Otti to deliver this year's TheNiche lecture

The Governor of Abia State, Alex Otti, is expected to deliver this year’s edition of TheNiche Annual Lecture, which is scheduled to hold on Thursday, 23 April at the Nigerian Institute of International Affairs, Kofo Abayomi Street, Victoria Island, Lagos State. TheNiche is an online Nigerian newspaper. The paper’s annual lecture is in its fifth edition. According to a statement on Tuesday from the paper’s Managing Director and Editor-in-Chief, Ikechukwu Amaechi, the lecture, which will start at 10 a.m., will be chaired by the Emir of Kano, Muhammadu Sanusi. Before becoming Abia governor on 29 May 2023, Mr Otti, a renowned banker, was the managing director of Diamond Bank Plc, a major Nigerian retail bank that merged with Access Bank in 2019 to form a larger entity. | | |---| In the same vein, before becoming the Emir of Kano, Mr Sanusi, who doubles as the spiritual leader (khalifa) of the Tijanniya Sufi Order in Nigeria and neighbouring countries, was also the managing director of First Bank of Nigeria – Nigeria’s oldest bank, and one of Africa’s largest financial institutions. He was the first northerner to head the bank. He was also appointed Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria by then-President Umaru Yar’Adua in 2009. Mr Amaechi said the choice of Mr Otti as the guest speaker and Mr Sanusi as the chairman was deliberate. “As Nigeria goes into another silly season of politics, the electorate need to be reminded, to use the phrase of James Carville, former US President Bill Clinton’s 1992 presidential campaign strategist, that ‘it is the economy, stupid.’ There is also the need to remind leaders at all levels to keep the campaign focused on economic issues,” the statement said. “Both Governor Otti and Emir Sanusi are unarguably among the best, not only in Nigeria but also globally on issues of the economy and sundry financial matters. So, the idea of the lecture this year is to jumpstart the much-needed discussion on the economy we have and the governance we need. The lecture will dissect the country’s economic reality and the discipline, or lack of it, of governance.” Mr Amaechi noted that the 2026 lecture under the auspices of TheNiche Foundation for Development Journalism will be the fifth in the series. Previous guest speakers include Kingsley Moghalu, Anya O. Anya, Babatunde Fashola, former governor of Lagos State and former minister of power, works and housing; and Rotimi Amaechi, former governor of Rivers State and minister of transportation. Past chairpersons also include Remi Sonaiya, late Christopher Kolade, Tanko Yakasai and Uma Eleazu.