Dr. Ugorji to speak at United Nations’ dialogue on peace, security & defense

Dr. Ugorji Okechukwu Ugorji, who served as the pioneer Commissioner for Homeland Security and Vigilante Affairs in Governor Hope Uzodimma’s first tenure, has been invited as one of forty-five (45) experts to participate in a United Nations conference in Abuja.

With the theme as “The Africa We Want and the United Nations We Need,” the conference will be hosted by the Savannah Centre for Diplomacy, Democracy and Development (SCDDD).

It will take place from March 4 to 6, 2024, at the Transcorp Hilton Hotel, Abuja.

In the letter of invitation to Ugorji, the Executive Director of the SCDDD, His Excellency Ambassador Sani Bala, stated that “the African Regional Conference is organized by the Savannah Centre for Diplomacy, Democracy and Development, in conjunction with the Stimson Centre, Washington D.C.

“The Conference aims to debate and recommend specific and concrete global and regional institutional, policy, legal, normative, and operational innovations that could inform the agenda,” he added, as the United Nations prepares for the next seventy-five years.

According to Ambassador Bala, the
dialogue seeks to:

• Convene leading policy researchers, practitioners, and advocates, mainly from Africa and around the world, to
  debate and recommend specific and concrete global and regional institutional, policy, legal, normative, and operational innovations that could inform the agenda and help to raise the ambition of the Summit of the Future, giving special attention to African perspectives and innovation priorities;
• Establish a new platform for African policy researchers and advocates to critically discuss and advance policy research and implementation strategies on “What Africa Wants” and the type of relationship the continent needs to have with the UN and international financial institutions in the next 75 years;
• Strengthen collaboration between the African Union and its RECs and the UN, including through the new Agenda for Peace, Global Digital Compact and Declaration on Future Generations.

Given Ugorji’s academic and professional expertise in homeland security and peace initiatives, he was invited to participate in the “Peace, Security and Defense” expert panel.

He is expected to draw from his experience in Imo State and his scholarship in security studies to articulate an African perspective in the subject areas.

The Savannah Centre for Diplomacy, Democracy and Development was founded by the international diplomat, global statesman and scholar, Professor Ibrahim Agbola Gambari.

Gambari was the Chief of Staff to President Muhammadu Buhari of Nigeria.