The Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, will deliver a keynote address at the World Congress of the International Press Institute, IPI, holding in Abuja.
The congress holds from June 21 to 23.
Yakubu’s address will be at the session on Coverage of 2018 General Elections in Nigeria.
The INEC boss conveyed his acceptance to address the congress at the weekend when a delegation of IPI visited him in his office.
About 300 journalists from all over the world will converge on Abuja, the Federal Capital Territory, for the congress, the leader of the delegation and the organisation’s National Committee Chairman in Nigeria, Malam Kabiru Yusuf, said.
He said the Nigerian chapter invited IPI to hold its annual congress in the country for the first time to enable its members experience the country.
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“It is a good time. Our democracy is maturing. We want them (IPI members) to come and see (Nigeria) for themselves, rather than assume from a distance,” he said.
The IPI chairman, who is also the Publisher of the Daily Trust newspaper titles, averred that the IPI “has been around for some 60 years” and “it moves from country to country every year to hold its annual congress, where delegates focus on the issues of press freedom and challenges of the media in societies.”
The IPI members include: Alhaji Mohammed Idris (Chairman, Blueprint Newspapers), Mr. Raheem Adedoyin (Secretary, IPI-Nigeria), Mr. Waheed Odusile (President, Nigerian Union of Journalists) and Dr. Qasim Olalere Akinreti (Chairman, Lagos NUJ).
