Adewale Sanyaolu
Former president of the Nigerian Bar Association, Mr. Austin Alegeh (SAN), will tomorrow, deliver the 11th Ralph Opara Memorial Lecture organised by the National Association of Seadogs (NAS), in Asaba, Delta State.
Also expected to moderate the session is the Commissioner for Information and Civic Orientation, State of Osun, Mrs. Funke Egbemode.
Egbemode is also the immediate past president of the Nigerian Guild of Editors and erstwhile Managing Director and Editor-in-Chief of New Telegraph Newspapers.
A statement by the organisers disclosed that Alegeh, will speak on the topic: “Judiciary and Journalism as Frontiers of Democracy: Anachronistic or Contemporary in Justice and Fairness?”
The governor of Delta State, Dr. Ifeanyi Okowa, is the special guest of honour while the widow of Ralph Opara, Francesca, will attend as the guest of honour.
Chairman of Nigeria Economic Summit Group, Mr Asue Ighodalo, as well as a renowned and international award-winning journalist, Funke Treasure Anike-Ade, are among the discussants.
Other discussants include, Prof Chukwuemeka Jaja Nwanegbo, Head of Department and professor of Political Science, Federal University Wukari, and Rev Fr Ikenga Oraegbunam, a professor of Law.
Ralph Opara, ace broadcaster, consummate administrator, prolific writer and producer was among the seven young ebullient Nigerian students that founded the Pyrates Confraternity in the 1952/53 academic session at the University College, Ibadan.
He was at various times Director, Voice of Nigeria (VON), Federal Radio Corporation of Nigeria (FRCN), Executive Director, Directorate for Social Mobilisation, MAMSER (now National Orientation Agency), Chairman, Imo Newspapers Ltd, Commissioner, National Broadcasting Commission and Chairman, Imo Broadcasting Corporation.
The Ralph Opara Memorial Lecture was instituted in his name in 2004 to stimulate intellectual discussions on wide range of issues affecting the progress of Nigeria as a nation.
The inaugural lecture was delivered by Prof Ukachukwu Awuzie, former National President, Academic Staff Union of Universities, and later Vice-Chancellor of Imo State University, with the topic “Re-engineering the Nigerian Democratic Experiment for Stability and Development.”
The 10th edition of the lecture series in 2019, with the topic ‘’Brexit: Its Implications for Sub-Saharan Africa,’’ held in Salford Quays, Manchester, United Kingdom, was delivered Mr. Asari St-Hill, pan-Africanist, development expert and socio-political commentator.