23rd December, 2011
As part of efforts to get Nigerian citizens to participate in influencing government policies, The Patriotic Forum, Nigeria’s largest online group is hosting an eConference to discuss the 2012 Budget with the aim of forwarding the final outcome of the deliberations to members of the National Assembly as soon as debates on the Budget resumes.
The eConference which commenced yesterday takes place on the Group’s official Wall on Facebook (www.facebook.com/groups/patriotsforum).This is the first time any organisation in Nigeria has made an effort to take the front seat on the issues of the 2012 budget aside from the normal criticisms for or against the draft.
According to the Chairman of the Patriotic Forum’s Committee on Web Conference & Interaction, Mr Kelechi Deca,the e-Conference will shed more light on the pros and cons of the 2012 Budget to determine the extent of its transformational abilities. The Conference will do a sector by sector analysis of the Draft Budget on its merits and otherwise to help educate, enlighten and broaden discourse on its likely impact on the nation.
Those who will make presentations as Guest Speakers/Panelists are Mr Aderemi Adeoye, an Investment Analyst, Public Speaker and Security Expert with about two decades of experience in public sector analysis.
Others are Mr Opeyemi Agbaje, an experienced financial and business expert, public policy analyst and newspaper columnist, Agbaje is also a former Senior Fellow and Head of Department of Strategy, Entrepreneurship and Business Environment at the Lagos Business School.
Also among the panel of discussants is Mr Wole Oke who is the erstwhile Chairman of the House Committee on Defense; he was also a member of the House Committee on Finance in the House of Representative. Mr Eghes Eyieyen, a Chartered Accountant an public affairs analyst and others are expected to contribute to the discussion.