As we round off the first quarter of the year, I warmly welcome you to the month of April.
Last month, I hosted the NAPE Young Professionals’ Mentors Social Hangout Series on the 5th of March in Lagos. I met with the YP lead, Flora Anusiobi, and some members of the YP community got a chance to listen in on their plans for the year. I encouraged closer collaboration through volunteering and participating in different NAPE events. It was an exciting time as we also got to play games and engage in a question-and-answer session which I found quite insightful.
A number of Technical Meetings held in Lagos as well as in our Port Harcourt and Akwa/Owerri chapters this month. Special thanks to the speakers, chairpersons and sponsors for their support. We also had a change of guards at elections held in the Port-Harcourt Chapter with the indefatigable Emo Dayetuawei handing over their reins of the Chairperson of the chapter to Magnus Kanu. Please join me in thanking Emo for his continuous service to the Association and wishing him success in his other endeavors, while welcoming Magnus Kanu into the NAPE Executive Committee.
The Conference Planning Committee continues its plans for this year’s Annual Conference in earnest and the First Call for Abstracts have been broadcasted. I encourage our members to participate actively in this year’s Conference and take advantage of the Early Bird conference registration.
After a successful meeting with the Executives and the 2023 Electoral Committee members, the announcement of this year’s election was recently rolled out. The positions being contested for this year are that of the Vice President, President-Elect and the University Assistance Program Chairman. I call on suitably qualified Active members that are enthusiastic to make their contributions to the Association to apply.
I, accompanied by the UAP Chairman and some secretariat staff, attended the 58th Conference of the Nigerian Geoscience and Mining Society (NMGS) themed, “Development of Nigerian Earth Resources: Current Realities” which held from the 26th to the 31st of March in the ‘City of Harmony’, Ilorin, in Kwara State. I gave a goodwill message on behalf of our Association, and I want to thank the Executive Committee of NMGS for their warm hospitality.
The date and venue for the 11th NAPE-NMGS Mini-Conference was announced last week. The UAPC and his team have tagged the Conference ‘‘Retooling Geoscience Education in Nigeria: Current Trends and Emerging Realities’’. This is a Conference that our students and members are really looking forward to and this year’s Conference is being hosted by the University of Lagos.
As I mentioned during the March 2023 Technical Meeting in Lagos, NAPE remains encouraged at reported increase in exploration activities in various parts of the country in furtherance of the Nigerian Government’s mandate for reserves addition and we look forward to having results of these efforts shared at our technical fora at the appropriate time.
Best Regards,
Elliot Ibie, FNAPE,
President, NAPE