s Presidential Truth Commission into Past Human Rights Violations. Until recently a Senior Fellow at St Antony’s College, 
University of Oxford, Dr Kukah is a rigorous scholar and respected commentator, Dr Kukah received his PhD from the University of London. He is the author of the critically acclaimed work, Religion and Politics in Northern Nigeria since Independence (Spectrum, 1994), and most recently of Democracy and Civil Society in Nigeria (Spectrum, 2002). Father Kukah is a regular commentator on complex social and political issues in Nigeria.
Bishop Matthew Hassan Kukah, was appointed in Jun 2011 by Pope Benedict XIV as the Bishop of Sokoto. Kukah and has made enormous contributions to Nigerian society and the Catholic Church.
Chairman of the event
Senator Ken Nnamani was born on November 2, 1948 in Enugu. He holds both BBA and MBA degrees from the Ohio University in 
Athens, Ohio and has worked for Du Pont De Nemours International and Geneva and Nova Chemicals International as marketing executive and later as a consultant. He was the principal consultant, Maredec Limited. Ken Nnamani was elected to the senate for Enugu East in 2003. He was appointed Chairman of the Committee on Federal Character & Governmental Affairs and member of committees on Privatization, Federal Capital Territory and Appropriation & Finance. He became president of the Senate of Nigeria from April 5, 2005 to 2007, taking this post after Adolphus Wabara resigned due to allegations of corruption.
Speaking in August 2006, Nnamani said “In a multicultural and multi-religious country like Nigeria credible elections provide platforms for different constituents of the republic to continue to collaborate to promote the good of all. On 6 May 2008 the Ken Nnamani Centre for Leadership and Development was launched in Abuja, Nigeria’s federal capital city, with the goal of facilitating qualitative and transformative leadership and development in Africa.