Come Thursday, May 25, 2017, The Difference Newspaper will at its annual #AfricaDay Colloquium be hosting a multi-disciplinary panel discussion on the theme: 'One People, One Continent: Making the All-Africa Passport Work.'
The discussion is a follow-through on the Common African Passport Project which was inaugurated at the 27th African Union Summit of Heads of States that was held in Kigali in July, 2016. At that event, the diplomatic version of the passport was issued to African leaders present -including President Paul Kagame of Rwanda, Idris Deby of Chad and the then AU Chairperson, Ms. Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma - even as the AU secretariat and member states were asked to commence the process of popularising, adopting and domesticating the resolution ahead of the 2020 implementation deadline.
Ahead of the 2020 date, two important timelines are expected to be met by the AU Secretariat and member states in January and July, 2018.
Building on this, the May 25 event, which will be held at the Bankers House, Chartered Institute of Bankers, 19, Adeola Hopewell St, Victoria Island, Lagos, also promises a lot of robust inquisition and exegesis of how best to achieve the goal of a Common African Passport as well as the long-standing subject of growing the African economy further in such a way that it contributes better than the 2 percent it currently brings to the global trade table.
Moderated by the Director of the United Nations Information Centre, UNIC, Lagos, Nigeria, the very versatile and erudite Mr Ronald Kayanja, speakers at the Colloquium include the Head of the Ikoyi Passport Office, Deputy Comptroller of Immigration, Segun Adegoke, the General Manager, Public Policy, Uber West Africa, Jacquelyn Omotalade, the Head, Department of History and International Studies, Babcock University, Dr Abiodun Adesegun and the filmmaker and director, Osezuah Elimihe.
You really cannot afford to miss this very expository session which kicks off at 11.00am.
