Mahmood Yakubu, chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, is to deliver the Sixth Anniversary Lecture of Realnews Magazine scheduled to hold on Thursday, November 15, 2018, at the Sheraton Hotel, Ikeja, Lagos, by 10am prompt.

Yakubu, guerrilla warfare expert, and previously a professor of Political History and International Studies at the Nigerian Defence Academy, will speak on “Political Transitions and Africa’s Economic Development”.

Making the announcement today in Abuja, Maureen Chigbo, publisher of Realnews Magazine, an online publication, said: “Our choice of topic for the 2018 lecture has been informed by contemporary political, economic, security, socio-cultural challenges facing Nigeria regarded as the “Giant of Africa” as it prepares for the 2019 polls where Nigerians are expected to elect leaders they hope will move country to the next level.” She added that given Yakubu’s world class experience, academic antecedents and his current position as chairman of INEC, he is in a better position to do justice to the topic.

Born in Bauchi State, Northern Nigeria, Yakubu completed his basic and secondary school education at Kobi Primary School and Government Teachers College, Toro, respectively. He proceeded to the University of Sokoto (now Usmanu Danfodiyo University, where he became the first and, to date, only Nigerian from the North to obtain a first-class degree certificate in History. In 1991, Mahmood graduated from the University of Oxford with a doctorate in philosophy, specialising in Nigerian History. The Bauchi State Government offered him a scholarship to study at both the University of Cambridge and the University of Oxford. He went on to become a three-time recipient of the Overseas Research Scholarship, and also won the Commonwealth Scholarship from the Association of Commonwealth Universities.

Prior to his appointment as chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, Yakubu served as the executive secretary of the Tertiary Education Trust Fund, being appointed to office in 2007 by late President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua. During his tenure as secretary, a National Book Development Fund was established, supporting 102 journals of professional associations.

He also served as assistant secretary of Finance and Administration at the 2014 National Conference. In 2013, he was awarded an honorary fellowship to the Nigerian Institute of Public Relations.

Yakubu is the fifth top level chief executive officer to give the Realnews Anniversary Lecture series which was established to celebrate the best minds in our society and tap into their repository of knowledge to enrich the discourse on national and international development.

Realnews past anniversary lecturers include Dr. (Mrs.) Oby Ezekwesili, former minister of Education and Vice President, World Bank (2017), Dr. Ibn Mohamed Chambers, United Nations Secretary General’s special representative to West African and Sahel (2016); Professor Chukwuma Soludo, former governor, Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, (2015) and Professor Maurice Iwu, former chairman, Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, (2014).

The lecture will bring together many policy and decision makers from the private and public sectors, as well as non-governmental organisations, academia and the media.

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