The Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC,  Professor Mahmood Yakubu has been scheduled to appear as the keynote speaker at the 6th Annual Conference of the  Guild of Corporate Online Publishers, GOCOP on 0ctober 6, 2022 in Lagos


A statement by GOCOP's Publicity Secretary, Remmy Nweke stated that the INEC boss would be speaking on the theme: “2023 Elections: Managing the Process for Credible Outcome”.


Nweke, quoting the Chairman of the 2022 Conference Committee, Ken Ugbechie,  added that the Chairman of the day would be the founder, Centre for Alternative Policy Perspectives and Strategy, CAPPS, Dr Umar Ardo, while the panelists would include lawyer-activist and Senior Advocate of Nigeria, SAN, Ebun-Olu Adegboruwa, former Inspector General of Police, Dr Solomon E. Arase and Dr Chichi Aniagolu-Okoye of Ford Foundation.


Ugbechie proffered that this year’s conference, slated to hold barely five months to the 2023 General Elections, would provide a roadmap for political actors and the various publics on the need to play by the rules and conform to acceptable electoral behavior.


Highlight expected at this year’s conference, he noted include a business luncheon with GOCOP partners on Wednesday, October 5, at the same venue.


Nweke also stated that GOCOP has received significant partnership from the Presidency, Delta, Lagos State Governments and many others in hosting the conference


Others listed  in the partnership for the confab are the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency, NIMASA,  Chevron Nigeria Limited, and Niger Delta Development Commission, NDDC


They also include the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, Access Bank Plc, Unity Bank plc and Globacom, 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, the First Bank Plc, Nigeria Liquefied National Gas, NLNG Limited, Wema Bank, and Nigeria Ports Authority, NPA.


Dailyledger.com.ng reports that the Guild was established to ensure that online publishers uphold the tenets of journalism in doing their jobs and 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 pointed out that the conference is 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, and that GOCOP would 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.