On 16th of February, YIAGA brought together youths from all the states in Nigeria and trained them on community organising which was aimed at building a community of active citizens who will take responsibility to organise their communities to identify their resources and put them to use to achieve the result they desire even under uncertain conditions.

I was part of this 3-days training that held on the 16th -18th of February 2017. The training focused on organisation as a leadership practice. “We will be doing something different within the next three days which will require you all to go beyond your comfort zone, you will be working as a team and please, you have to take the training with a beginner’s mind set.” Those were the words of Samson Itodo who is the Lead on the Not Too Young To Run campaign (NTYTR) in Nigeria. In his word, Samson also made a clear statement on the explaining “Theory of Change” when he said “In articulating the theory of change in organizing, one must first ask, why has there not been change over time on the issue you’re set to achieve” I said to myself, this is one of the most important questions to answer truthfully.

Emmanuel Njoku and Tunde Adegoke

NTYTR bill is a bill that has presently passed the 2nd reading in the National Assembly, it is a bill that seeks to increase the inclusion of youths in politics and governance. In Nigeria, 18 – 35 years is the youth age, and this age bracket makes up to 60% of the electorate. Also, it’s only from the age of 18 that any citizen of the country gets qualified to vote. There has been a long going argument that if a citizen at 18years is deemed old enough to vote, why can’t he equally be voted for, but presently, the law of the country won’t allow that. The NTYTR bill seeks to address this challenge to an extent by reducing the stipulated age limit for all elective positions in the country and allow for Independent Candidacy in elections. It is believed that this will further advance the development of the country if the bill succeeds. It’s noteworthy that African youths have been innovative, resilient and breaking grounds and their maker’s habit has wowed the world as they have consistently shown that taking responsibilities is not about age or experience.

The time to get the NTYTR bill signed into law is now since the bill has received some support from the Legislature, but the steps in getting a bill signed into law in Nigeria is not a battle for the fainthearted. As the bill has passed 2nd hearing, it has to pass through the state legislative as well and it has to get the support and approval of at least 2/3 of the state legislatures in all the 36 states of the country. Though the process is lengthy and complicated, it is believed that it will pull through before the end of this year.

In the three days training, we were grouped into five groups, with each focusing on different and specific areas of concentration or constituencies, but in all, towards organising and mobilising resources and people in support of the bill at the state level.

Team Synergy

In my group, we focused on Political Parties. We were trained on strategies on how to approach these people, convince them and how we can build a team of advocates at the state as if we are already on the project.

Through the process of the training, we were trained on what leadership is and how organising is a core part of leadership, we were made to realise that leadership has roots which are;

• If I am not for myself, who am I (self),
• When I am not for myself, what am I (others)
• If not now, when? (action)

Also, one of the most important aspects of the training is the organising which is defined as an adaptive form of learning that enable the constituencies (the People) to turn its resources into POWER it needs to achieve its goals or the change it needs to see.

I was made to understand the importance of public narratives and how I can use my story to connect people to act by planning ahead and developing a strategy that will motivate people to act. In essence, what I learned here is more of how to use story-telling as a powerful tool for initiating change.  I realised I have a story and know how to turn it to motivate people to act through the course of the training.

Power is also a core part of the training where we are taught what power meant, it’s phases (Structure, Agenda, and Decision) and why power mapping is very important so as to be able to correlate interest and power in achieving meaningful and significant results.

Also, team formation was also detailed and we were taught to form a team who are bounded, stable and inter-independent and the steps in launching effective leadership team was discussed extensively too. I can say this is one of the most important session to me through the training. The 3 steps in launching effective leadership team is as below;

• Shared purpose
• Create Inter-dependent roles
• Explicit ground rules

A good team must have all these steps for them to be a formidable and relevant team. Having seen some of these steps firsthand, I never knew there is a model (steps) to it. Thanks to YIAGA for the insight!

In all, organising is a major leadership skill and snowflake leadership model which allows for leadership to be distributed is what has been missing in Nigeria as a country and I look forward to more formidable team being formed through efforts of organisations like YIAGA and CODE as Follow the Money towards community building. Maybe one day, when more people become responsible and start acting, then we could have a country of our dream but it is not a battle of the fainthearted.

In conclusion, organising as a leadership form could be explained in the following context;

1. Shared stories
2. Relational commitment
3. Clear structure
4. Creative strategy and
5. Effective action.

I look forward to seeing more leaders emerging from the training and I am strongly convinced that the NTYTR bill will become a reality in Nigeria as this will help in giving youth equal access to be voted for rather than voting alone and maybe one day, we might have a youth as the president, Senate president or House Speaker in Nigeria.

I remember the first time i heard the word ACTIVISM- before i got admitted into the university and there was always some news on the television about one form of student activism or the other- either students protesting a lack of social amenities or hike in school fees. These protests were usually characterized by the carrying of placards, sticks, chanting student union songs and slogans etc.

Then came the era of labor unionism, which in another way defined activism for me and a lot of Nigerians as facing off with government and going on strikes.

The above mentioned examples and some others that easily come to mind give the impression that activism always has to be violent and angry. Indeed, there are times when one has to get angry enough about the situation to want to change things, to say enough is enough. Activism is however a lot more than that.

The term activism in itself is quite contentious and has been the source of many debates with different definitions from different points of view.

The Freedom of Association, in their book “Moments of Excess” give one of my best definitions of activism as “specializing in social change. Therefore, an activist is an expert of social change”

A popular definition of activism captures it as being “an engaged citizenry”. Meaning that activists are generally citizens who are concerned about and take steps to address issues of public concern. Any issue that affects public life should concern us all. Ergo, we should all be activists.

Here are a few important steps to becoming an active citizen:

• Be knowledgeable about the issues – knowledge they say, is power and one can never underestimate the power that lies in being equipped with the right type and amount of information. The only way to engage effectively with the issues is by being properly informed. So, do your research, ask question and dig deep until you get all the answers!
• Be ready to engage – it should not stop at being equipped with the right type and amount of knowledge alone. It is pointless if you have the information and you are not ready to put that knowledge to work; all that energy and effort put into acquiring it would have just been wasted if you do not enagage!
• Find a space/niche – there may be that little voice in your head telling you that you are the only person alive on earth who is interested in bringing about social change. This is farthest from the truth. There are many others who are interested in the same issues as you and who are also equipped with the information you have. So, what gives you the extra edge? The answer is your niche (that space you have created for yourself, that people can identify you with). Don’t get me wrong – you do not have to start an organisation or movement or enterprise to create a niche for yourself – you can find an organisation or movement whose vision/mission/aspirations tie very closely to yours and join them or collaborate or even volunteer. Resist the temptation for quick glory. Rather, understand that you need time to learn and mature and a great way to do this is by learning from those who have been in the game longer than you and who have more experience.
• Walk the talk and talk the walk – a lot of people will argue that we have too many talkers and very few doers. While i may have certain reservations about the generalization a lot of people accrue to this statement, it is not entirely false in itself. Oftentimes, we find out that we have so many people making so much noise about an issue, especially on social media but, when it gets down to the nitty gritty; to actually getting down to the real work of doing, only a few are left. True activists are known by their actions, not their words. It may be something as simple as stopping in front of a zebra crossing while others are driving past or stopping at a red light while other drivers zoom past or you may decide to be like Mahatma Gandhi and go on hunger strike as a way of disagreeing nonviolently with a popular opinion. Whatever way you choose, just make sure your actions speak for you and people can identify you as a real change maker.
• Be authentic – a friend once told me that passion comes from authenticity and i find this to be very true. When your passion stems from a place that is very real, there is no limits to the impact and influence that you can have on people around you.

Tying all of this to the work we do at connected development, we may not take to the streets , carrying placards and chanting (we do not need to). But the sound of our activism echoes loud and clear. We are breeding a community of revolutionary individuals who see governance as a partnership between the governed and the governing; each playing his own part at ensuring a society where social justice and equity prevails. We are breeding a community of social change experts, a community of concerned citizens and this is essentially what activism is all about.
If you are ready to become an engaged citizen, you can join our platform on www.ifollowthemoney.org

Connected Development [CODE] was invited to an Open Government Partnership (OGP) event organized by Budgit. The event brought together Civil Society Organizations (CSO) such as Public and Private Development Centre,  Institute of War and Peace Reporting, Network of Police Reforms in Nigeria, Dean Initiatives, Center for Democracy and Development amongst others to discuss the tools used by Budgit in 2016 towards advocating for OGP in Nigeria.

Stanley Achonu and Abayomi Akinbo of Budgit led the event, discussing the tools from FOIVault, PICC and Find a cop. FOI Vault is a repository of requested FOIs by credible and verifiable organizations to the Ministries, Agencies and Departments of the Nigerian Government.

Bearing in mind that a lot of my organizational work involves requesting for more information from the government through the use of Freedom of Information (FOI) requests, I was able to see the potential of the tool as it allows for documentation of FOI requests and response from the government.

As such, I can visit the vault first before sending my next FOI to a ministry or other governmental institutions so as to be sure that someone else from another organization has not sent the same request and likely gotten an answer which may aid my work.  Also, it saves the concerned governmental agency from having to spend valuable time in dealing with a request to which it has devoted time to in the past, albeit to another organization and at the end, we can all synergise and work much more effectively.

picc.com.ng was also one of the presented tools which were used to document verified corruption cases against any Nigerian that has a case with the court of law in the country. As the Ministry of Justice does not have such electronic record, I think this could be a good repository for a background check on anyone intending to run for public office in Nigeria.

Furthermore, the last tool that was showcased is findacop.ng which is a simple web application that can be used to locate the nearest Police station in Nigeria. “We are not able to get enough data around this as the Nigeria Police Force is not ready to make things easier for us,” says Abayomi. As such,  at the moment, there is not much data on the platform.

The presentation was concise, interactive and engaging as it opened me up to new and innovative ways data can be made open and accessible to everyday users. The event eventually ended with a brainstorming session involving all the participants on how to improve the tools as well as how to make CSOs see value in these interventions towards achieving Open Governance Partnership in Nigeria.

Personally, I think collaboration and data sharing between civic organizations is key as this will enable us to build a formidable network of citizens who will have the much-needed information at their fingertips, making them well informed and able to engage the government at any level. This will, in turn, have a lasting impact on achieving good governance in Nigeria.

IMAGE CREDIT: CCHUB

Every year, the federal budget is expected to pass through certain stages before it becomes an act (essentially a law for implementation).

         stages in the budgetary cycle

One of the very important stages is a joint house public hearing (which forms part of the processes in the budget approval and accent stage) where members of the public can make submissions and inputs on the budget. The public hearing for the 2017 budget took place between the 13^th and 15^th of February 2017. During this time, a lot of comment was generated on the need for Nigeria to break away from the over dependence on crude oil as  the major source of revenue. In proposing alternatives to a diversified income revenue generation, the ministry of budget and planning highlighted taxation as a major alternative. In the minister’s presentation, there was much talk about broadening the tax base and I dare ask “HOW?”

Does the Federal Government’s idea of broadening the tax base involve ensuring that more individuals and companies who have not been paying taxes in the past begin to do so or does it intend to increase the tax rate from what it is currently? If the former is the case, then we may be heading in the right direction but a question that readily comes to mind is “how do we ensure accountability in the tax system?”. Becoming  a tax payer ultimately imposes a duty on the payee to ensure that his/her taxes are judiciously used because nobody would not want to see their hard earned money end up in personal pockets, bank accounts, safes or even wells dug out solely for the purpose of hiding embezzled funds. Becoming a tax payer means that they will ask questions about the roads their money is supposed to build, the electricity it is supposed to provide, the hospitals it is supposed to erect, the schools it is supposed to erect and make functional and so on…

Is there any provision presently in place to ensure that citizens’ questions are answered if and when they make them? I know a lot of people will be quick to mention the Freedom of Information Act signed into law in 2011 but permit me to ask how many Nigerians know about this Act and the liberty it provides for every citizen. And even for those that know about the Act and do use it, how many times have they gotten responses from these public institutions and what structures do we currently have in place to ensure compliance and accountability (I will share some of my personal experiences in a later post)?

If however, the latter is the case, then it only becomes reasonable to conclude that this government will not be acting in the interest of the already poor masses and its claims at being a pro-poor government becomes questionable.

Celestina is a Project officer at Connected Development. She spends her time writing and volunteering in organisations that work in development and health. She tweets via @Celna4all 

General Murtala Muhammed ruled Nigeria from 1975 until his assassination in 1976. In a short time, his policies, pro-activeness and decisiveness won him broad popular support. He swiftly initiated a comprehensive review of the 3^rd National Development Plan and created economic strategies to address rising inflation rate. He also immediately announced that his government would encourage the privatisation of government corporations. To fight corruption and over-bloating of the civil service that was legitimised by the Gowon government, he also dismissed more than 10,000 public officials and employees without benefits, on account of age, health, incompetence, or malpractice.

To some, this later became the single biggest policy error in the development of Nigeria by damaging the public service both in capacity and through encouraging corruption. This was because, the dismissals brought public servants to the reality that security of tenure was something that could be swept away with a stroke of the pen. Consequently, since one does not know how long a public service might last, it was considered better to feather the nest while one had the opportunity. In addition, the mass sack had an adverse effect on socio-economic development because Nigeria lost skilled and trained manpower that would have strengthened its institutions.

While his critics leverage on this and his role in the civil war in criticizing him; his admirers focus on his personality, decisiveness and the sort of populist actions in took while in few months in office, as part of his legacies. In the midst of such mixed reactions over his legacies, the Murtala Muhammed Foundation (MMF), on 13 February 2017, organized the 2017 Murtala Muhammed Memorial Lecture, with the theme, ‘Humanitarian Crisis and Response in a Plural Society: What Role for Leadership,’ at Shehu Yarádua Centre, Abuja.

In attendance were the acting president, Prof Yemi Osinbajo; former president, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo; Cardinal John Onaiyekan; Board Members of MMF; Mrs Ajoke Muhammed, widow of Murtala; and HE Kashim Shettima, governor of Borno State; as well as other dignitaries and participants. The acting and former presidents all gave their remarks, highlighting the ideals of Murtala Muhammed. The governor was the keynote speaker, in a lecture titled, ‘Managing the Boko Haram Crisis in Borno State; Experiences and Lessons for a multi-party, multi-ethnic and multi-religious Nigeria.” In the lecture, Mr Shettima took his time to narrate the emergence of Boko Haram which he married with the incompetence of his predecessor, Ali Modu Sheriff, to settle some disagreements that arose between the police and members of the then budding sect in 2009.

However, what was paradoxical was that Mr Shettima was also in the government of his predecessor as a commissioner in 5 different Ministries, and has a great share in any blame with that government, over the latter’s inability to crack this sect while it was budding or harmonise the political instability the disagreements led to. In the lecture, he also went ahead to narrate of how several unnecessary conspiracy theories have been created out of the Boko Haram crisis especially during the immediate past regime, which were not necessary for the unity and development of the country. He commented that such theories prevented the past government from finding immediate measures in rescuing the missing Chibok girls. The lecture also highlighted his disagreements with several NGOs and INGOs involved in managing the humanitarian crisis in the north-eastern part of the country, and a briefing on his efforts on education and agriculture in Borno State. He ended by saying that his government is liaising with other stakeholders to make sure that the IDP camps in the north-east would be closed in May this year.

This was another shocking paradox considering that hundreds of thousands of IDPs are all over the sub-region. As at now, the war on Boko Haram just went into a transition of what could be near permanent crackdown on the sect. There is no sort of reconstruction efforts in these communities and the governor wants the IDPs to return to Borno. There are no hospitals, schools; farmlands are devastated; no alternative sources of livelihood. There are no sorts of reconstruction, reintegration and rehabilitation plans on-going. Such mass return by such a deadline that ain’t feasible is not realistic. There should be efforts to make sure IDPs are living fairly well in their camps while the government concentrates on re-building their communities and creating a conducive environment for them, before they return home.

Chambers Umezulike is a Program Officer at Connected Development and a Development Expert. He spends most of his time writing and choreographing researches on good and economic governance. He tweets via @Prof_Umezulike.

It was a long week as we received an invitation from the Sustainable Development Goal Department of the Federal Ministry of Education (FME – SDGs Office) to witness the reviewing of the instrument for the monitoring of 2016 SDGs Projects in Nigeria.

We were invited to be an independent participator in the event, representing Civil Society Organization in the event owing to the fact that Education is one of our thematic areas.

As the lead investigator on Education for our Follow The Money project, it is a part of my responsibilities to be part of the event. On getting to the event centre, they just created a registration sheet to represent NGOs in which my name was the first on the list as they are not expecting more of Civic organisations.

In her introduction, Mrs AAA Liman stated that the essence of the event is to bring agencies and departments together to review the monitoring and evaluation instrument that has been in use by the SDGs in order to upgrade it to international standards after which she passed the baton to the Director of the Unit.

In her own words, the Director said that she has to be in the event since monitoring has been a thing of her heart as the motto of the Department is “Raising the Bar”. She gave a background to the present monitoring framework of the department and said it has been in existence since 2009 when it was first developed for monitoring of SDGs projects in Nigeria and further explained that they would love to review it so as to make it a tool that will be in tune with present happenings in the world.

On her endnote, she concluded by saying “our goal is to come out with an instrument that will meet international standards and can be used by all agencies and departments”.

In his word, Hamzat Lawal said this event will shape Education in Nigeria as the instruments will provide a framework for monitoring of the implementation of the Education funds meant for the schools in the grassroots and also, this will be a guide for other MDAs and also, it will be good for transparency and accountability in government projects in Nigeria.

The event lasted almost the whole day as each item and options were reviewed by all the agencies working on education SDGs in Nigeria. Some items stayed the same while significant others were reviewed thoroughly. After which the event finally came to an end.

I was awed by the action taken by the FME-SDGs as it shows how passionate some civil servants are with their job and the well being of the people they are working for given that the civil service space is filled with many misappropriations and negligence of work. Only if we can have more agencies like this in Nigeria, the government would function better and maybe corruption would be drastically reduced. These are my thoughts and I hope to see more of such happening in Nigeria.

Photo Credit: post-nigeria.com

According to Nigeria National Bureau of Statistics, the country’s Gross Domestic Product contracted by 0.36% in the Quarter(Q) 1 of 2016, the first negative growth in many years. Successive contractions in Q2 and Q3 of the same year by 2.1% and 2.24%, respectively, officially chaperoned Nigeria into an economic recession. Even before the country’s general elections in March 2015, the country had already started encountering a considerable number of pre-recession prodromes such as wages crisis, Foreign Exchange (FOREX) scarcity, compressing governmental revenues and domestic savings, rising inflation, job losses, a depreciating national currency, depleting foreign reserves, escalating poverty, while the country’s capital market started losing billions of Naira.

These prodromes gradually worsened in succeeding months after the Muhammadu Buhari led administration came into office in May 2015. Between Q4 of 2015 and Q3 of last year, inflation rose from 9.5 to 18.3%. Similarly, unemployment grew from 10.4 to 13.9%; Naira depreciated at the contemporaneous market by around 100%, from around 225 to 450 while it remained officially pegged at 305 per US$1. For the latter, last year, the country’s Central Bank adopted a partial flexible exchange rate regime and consequently, the feeble national currency has been valued at the aforementioned rate upward. Through this, South Africa overtook and undertook Nigeria as Africa’s biggest economy in dollar terms. In addition, foreign reserves depleted from US$29 billion to 25 billion.

As a primary export dependent country, Nigeria has been an unblushing subject of international oil prices’ oscillations. Its current economic crisis is an echolalia of the early 1980s scenario which subsequently led to the country’s adoption of the Structural Adjustment Program to circumvent the economic crisis. The 1980s economic crisis frustrated economic growth in the country even till the 1990s. Between 1981 and 1985 in the country’s 2^nd Republic, crude oil prices fell by 25% to US$30 per barrel from US$40. As a result, the economy went into a recession as FOREX earnings remained at US$52.78 million, away from the estimated $79.449. External debt rose to Naira 17.3 billion from an estimate of 3.7 billion. By 1985, Nigeria’s external reserves had run close to a level that could hardly finance more than one and half month import bills.

Similarly, after the sudden crash in global oil prices from $112 per barrel in the Q4 of 2014 to $43 per barrel in the Q2 quarter of 2016, the country experienced reduced FOREX earnings and governmental revenues. This then affected most sectors of the economy. Oil revenues constitute 90% of the country’s FOREX earnings (2013 estimate) and around 80% of sources of government’s revenues. Previous efforts to diversify sources of these earnings such as the 2^nd, 3^rd, and 4^th National Development Plans and other economic regimes of successive leadership since the country’s 4^th Republic have achieved contracted results.

In addition, through several apocalyptic economic tactics, the country’s topical administration also contributed to the recession, albeit they are in the process of commissioning an economic blueprint to contain it. First, from Q3 of 2015, its indecisiveness on devaluing the Naira to reduce the pressure on it skyrocketed the black market premium and incentivised arbitrage. Secondly, over the inability of the administration to keep paying oil marketers in foreign currencies so as to import refined crude into the country because of FOREX scarcity, the administration was forced to remove petroleum subsidy in early last year. This had an immediate and terrible impact on inflation. Thirdly, over previous efforts to protect the Naira, the Central Bank placed a ban on the importation of 41 items. This alone worsened the situation by creating scarcity of the products, precipitating job losses and closure of businesses.

However, a good attempt by the administration to implement an expansionary budget in the 2016 fiscal year and increase its capital expenditure component by 30% was partly hampered by ceaseless oil pipeline vandalisation by the Niger Delta militants. This deeply affected the administration’s ability to fully implement the budget as a result of drop in oil output from 1818 barrels per day in the Q4 of 2015 to 1270 in the Q2 of 2016. Also, President Buhari’s delay in appointing ministers and the resultant padding of the budget saga affected a timely implementation of the budget.

Till today, while the government has promised to release a report of the 2016 budget performance analysis by the end of January 2017, they have not. Furthermore, efforts by the administration to diversify the economy by expanding agriculture and amplifying solid minerals exploration have recorded nanoscopic results over the lack of coherent strategies to achieve such. Finally, limited results from the administration’s efforts to improve the ease of doing business and boost investors’ confidence have further imperiled the attraction of foreign capital into the country.

The economic recession is largely Nigeria’s choice and not just oil price shock because it was predictable and largely avoidable. It remains imperative that Abuja make sure that it’s Economic Recovery and Growth Plan is a comprehensible economic blueprint that could address the recession with strategies, projections, targets, programs to cushion its effects etc. They should swiftly devise ways to keep pumping money into the economy, without the commensurate inflationary tendencies it can bring. Following this, the series of jocose frivolous items on the 2017 budget have to be clinically jettisoned while the fund rather goes into capital expenditure. They should also lift the ban on the importation of the aforementioned items. Import led industrialisation strategy has always failed outstandingly when it’s not backed up with coherent or backed up with anomalous tactics. Ultimately, there should be further sound strategies to aggressively attract foreign capital, position the country for industrialisation, diversify exports; and reduce poverty and unemployment.

Chambers Umezulike is a Program Officer at Connected Development and a Development Expert. He spends most of his time writing and choreographing researches on good and economic governance. He tweets via @Prof_Umezulike.

So many persons believe that practicing accounting in a not-for profit is challenging, boring and annoying, however, I beg to differ with the last two adjectives. Working as the Finance Officer at Connected Development [CODE]  has been both challenging and exciting at the same time.

Okay we know Accounting is the art of identifying, recording, classifying and summarizing in a significant manner and in terms of money, transactions and events, which are in part at least, of a financial character and interpreting the results thereof to make informed decisions. while Financial reporting has to do with reporting transactions and providing receipts so as to justify every transaction made while adhering to the seven principles of financial management for Non Governmental Organizations which encompass stewardship, accountability, viability, transparency, integrity, accounting standards and consistence.

For credibility purpose when reporting, you will always be expected  to provide receipt to justify every item included in the financial report. Getting receipts which shows proof of payment can be somewhat difficult especially when dealing with people in rural communities or trying to suggest the use of cheapest means of expenditure to them, but I thought, why not create a system that would work for me and by extension the organization. CODE’s mission is to empower marginalized communities which results to the focus of most of our projects in rural communities. Working with people in rural communities can be challenging but the quicker you can get a system that will work for you, the better, instead of preventable oscillations.

In order to create a working system, I devised a mechanism of developing a form receipting. This receipt does not necessarily carry the “typed organisation’s letter headed” document but a form where it can be handwritten and signed by parties involved.I also developed what I termed the “unreceipted” transport claim document where community reporters would have to list out all local transportation expenses incurred during the course of the the respective projects such as canoe fares, bike fares, buses etc. This is in an effort to ease reporting for me and to justify every single penny leaving the organisation’s purse.

After all, in accounting, reconciliation is the process of ensuring that the balances of two account are in agreement through making sure that money budgeted would later reconcile with  the actual money spent, whether it was over-budgeted or under-budgeted. One of the ways in which reconciliation can take place is  examining/matching existing records and receipts for effective documentation.

So you see NGO accounting is not so difficult especially when the personnel involved can deploy strategies and creativity for quality accounting. Next time you think NGO accounting is boring, challenging and annoying, think again – In fact I can emphatically say it is interesting, yeah it can be challenging but exciting.

So, after much anticipation and keenness, I am back to the working world at Connected Development (CODE). In many ways, it feels as if I never left – as if my entire absence for my internship was nothing more than a slightly peculiar dream. I remember vividly how I received the news of getting the internship slot, It was a dream come true as I had anticipated working in an environment where maternal and newborn health were the focus but this was coming with a prize, and the prize was quitting my job at Connected Development.  This wasn’t an easy decision, my friends were like, you can’t do this, they couldn’t understand how I could walk away from what I had at CODE and they couldn’t see a path for me to walk back later. One year later I’m back to where I started from, the motivation house as Chambers stated on one of his posts on Facebook.

Bumping into Hamzat that fateful Wednesday was actually orchestrated by higher powers, because I was thinking about what I was going to do with my life when my internship ends on Friday. We got talking and I told him I was going to be done on Friday.  He was shocked, “So you are going to be jobless? He asked, I said yes, after a while he told me I could come back to work for CODE if I’m interested. I was elated. At this time where the rate of unemployment has skyrocketed to 13.3%, here he was giving me a second chance and offering me an opportunity not to be among the statistics and also contribute again to the success of CODE. I sent out a mail the Friday I ended my internship and anxiously waited for his reply, the Hamzat I used to know while I was working with him, always reply his Emails before he retires for the day. I got scared when I didn’t get a reply and thought maybe he had changed his mind, I checked my mail over and over, refreshed it countless time yet no reply. Every notification I got on my phone got me running to check if it was the expected mail and trust MTN to keep you on your feet with their messages. Alas, I finally got the mail to resume on Wednesday.

The day before my big return to work was possibly the worst experience of Tuesday night I’ve ever experienced. But then, of course, it would be, wouldn’t it?  The cough wouldn’t let me sleep; the anxiety of the changes I have to face and the new people I will have to be working with was all making me restless. I managed to doze off with the intention of waking up early so I can be punctual and not show myself as the famous late comer to work which I was actually known for before I left. I woke up that glorious morning with a beautiful smile perched on my lips, got prepared and set out for work in time, but the desire for me to break the barrier of going late wasn’t possible as I stood at the bus stop for close to 30 minutes looking for a cab. I finally arrived 15 minutes late. That feeling of dealing with enough newness on your first day was hanging around me, but then I have to deal with it. I met some strange faces which was expected because, over the year, I have kept up with the activities happening at CODE. I was introduced to the new ones and the old ones were happy to have me back I guess.

My running nose chose this blessed  day to come in full force which got me sneezing every minute, I managed to start off with documents on what CODE currently does and how they achieve their objectives and targets, surprisingly it has really evolved. While I was here a lot of things were done by everybody, but right now we have people who work in different teams. They are new projects and also new partnership with various bodies has also been formed.

Now, though, I’m back in the rhythm of it, and back to finding ways to make every moment of my work count – moping around is certainly not allowed if I really want to make it up to the steep learning curve ahead of me.  I have also been assigned to a team and I hope to add the new skills I developed while interning to propel my team and also learn more. I hope to also gain insight on how Follow The Money track funds meant for marginalized communities and how to use the FOI Act to hold our leaders accountable.

Another project of CODE that gets me really excited is the tracking of the Save 1 million Lives grant by the World bank to improve maternal and child health in states. This I hope to get really involved in as i am ruthlessly passionate in issues that leads to the survival of mothers and newborn. Finally  I hope that my return to the motivation house will  hone my skills in using advocacy to advance and bring about  development in health, education and environment sectors.

Ijeoma Oforka is a Program Officer at Connected Development, with a background in Public Health. She is passionate about advocating for the plights and issues surrounding women and girls health and education. She tweets via @ijoforka

A wise man once told me that it makes little or no sense to sit back and bemoan the state of things, the best way to get real change is to go out and ACT! In other words, if you don’t like the news, go out and make some of your own.

This past year, working in the health advocacy circle has been a journey of some sorts. I remember taking the health campaigns for an increase in the health budget and the implementation of the National Health Act to one of the rotary clubs in Abuja and during the session, one of the club members asked a question that really got me thinking. He asked “say we eventually get all these monies we are asking for, how do we ensure that the funds will be properly implemented, the monies been allocated presently, how are they being utilized?”

It is no secret that we have a major problem of implementation in Nigeria; we are always among the first countries to ratify treaties and sign international conventions. But when it comes to implementation, naa-da!

The innovative ways CODE is tracking funds meant for capital projects in rural communities is an excellent way to ensure that Nigerians get what they deserve. What better way to eliminate extreme poverty from Nigeria and the world at large than ensuring that funds meant for the construction of Primary Healthcare Centers in rural communities are properly utilized so that people do not have to spend more money out of pocket to treat basic illnesses? Or ensuring that funds meant for the provision of basic amenities such as pipe borne water in rural communities are properly and fully utilized so that girls do not have to go long distances to fetch water and they can instead spend that time in school? Or ensuring that funds meant for providing basic amenities for education in rural communities are properly and adequately utilized?

It is important that in addition to advocating for increase in allocation of funds in areas of social development such as health, education and environment, we should also find ways to track how these funds are being implemented- this is what CODE does and I am excited to be part of the team.

In my first few days, I have come to understand that young people in Nigeria are becoming more interested in how they are governed and how resources are being utilized. You hear cases of young men (and women) spending multiple days in transit, all in a bid to reach the remotest communities to track capital projects’ expenditures. Some of these communities are almost forgotten by the general public and indeed the government. In fact, some lawmakers representing some of these communities do not even know that they exist talk less of even visiting them to know what their needs are or even ensure that they get what is due them.

These young people who are willing to risk their lives as a way of contributing to national development give us reason to hope and believe that there is indeed light at the end of the tunnel as long as you and I do our parts in ensuring accessibility, transparency and accountability in capital projects’ expenditures.

Celestina is a Project officer at Connected Development. She spends her time writing and volunteering in organisations that work in development and health. She tweets via @Celna4all (https://twitter.com/)