4 October 2023
Speakers: Hon Uzoma Nkem-Abonta (Chair, Nigerian House of Representatives Committee on Public Petitions, 2015–2019); Oke Epia (Founder and Executive Director of OrderPaper, Nigeria)
Chair: Professor Cristina Leston-Bandeira (University of Leeds and Chair of IPEN)
This Public Engagement Hub seminar, jointly organised by the IPU and IPEN, will focus on public petitions. Through an in-conversation format, it will address the processes and challenges arising from petitions submitted to the lower chamber of Nigeria’s national legislature.
We will hear from Hon Nkem-Abonta, a four-term member of the House of Representatives (2007–2019), and chair of the House Standing Committee on Public Petitions (2015–2019) about efforts made by his team to enhance and institutionalise public petitions in the context of Nigeria’s emerging legislature. Hon Nkem-Abonta will highlight the challenges in the process and how they worked with civil society, in particular, towards strengthening the process.
From a civil society perspective, we will also hear from an important voice in Nigeria’s civic space, Oke Epia, about initiatives to promote public engagement with parliament through the instrumentality of the petitions process.
The seminar will take place on Zoom and is open to anyone with an interest in public engagement with parliaments.
It will will be presented in English. Translation will be available from/to French and Spanish.
This seminar is jointly organised by the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) and the International Parliament Engagement Network (IPEN). The event is part of a series of webinars hosted by the Public Engagement Hub.
Find out more and register here.
Image: Nigeria’s National Assembly. Source: Wikimedia Commons.
