Opening Remarks by Prof. Tosan Harriman at the 6th Anniversary Lecture of GbaramatuVoice

OPENING REMARKS BY THE CHAIRMAN, EDITORIAL BOARD, GBARAMATUVOICE, PROF. TOSAN HARRIMAN AT ITS 6TH ANNIVERSARY LECTURE

Your Excellencies!!
Members of the Legislature of Nigeria here present.
Members of the Diplomatic Corps
Members of the Academic,
Invited Guests,
Distinguished ladies and gentlemen.

My assignment on this auspicious occasion of the 6th Anniversary lecture/Niger Delta Awards event of the GbaramatuVoice/ Newspaper is a very simple one. It is not to start an essay in ideas or interpretation but strictly to do two things.

First to welcome you our distinguished guests to this great event and to thank you for finding time out of your crowded schedule to join us in this event as we open up issue areas within the context of the discourse component to let the facts alone constitute in the main, our judgement on the central theme “Dwindling state of crude oil demand in the global market: The way forward.”

In welcoming you I have been troubled by the feeling that the theme for the event, plausible as it is, may he too simple. The hostile global rigidity evoked by proponents of climate change to minimize green House gas emissions make small allowance for the complexity of new research findings and of the politics it engenders. But let me suggest we soften somewhat the imposed biases against fossilized fuels as it will continue to persist in many other forms to drive the global dynamics. While batteries are crucial indexes for thermal ignition in automobile, I still do not see how it can cook the food we eat given its bourgeois and exclusive science against the polarities of human motivations and the play of circumstances which often create utterly unplanned and unexpected situations. I argue here that the global warning on green house gas is more a brilliant guess than a complete demonstrations of incontestable claims of cause and effect.

My other assignment in this Lecture/Awards event is to re-echo the inductive reasoning of Hegel that “one really knows only when one loves” and so it is with the GbaramatuVoice adventure which has been unfortunately consigned to a more narrowly constructed ethnic framework. This has created in contra distinction a situation that has challenged its impetuous audacity and creative pugnacity.

The GbaramatuVoice Newspaper stewardship has two principal characteristics- quantitatively it tells the minority story through the rigors of informed sources and objectivity, qualitatively its belongs to a different kind of era where idiosyncratic quasi ness is shunned for a more robust energetic and inclusive journalism. The misperceptions of its visionary objective which sometimes cast it in the restrictive frameworks of ethnicity, because of its choice of brand nomenclature is disturbing. We can only know the purpose of GbaramatuVoice by taking time to look at all its contents in virtual, print and electronic outlets.

GbaramatuVoice is for all ethnic nationality peoples. At GbaramatuVoice Newspaper we tell all stories but use sources to take down disinformation. Our editorial policy is predicated on this time tested maxim – In a time of uncertainty, facts provide clarity. In a time of anxiety, facts comfort. In a time of misinformation, facts correct. In a time of division, facts unite. In a time of crisis, facts matter most. Facts first.

Only our understanding now of the growing reality of the GbaramatuVoice Newspapers laudable initiative will release the talents that fake and objectionable news about its reporting style has somewhat suppressed or perverted and in time the world would hear of a Nigerian version of CNN, BBC, Reuters and Al Jazeera.
Thank you

Prof. Tosan Harriman (FCODESRIA)
Chairman Editorial Board