TheCable

Obiageli Ezekwesili, a former minister of education, is set to launch #FixPolitics Initiative in conjunction with the Robert Bosch Academy. 

Ezekwesili had in September won the academy’s Von Weizsäcker fellowship.

The former minister, according to a statement issued by the organisers of the programme, “has spent the last 6 months probing the effect that the poor quality of politics in a country has on governance, sound economic policies, growth and development in Africa and on Nigeria in particular, and has used her findings in collaboration with a work study group component to design a structural change agenda to #FixPolitics and polity of Nigeria and the rest of Africa.”

The Germany-based academy stated that from the findings of Ezekwesili’s research, politics in Nigeria and other African countries is in dire need of a structural change. 

“Politics on the continent must be innovated if Africa is to take advantage of the efficiencies that come with the technological revolution to speed up the development ladder, tackle mass poverty, and catch up with other prosperous regions of the world,” the statement read.

“Against this background, the #FixPolitics Initiative will propose innovative ways of empowering and centring the citizens in their countries’ politics before, during, and after the electoral cycle.

“The conference also facilitates opportunity for a wider audience to sharpen the existing groundworks of the Work Study Groups component of the research and help concretise a post-meeting strategic plan that will mobilise citizens’ leadership to course correct the struggling democracy of Nigeria and ultimately, Africa.”

The inaugural conference, scheduled to hold from February 16 to 17 at the Federal Palace Hotel, Lagos, Nigeria and via live stream, will convene key global players in nation building, active citizenship and the media.

Expected at the conference are Johann Lambsdorff, professor of economic theory at the University of Passau, Germany; Peter Lewis Warren Weinstein, chair of African Studies, School of Advanced and International Studies, John Hopkins University Washington DC, USA, and Aloy Chife, managing partner/CEO Saana Capital, LLC.

Also expected are Frank Nweke Jr., a former minister of information; Aisha Yesufu, founder, Citizens Hub; Samson Itodo, executive-director, YIAGA; Amina Salihu, senior programme officer, MacArthur Foundation, Nigeria; Auwal Musa Rafsanjani, executive-director of Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre (CISLAC). 

The Robert Bosch Academy founded in 2014 is an institution of the Robert Bosch Stiftung. The Academy offers international decision-makers, opinion leaders, and experts the space for confidential exchanges and solution-oriented cooperation on global affairs.