Dr. Ken Onyeali-Ikpe, a leading Media Planning Strategist and Marketing Communication scholar will be the guest speaker at a conference/workshop to explore strategies to improve media coverage and public follower-ship of domestic football in Nigeria.
The workshop is being organised by the Lagos State chapter of the Sports Writers Association of Nigeria (SWAN) on September 12 and 13 in Lagos.
An alumnus of the Lagos Business School with a doctorate degree from the Academy of Sciences, School of African Studies, Moscow and a Master of Science Degree in Development Economics from the Donetsk State University, Onyeali-Ikpe is the Managing Director of All Seasons Mediacom Limited and a Director at the Troyka Group. He will be speaking on the theme: “Promoting, Projecting and Re-positioning Nigeria’s Domestic Football: A Challenge of the Media.’
The Honourable Minister and Chairman of the National Sports Commission, Bolaji Abdullahi, is expected to deliver the keynote address while the leadership of the Nigeria Football Federation, League Management Company and the Nigeria National League are among the special guests.
Also expected at the event are the President of the Newspaper Proprietors Association of Nigeria (NPAN), Chief Nduka Obaigbena as chairman, President of the Nigeria Guild of Editors, Femi Adesina, the leaderships of Nigerian football sponsorship brands, media owners and top media executives and football club managers.
Speaking on the objective of the conference, Chairman of Lagos SWAN, Fred Edoreh, explained that it has been designed to address the “generational deficit” of the erosion of public enthusiasm and depletion of the fan base of Nigeria’s domestic football.
“We can not continue to gloss over a situation where our football fans are more attracted to foreign leagues, clubs and players to the jeopardy of our domestic game. The media industry share in the responsibility to correct this and it has become imperative to build a national media consensus, mutual commitment and strategic plans of action with a view to better presenting our football and creating a more robust and vibrant domestic followership that will sustain the football industry,” Edoreh said.
