Enugu, Asaba-Ibuzo, and Lagos are the main cities where associates of renowned scholar and public intellectual Prof Pat Utomi gather to celebrate his 70th birthday on 6 February 2026.
Further celebrations will be held in Abuja and Kaduna.
The celebration of Utomi’s three score and ten years will include intellectual feasts for the mind, bringing together academics and practising leaders, as well as other mind-engaging events.
Activities will begin on 4 February 2026, with the CVL Annual Lecture Symposium at the Amadeo Event Centre, Ebeano Tunnel, Enugu.
Dr Ameena Gurib-Fakim, the sixth and first female president of Mauritius, will be the keynote speaker. Wankele Mene, Chief Executive of the Africa Free Trade Area, and Dr George Elombi, President of Afrexim Bank, will deliver associate keynotes.
Panel discussions will commence with leaders from ‘Why Nations Fail’, co-author and 2024 Nobel Prize winner for Economics, Prof James Robinson, and Prof Paul Collier of Oxford University, who authored ‘The Bottom Billion’ and was the keynote speaker at the CVL Annual Lecture in 2017.
Panellists include Abia State Governor Dr Alex Otti, Enugu State Governor Dr Peter Ndubuisi Mbah, Prof Fred Olayele, former Chief Economist for New York, and Dr Kandeh Yumkella, former Director General of UNIDO and previous CVL symposium keynote speaker.
Also on the panel are Prof Osita Ogbu, former Ghanaian minister and Presidential candidate Alan John Kyerematen, and LBS professor Franklin Ngwu, who will moderate. Former Pencom CEO MK Ahmad will chair proceedings in Enugu.