SAVANNAH CENTRE LAUNCHES POST-ELECTION PROJECT, ORGANISES CONFERENCE

Following the peaceful conduct of the 2015 general elections and the need for continuous stakeholder engagement, the Savannah Centre for Diplomacy, Democracy and Development has flagged off a new project tagged, ‘Nigeria Beyond 2015’

The project which is a consolidation of the Centre’s pre-election effort under its ‘Council of the Wise’ is aimed at leveraging the successes of the 2015 general elections to strengthen Nigeria’s security, governance, political and economic framework.

According to the Executive Director of the Centre, Ambassador Abdullahi Omaki, “The shift in political power and governance structure across the country as occasioned by the recent polls, suggests that Nigeria’s nascent democracy is possibly taking incremental and significant steps towards maturation.”

Omaki also noted that, “There is an overarching need for all stakeholders to deliberate and develop holistic strategies, frameworks that will guide policy actions in order to sufficiently deal with pertinent national matters, hence, the framing of this project to facilitate robust stakeholder engagement.”

First in the series of activities under the ‘Nigeria Beyond 2015,’ is a two-day post-election conference with the theme: ‘Security and Governance Questions in Africa’s Largest Democracy’, billed to hold in Abuja on May 18-19, 2015.

The conference which will have in attendance government and political party representatives; Media Organisations, Civil Society Organizations, Poverty Eradication and Economic Governance team as well as Security Experts and Policy Makers; will deliberate on critical national issues of governance and security as well as provide actionable recommendations constituting an agenda for the in-coming government.

According to Ambassador Omaki, the overall goal of the conference is to interface with representatives of the international community in Nigeria, media experts; party leaders; leading Nigerian scholars and researchers in the fields of defence, security, extremism and terrorism, economic and political governance, international monetary and financial institutions; non-governmental organisations amongst other relevant stakeholders to debate on strategies that would best address issues of security and governance in Nigeria, border countries, the sub-region and Africa at large.

Outcomes recorded from the conference will be shared with all stakeholders, including, the in-coming government at the Federal Level.

ABOUT THE SAVANNAH CENTRE
The Savannah Centre for Diplomacy, Democracy and Development is a non- governmental think-tank committed to policy advocacy and analysis in three thematic areas - Diplomacy, Democracy and Development.

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