14 January 2009
Lagos — Former Secretary-General of the United Nations, Kofi Annan, arrived the country yesterday for the 14th THISDAY Awards Festival of Ideas holding in Abuja today.
Also already in the country for the awards is the former governor of US State of Florida, Mr. John Ellis "Jeb" Bush.
Former US President Bill Clinton also left the United States for Nigeria last night for the ceremony which is billed to celebrate the best and the brightest of Nigeria and commemorate the longest unbroken democratic rule in the country that is now in its 10th year.
American pop star, Lionel Richie, arrived the country yesterday and is billed to perform at the awards gala. Nigeria's Dare Art Alade will also entertain the guests.
Jeb Bush will join Nigerian governors this morning at an early Breakfast Session entitled "Idea on Governance and Infrastructure" and tackle questions on the challenges facing Nigeria as it moves to consolidate democracy, enthrone sound governance practices and seek the right framework for building infrastructure to ensure and sustain economic growth.
With Bush leading the session, the discussants are ex-Cross River Governor Donald Duke, Governor Gabrial Suswam of Benue State and Governor Bukola Saraki of Kwara State.
Others are Chairman, Intekea Corp, US, Bill Mundell, and Liling Chen of the Peoples Bank of China.
Jeb, who was born February 11, 1953, was the 43rd Governor of Florida. He is a prominent member of the Bush family: the younger brother of current President Bush; the older brother of Neil Bush, Marvin Bush and Dorothy Bush Koch; and the second son of former President George H. W. Bush.
A star-studded international team will discuss the implications of the Barack Obama Presidency for Africa at the second session.
The team will lead discussions in Session II entitled "Obama is President: What Next for the World and So What for Africa ?"
Members of the team are Howard Dean, the chairman of the US Democratic Party which produced Obama; Donna Brazile, Democratic Strategist and former Campaign Manager of ex-Vice President Al Gore; Card, former White House Chief of Staff; and Karl Rove, former White House Deputy Chief of Staff and Senior Adviser to President George W. Bush.
The session will be moderated by Professor Bolaji Akinyemi, Nigeria's former Minister of External Affairs.
Entertainment correspondent for CNN's flagship morning news programme, Lola Ogunnaike and senior strategist for the Democratic Party in the United States of America, Paul Begala, have been confirmed as hosts of the 14th edition of the Awards holding.
Ogunnaike who is based in New York will partner Bagala who was formerly co-host of Crossfire, CNN's political debate programme to receive guests from across the world who will gather to witness the recognition of Nigerians and institutions with the most impact in year 2008.
She joined CNN in May 2007 and reports on pop culture and entertainment news as part of the network's American Morning's daily news coverage.
Ogunnaike has been covering entertainment news since 1999. Prior to joining CNN, she was the top culture reporter for The New York Times and spearheaded its entertainment coverage, writing profiles of celebrities like Jennifer Lopez, Oprah Winfrey and Sting for the paper's "Arts and Leisure" section.
Begala first entered the national political scene after the consulting firm he and fellow Democratic strategist, James Carville started, Carville & Begala, helped President Bill Clinton get elected in 1992. Serving in the Clinton administration as counsellor to the president, he was a close adviser to Clinton and helped define and defend the administration's agenda. He served the extremely successful American president as a principal public spokesman.
Read comments. Write your own.
Copyright © 2009 This Day. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections — or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here.
AllAfrica aggregates and indexes content from over 125 African news organizations, plus more than 200 other sources, who are responsible for their own reporting and views. Articles and commentaries that identify allAfrica.com as the publisher are produced or commissioned by AllAfrica.
Here we go again, another This Day useless jamboree to "educate" the brain dead African "Leaders" and the Led to take note of some of the Westerners arbitrary interventions in Africa as if they have any interest in the Africa people unless their African economic interest is threatened - that is where their divide & conquer tactic comes to play - cases in point Liberia & Sierra Leone's recent Civil Wars in which both US & UK pretty much told Africans to get lost when we pleaded for their military logistical support. Whereas their economic sanctions including Cholera have pretty much ruined the lives of the poor Zimbabwean people in the UK’s desperate attempt to encourage "a coup" against that independent nation's popularly elected President that "disobeyed" UK's "Order" to give up power in favor of their stooge as it was done in the Congo when Mr. Lumumba was murdered in favor of Mobutu thereby condemning DRC into a failed state even b4 that poor country reached puberty - the effects we still see today in DRC's 45 year unending wars. It is a fact that African leaders partner with Western "Powers" only for their own selfish goal to gain legitimacy while they neglect the demands of the people they were supposed to represent. It still baffles me how a Mr. Negroponte could divine his self-fulfilling “prophesy” in which he saw Nigeria disintegrating by 2015 unless Mr. Obasanjo returned the Presidency back to the North - a region that has Presided over the country for 38 ruinous years. If Mr. Negroponte is such a Seer that could see far into 2015 & beyond, how come his Oracle could not foresee near into 2008/2009 economic calamity we've found ourselves now? Unfortunately, the gullible Nigerians imbibed the fraud and removed the best leader they've ever had. Who should we blame now but the gullible Nigerians? It is mind boggling that Rwanda genocide occurred under the watch of the first black UN Secretary General and the first "black" US President, so what else is new. Oh Well, we have learned our lessons the hard way and hope we can collectively say NEVER AGAIN but I doubt it - it will happen again as it is currently in the Sudan. Good Luck to us all, unless This Day can tell us something else we dont know already.