Press Release:

The Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences (ICPC) is to partner a Non-Governmental Organisation, Connected Development (CODE), to ensure that funds channeled towards constituency projects are appropriately utilized.

ICPC Chairman, Professor Bolaji Owasanoye, who received CODE delegates, led by Hamzat Lawal, in his Office in Abuja, stated that his administration was determined to track constituency projects especially in the Local Government Areas (LGAs) to combat corruption in the country. “Implementation of constituency projects is one of the ways by which we can ensure that what the Presidency desires to do connects with the people. Every year, funds are budgeted for constituency projects, yet, people at the grassroots especially, are not beneficiaries,” he added.

CODE’s Chief Executive, Hamzat Lawal says the purpose of the visit was to establish collaboration with the Commission in advocating for transparency, accountability and good governance. Lawal added that constituency tracking ensures funds are properly utilized and meet the needs and aspiration of the Nigerian people, although these funds are usually syphoned, marginalizing the Nigerian people and denying them access to their rights. Exploring collaboration with the ICPC is a strategic move to collectively combat corruption, illicit financial flows and track to completion, development projects in rural areas so people can have access to portable drinking water, standard healthcare and even primary education.

ICPC is also partnering with CODE on mobilizing the youth, through CODE’s Follow The Money University Campus Tour, on an anti-corruption movement where young people are sensitized on good governance and the movement to end corruption in Nigeria.

The ICPC Chairman, commended CODE on winning the UN SDG 2019 Mobilizer Award and for its passion in fighting corruption and holding government representatives and authorities accountable. The Commission pledged support to CODE’s FTM initiative.

The Great Green Wall (GGW) is one of the most audacious efforts in human history, because the GGW countries are faced with conflict, migration, poverty and hunger at the same time, and at an unprecedented level.

Now that a new Director General has taken over at the helm of affairs at the National Agency for Great Green Wall (NAGGW), it is time for a general reappraisal of the essence of the agency in order to properly situate it in the blueprint of building a new and robust Nigeria where the youth shall find a pride of place.

Recently, the Federal Government appointed Dr Bukar Hassan as the new DG of the NAGGW, replacing Mr Ahmed Goni who had been the Director General since the inception of the agency until his recent disengagement after his four years of tenure elapsed. It is interesting to note that the new DG will easily fit into these shoes because he has always been part of the green family.

Hassan was once the Head of Project Implementation Unit of the Great Green Wall, and Director, Drought and Desertification Amelioration at the Federal Ministry of Environment. He rose to become the Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Environment in 2015, and was redeployed to Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development in 2017 until his retirement in September 2018.

Meanwhile, one must not fail to recognize the laudable milestones achieved by the outgoing Director-General, Goni. In a country where budgets are apportioned to other projects without question and when it concerns green issues eyebrows are raised, one needs to appreciate the efforts of the outgoing Great Green Wall agency boss as a trail blazer in the issue of national building and environmental rejuvenation.

Goni and the former Minister of Environment who is now the Deputy Secretary General of the United Nations, Amina Mohammed, had worked tirelessly for the mainstreaming of the Great Green Wall project in the Nigerian developmental administration. Shortly before Ms Mohammed left Nigeria to resume her new duties at the UN, she had spoken passionately about the merits of the project and affirmed that there was light at the end of the tunnel because GGW was an initiative of solidarity among a family of countries across the Sahel and the Sahara that were taking collective responsibility.

The Nigerian Great Green Wall Programme commenced because Nigeria is a signatory to the GGW Convention. Later in 2015, in committing to the implementation of the Initiative, Nigeria established the National Agency for the Great Green Wall to coordinate the implementation. Also, a Strategic Action Plan was developed to serve as the programme implementation framework.

The Strategic Action Plan is a five-year plan with the goal of improving the wellbeing of the affected people and reducing their vulnerability to the impact of desertification orchestrated by climate change through improved use of land and other natural resources for sustainable development and support to climate infrastructure. The development objective is to combat land degradation and desertification in Nigeria in order to protect and restore ecosystems and essential ecosystem services that are key to reducing poverty, enhancing food security, and promoting sustainable livelihoods.

The Great Green Wall for Sahel and Sahara Initiative (GGWSSI) is more than creating a wall of trees stretching from Senegal in West Africa to Djibouti in East Africa. It is a metaphor to depict a mosaic of integrated interventions tackling the multiple challenges affecting the lives of people in the Sahel and Sahara areas. It is an African Union programme bringing together 20 countries from the Sahel-Saharan region including Algeria, Burkina Faso, Benin, Chad, Cape Verde, Djibouti, Egypt, Ethiopia, Libya, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Somalia, Sudan, The Gambia and Tunisia.

The implementation of the Initiative in Nigeria encompasses the eleven frontline states of Adamawa, Bauchi, Borno, Gombe, Jigawa, Kano, Katsina, Kebbi, Sokoto, Yobe and Zamfara. Desertification is one of the major environmental challenges in Nigeria threatening the livelihoods of over 50 million people in these States. It involves the establishment of a greenbelt covering 1500km from Dandi Arewa Local Government Area of Kebbi State to Marte in Borno State.

So, on a wider scale, The Great Green Wall Initiative holds the key to the future of African drylands. It is a daring initiative that has the potential to bring back to the continent food and water security, create jobs and new economic opportunities, help in fighting climate change and allow people not to only survive but to thrive sustainably.

In Nigeria to be specific, the initiative remains the major mechanism that can be used to ensure the sustainable development of the drylands, combat rural poverty and create hope for the affected people. Within the framework of the GGW programme, it has been envisaged that about 22,500sqkm of degraded land in the dry region of the country will be rehabilitated for agricultural production and the livelihoods of over 25 million people will be improved by the year 2030.

It will also help immensely in the rehabilitation of the Internally Displaced People (IDPS) by creating job opportunities, managing income generation activities and systematically reclaiming degraded farm lands. In addition, it will reduce farmers – herders conflicts by creating grazing reserves and fodder farms in the Northern dry land areas. This way, the rate of South-ward migration of herders shall significantly reduce.

Nevertheless, there are vital points to note as Nigeria enters another phase in the Great Green Wall implementation. The first is finance. The project cannot go far if the government does not fund it properly. As it stands today, the agency is still living from hand to mouth, because it is not well-funded. It is supposed to receive 15% of the Ecological Fund but all evidence points to the fact that it is not doing so.

Secondly, the agency is actually an inter-sectoral agency that has a crosscutting job across many aspects of our nationhood, hence its importance, yet it is not ingrained in the consciousness of many Nigerians. The success of the agency is Nigeria’s success, as many other countries in the Great Green Wall belt are actually looking up to us.

To be candid, youth participation should be an integral part of the agency’s activities because they are the future of the Nigeria and the GGW holds the key to a sustainable future. There has to be a strategic resuscitation of the entire sustainability value chain – livestock, horticulture, etc – in the Great Green Wall. This way, young people can be empowered not only in the North but in other parts of the country where services are provided and raw materials processed; effectively taking 60 million youths out of poverty in the near future.

Finally, the incoming DG has before him a great opportunity to make history. He needs to build the capacity of the staff of the agency, while ensuring that modern technologies are employed to create a synergy between his various teams and the critical stakeholders scattered all over the nation.

Dr Bukar Hassan needs to also rejig the platforms that will enhance accountability and transparency so that the international community shall find the justification to scale up its support of Nigeria and the agency in the efforts they are set to achieve. In this way also, the wider grassroots citizens of our ever-increasing Follow The Money community shall find ample leverage to engage the agency and hold them to account.

Hamzat Lawal is an activist and currently the Founder/Chief Executive of Connected Development [CODE]. He is working to build the largest social accountability grassroots movement of citizen-led actions through Follow The Money for better service delivery in rural hard-to-reach communities in Africa.

###

Hamzat Lawal is an activist and currently the Founder/Chief Executive of Connected Development [CODE]. He is working to build the largest social accountability grassroots movement of citizen-led actions through Follow The Money for better service delivery in rural hard-to-reach communities in Africa.

Chambers Umezulike

On 30 April 2019, two of my colleagues and I began our trip to Bonn, Germany for the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) Global Festival of Action (GFoA) 2019. Our social accountability initiative, Follow The Money, had been nominated for the 2019 UN SDG Mobilizer Award. The Award recognizes individuals, organizations, government institutions, foundations etc. who are advancing the global movement for the SDGs in the most transformative, impactful and innovative way. Representatives of nominated initiatives in each category were expected to be at Bonn for the Announcement of the winners.

The GFoA is an annual event organized by the United Nations (UN) SDG Action Campaign, an initiative of the UN Secretary-General. The festival celebrates, empowers and connects the global community driving Action for the SDGs. It provides a space to showcase the latest innovations, and approaches to SDG implementation, while linking organizations and individuals from different sectors and regions to build partnerships. The SDGs Action Campaign aims to advocate and engage the public on the SDG implementation, while empowering and inspiring the world to achieve the SDGs. To operationalize this mandate, the SDG GFoA came to life. This year’s GFoA was slated from 2 – 4 May.

As we waited to board our flight to Bonn, I had mixed feelings. I was excited about the festival and at the same time, my mind was racing – We had been shortlisted as a finalist for the UN SDG Action Award  from over  2,000 applications from 142 countries of the world. It still feels a little surreal.

Personally, I knew we deserved the  recognition and had to bring it home. Such an award is a commendation of our team’s back-breaking efforts in mobilizing communities to hold the government to account and facilitate the implementation of SDGs 3, 4 and 6 in their communities. As the one leading the programmatic wheel since 2017, I was sure the recognition would inspire the team  to keep reaching communities and impacting lives. And if we did not bring it home – haha, this part kept my mind racing until the winners were announced on day 1 of the festival.

We touched down at Bonn in the afternoon of May 1, checked into our hotel rooms, had a quick shower and hurried to the World Conference Centre Bonn, venue of the festival. We registered for the big event and attended a 2-hour on-boarding session for the award finalists.I barely slept that night. I was so anxious to hear the announcement of winners of the SDG Awards, the next day.

On the first day of the festival, the grand opening plenary caved way for showcasing excellent initiatives from across the globe delivering solutions for the SDGs. The day was full of sessions on intellectual discourse around global issues and solutions that seek to eradicate poverty, through sustainable and inclusive human development (many of which Follow The Money team was on the stage to speak about). Later that evening,  the UN SDG Action Awards Ceremony started.

The winners for each of the 7 categories were announced. I could not contain my excitement when Follow The Money was announced the winner of the Mobilizer category. Follow The Money emerged winner of the 2019 UN SDG Mobilizer of the Year! I was so overjoyed, that I would not stop screaming for a long time. Our team Lead, Hamzat Lawal received the award and gave an acceptance speech. On that same platform, he launched the Follow The Money 2018 Report to the world. It was indeed a remarkable evening. We received so many accolades on many media platforms both home and abroad. Our twitter account was bursting with notifications of congratulatory messages. At Bonn, we were celebrated- people shook our hands, hugged us, asked to take pictures with Follow The Money team, asked if they could know more about our cause, expressed interest in tracking government spendings in their localities, the accolades were endless. We were overwhelmed and interestingly so. We exchanged business contacts with many other outstanding initiatives, had meaningful chats with SDG Global Fest delegates, and  received a warm DJ reception at the cash bar.

The second day of the festival was also splendid. We had several sessions, networked and met with potential partners that could drive the Follow The Money Movement in other parts of the world. The day also featured a festival walk to the Rhine river. On the third day, we had an hour session where we shared, in details, the methodology of our Follow The Money work, we also rubbed minds with other finalists in our category, answered questions about Follow The Money movement and were receptive to comments.

Everything about the Global fest was mind blowing–from the impressive brand messages, aesthetics, calibre of panelists and discussants, quality of intellectual conversations, presentations, and most importantly, learning about other outstanding initiatives across the globe.

The festival afforded us a great opportunity to explore collaborations, learn, establish synergy and foster cooperation with several organizations. We built strategic alliances and  are currently discussing with colleagues from Canada, South Sudan, Catalonia, Malawi and Philippines who are interested in starting Follow The Money in their countries.

Bonn was so beautiful and had a green landscape. It was inspiring to see that Germany is taking the lead on environmental sustainability and sustainable growth. We also touched down Cologne to visit some awesome tourist sites. Thanks to the Chinese restaurants in Bonn – hahahahaha 🙂 if you know, you know.

This was a remarkable experience and I believe with this UN SDG Award, Follow The Money can do more to ensure people hold their elected representatives and governments accountable for development projects and this will ultimately bring more people, especially at the grassroots, out of poverty, making it possible to achieve the United Nations SDGs before 2030.

Follow The Money movement is growing, with citizens signing up to hold their governments to account, ensure judicious spending of government and international funds to improve service delivery and eradicate poverty.

Sign up here, DO NOT BE LEFT OUT.

By Saater Ikpaahindi

The growing number of Out-of-School children (OOSC) in Nigeria is alarming. To better understand how two organisations are working to tackle this problem, I tagged along on CODE’s first field visit in its partnership with FlexiSAF foundation. FlexiSAF foundation is piloting an initiative on accelerated learning with OOSC in Rugga, a grassroots community in Wuye, Abuja.

FlexiSAF’s Accelerated Learning Programme aims to create a safe learning space where the most vulnerable Out-of-School children in grassroots communities are identified and provided with basic quality education within their communities. Connected Development will support FlexiSAF through its far-reaching influence in hard to reach grassroots communities by identifying children who will benefit from this programme.

My first thought as we drove through the community was that it seemed like a community the Government had ‘forgotten’. There were no standard structures in sight only sprawls of makeshift structures made from aluminium roofing sheets and plastic cement sacks. I wondered if the community had access to basic amenities like a school, a health centre and clean drinking water. iAlighting from the vehicle and walking down the dusty earth road towards a forest green three-room structure, I heard the voices of children singing a popular rhyme I learnt as a child. ‘My head, my shoulders, my knees my toes, my head, my shoulders, my knees my toes, my head, my shoulders, my knees, my toes they all belong together’. Peeking into one of the rooms, I saw children seated on mats as they learned in English, about the different parts of the body and their functions. Situated in front of the children was an enthusiastic Teacher whom I later learned was Miss Abigail and the class, Miss Abigail’s Space.

Speaking to Miss Abigail and Mr Nelson, FleixiSAF’sCommunity Liaison, they told me that classes were divided into three two-hour sessions in a day with different groups of children attending each session and a different Teacher leading each session. Each class (Safe Space) was named after the Teacher leading the session. I further gathered that they teach the children using the Montessori method and children are not only taught numeracy and literacy skills but life skills, etiquette, interpersonal relationship skills and hygiene. Both noted that there was a noticeable impact on the children, their parents and the community. Miss Abigail said that prior to attending the programme several of the children had very poor hygiene habits and could not speak a word of English. However, from learning about hygiene, t, many children took a bath and brushed their teeth before coming to class and now they understand  the importance of washing their hands. She said it gave her joy to see these transformations within two months since the programme started.

Mr Nelson commented that because of the changes other parents had noticed in the children who attended the programme, several of them have approached him to enrol their children. 

At some point,  I sat with the children and asked one of them, Amina, what she had been learning and she began making /‘t’/ sounds and pronounced team, tick, tin. Surprised, I glanced at Miss Abigail and she explained that one thing they teach the children is phonetics and how to pronounce words using sounds. Following an exhilarating session of singing and dancing with the children, I asked them what they enjoyed most about coming to Miss Abigail’s Space and they all resounded that “they loved coming to learn”.

In a community with no school, the provision of a transition centre where children can learn and are supported to enrol in a regular school through accelerated learning is a step towards positive change. Many of the children in Rugga community do not go to school. This was clear from the number of children I saw roaming the streets, sitting around or playing. However, even without speaking to them, I could feel the enthusiasm and willingness of the children to learn as some perched by the windows and doors of the study centre listening in.

Collaborating this was my discussion with Mr Suleiman, a farmer and petty trader whose child is a beneficiary of the accelerated learning programme. He said that “many children are eager to learn but constrained because of the absence of a School in the community and household finances.” Mr Suleiman spoke of the initiative as a welcome development and called on the Government to assist the community with basic facilities like a school, a healthcare centre and water.

As the children bid us goodbye, one thing I take away is their eagerness to learn and that little rays of hope can make a difference.  This makes it pertinent for the government to begin to think up sustainable measures to educate its young ones as a way to curtail the growing number of out of school children.

Connected Development (CODE) has launched its 2018 Annual Report that highlights the impact of its social accountability initiative, Follow The Money, in tracking an estimate of NGN 1,289,579,737 (USD 3.6 million) budgeted for projects in  69 grassroots communities across water, sanitation and hygiene [WASH], primary healthcare and education sectors, in the year 2018.

In the report, CODE emphasised its effort to spur stronger and inclusive growth for grassroots communities in Africa by providing them with the resources to amplify their voices; creating platforms for dialogue, enabling informed debate, and building the capacity of citizens on how to hold their elected representatives accountable through the Follow The Money initiative.

“It was a year of resilience and remarkable achievement,” said CODE’s Chief Executive, Hamzat Lawal, in his introduction speech at the launch of the 2018 Annual Report themed Amplifying Voices from the Grassroots. Lawal stated that “our priority in 2018 was to track subnational budgets and ensure that Federal allocations to States and Local Governments reached grassroots communities for socio-economic development.

“CODE activated Follow The Money for 9 Local Government projects and 41 State Government projects championing 5 advocacy campaigns for improved first-mile health infrastructure and services, 60 advocacy campaigns for improved education infrastructures for children to learn in schools, and 6 advocacy campaigns for communities to access safe, clean water and we impacted 1,292,848 grassroots people in 21 States of Nigeria, Lawal added.

The report also featured CODE’s tracking of spending in the extractive sector through its Conflict and Fragility Campaign, aimed at mitigating human rights and conflicts issues  to improve the livelihoods of grassroots communities in the Niger-Delta region. CODE engaged policy makers, stakeholders and beneficiaries, on the effects of artisanal mining activities in Nigeria, Ghana and Cote d’Ivoire. It also features Follow The Money’s expansion to other African Countries in Kenya, Liberia, Cameroon and The Gambia.

During the year, CODE faced key challenges including threats for exposing misappropriation of funds, poor access to data to enable tracking of government funds, security issues in NorthEast of Nigeria, and limited funds in reaching more grassroots communities, according to CODE’s Chief Operating Officer, Ojonwa Miachi.

CODE’s 2018 Report was launched alongside the presentation of Follow The Money’s award as the 2019 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals Mobilizer of the year. The presentation was supported by John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, OSIWA, Oxfam Nigeria, Luminate and Indigo Trust.

Chief Activist, Hamzat Lawal, dedicated the award to rural grassroots communities across Africa, the CODE team for their resilience in promoting the Follow The Money mission even in the face of insurmountable pressure; and to the donor agencies who believed CODE’s vision and contributed to actualising its mission.

Background:

The 2018 Annual Report outlines CODE’s work in tracking government and international funding in 3 thematic areas; WASH, Health and Education. It also describes its FTM sustainability model of building capacities of rural dwellers on how to hold their elected representatives accountable without CODE’s influence; and the inauguration of new local and international Follow The Money chapters.

The report highlights key activities in different regions including Kano, Lagos, Yobe, Kaduna, Bauchi, Ondo, Delta, Akwa Ibom, Zamfara and Borno.

Copies of the Annual Report are available at CODE’s HQ in Abuja Nigeria or downloadable via http://followthemoneyng.org/2019/05/10/2018-annual-report/

For Media Enquiries, contact Kevwe Oghide, Communications Lead, Connected Development via kevwe@connecteddevelopment.org

Connected Development’s home-grown initiative, Follow The Money, has emerged winner of the 2019 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals Mobilizer Award!

This announcement was made at the SDG Global Festival of Action currently holding in Bonn, Germany. The SDG Action Awards Global Project Leader, Laura Hildebrandt, said that the award showcased some of the greatest innovators, mobilizers, connectors, storytellers, communicators, visualizers and includers from across the Globe.

Expressing delight about the recognition, Follow The Money Founder and Chief Activist, Hamzat Lawal, dedicated the award to rural grassroots communities across Africa and to the CODE team for their resilience in promoting the Follow The Money mission even in the face of insurmountable pressure. Hamzat added that “this recognition shows that our little efforts to promote social accountability and advocate for better service delivery in marginalized communities are not in vain.

We are honoured by the show of love and we thank everyone for their immeasurable support. This win is for Nigeria. We are elated that our work and impact stood out from among thousands of brilliant applications from all over the world,” Lawal added.

The Follow The Money Founder further stated that “young people in Nigeria are carrying out remarkable projects that are geared towards nation building, yet communicating the impact of their works to the global community seems to be a challenge. With this UN SDG award, I am committed to helping passionate and driven youth get the needed recognition for their works. We all have a role to play in showcasing unique innovative talents in Nigeria to the global community.”

According to Mitchell Toomey, Global Director of the UN SDG Action Campaign, “The 2019 winners are the most impactful, transformative and creative SDG Action drivers. They dared to believe and act for change. They are perfect examples of the wonderful humanitarian work that is happening around the world led by thousands, if not millions, of people.”

Follow The Money which started in Nigeria over seven years ago, has chapters in Kenya, The Gambia, Cameroon and Liberia. As the largest social mobilization & accountability movement in Africa, it has advocated, visualized and tracked USD 10 million meant for social development across African grassroots communities, directly impacting over 2,000,000 rural lives.

Follow The Money, an initiative of Connected Development that tracks national governments’ and foreign assistance spending to empower citizens – including marginalized communities- to hold governments to account for their commitments, has been shortlisted as a finalist for the 2019 Sustainable Development Action Awards!

This announcement which was recently made by the SDG Action Awards Global Project Leader, Laura Hildebrandt, revealed that this year’s selection process was harder than ever with more than 2000 excellent applications from 142 countries. 3 finalists have been selected for each of the 7 categories representing initiatives based in all world regions: Arab States, Lebanon, Africa Malawi, Nigeria (2) South Africa (3), the Americas (Peru, Brazil, Haiti and USA), Asia (India (2), Malaysia, and the Philippines) and Europe (Germany, United Kingdom, Italy, Spain, and Switzerland).

Follow The Money was one of the 3 initiatives in the finalist category of Mobilisers. Other categories are Storytellers, Campaigners, Connectors, Visualizers, Includers and Creatives. The finalists in each category will present their achievements at the UN SDG Global Festival of Action.

According to the Founder of Follow The Money, and Chief Executive of Connected Development, Hamzat Lawal, “we are excited to have been nominated among the top  21 initiatives showing how innovation, creativity and commitment lead to impactful SDG Actions from over 2000 entries of amazing organizations & initiatives around the globe. We are honoured that our social mobilization efforts are being recognised by the United Nations and are committed to ensuring that the sustainable global goals are achieved in Nigeria, other African countries and beyond.

Lawal added that Finalists are now being reviewed by a judging panel of over 20 experts that will select the top initiative in each category. Everyone has the chance to act by supporting their favourite entry for the People’s Choice Award. We urge our fellow colleagues in the development space and Nigerians to help bring this award home by liking and retweeting Follow The Money mentions on SDG Action Awards social media accounts. We will join other world leaders in Bonn, Germany in May where the winners will be announced.

Every year, the UN SDG Action Campaign opens the SDG Action Awards to call for the top individuals, civil society organizations, subnational governments, foundations, networks, private sector leaders who are advancing the global movement for the Sustainable Development Goals in the most transformative, impactful and innovative way.

Follow The Money which started in Nigeria over seven years ago, has chapters in Kenya, The Gambia, Cameroon and Liberia. As the largest social mobilization & accountability movement in Africa, it has advocated, visualized and tracked USD 10 million meant for social development across African grassroots communities, impacting directly over 2,000,000 rural lives. F

Access to water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) are crucial for good outcomes in health, nutrition, education, economic development and poverty reduction. The problems associated with inadequate WASH services affect virtually all aspects of human development, disproportionately affecting women and girls.

I grew up in the remote village of Umueziukwu in Onicha Local Government Area of Ebonyi state, Nigeria. In 1995, as a primary one pupil, I witnessed instances where classmates stayed away from school for days. Upon recommencement and during roll calls, many of them would be lined up for “beating” for absenteeism without permissions – usually in written forms from parents/guardians. On occasions, my friends would cry and appeal that they be pardoned, citing illness and incapacitation. It was a common phenomenon.

As vividly as I can remember, the commonest reason my classmates maintained low attendance in school was Dracunculiasis, also called Guinea-worm disease (GWD). A simple search on Wikipedia reveals that a person becomes infected when they drink water that contains water fleas infected with guinea worm larvae. After some time, the female worms form a painful blister in the skin, usually on a lower limb. Other symptoms may include vomiting and dizziness. During this time, it may be difficult to walk or work. Because of this usual incapacitation, victims stayed away from school for days, weeks and even months.

Until I became 12 and left home for a boarding house, I “travel” about 10km everyday (with my elder sisters) to fetch water for domestic uses from Egu-Ugba. Egu-Ugba is a stagnant pond – a community-owned asset for Umueziukwu but it serves other adjoining communities. The name is derived from a deity that prevents the pond from drying up during dry seasons, until it is regenerated by another cycle of rainfall. The daily travel was conducted in phases – early in the mornings before we prepare for school and in the evenings before my mother comes back from the market. If you missed any of the sessions, you risked your breakfast or dinner as the case may be. My mother made the rules and enforced it devotedly.

To obtain water from the “cleaner” part of the pond, my sisters would walk into the pond up to thigh level, the part never stirred by fetchers before us. When we come back, my mother would add alum (aluminum sulphate) to cause coagulation and flocculation as a treatment measure whenever she had the time. But residents drank straight from Egu-Ugba without boiling it. That I was never diagnosed of GWD remains a mystery to me. However, I remain terrified that the entire household “played” with water fleas, unknowingly. Till this very day, nothing has changed quite remarkably except for boreholes (“pump” as it is called) scattered along strategic clusters in the community.

Crisis in communities – the issues are the same

In Nigeria, it is estimated that 60 million Nigerians live without clean water, 120 million lack access to decent toilet facilities and 46 million practice open defecation. More disturbing is the fact that annually, about 60,000 Nigerian children, under the age of five, die of WASH-related diseases. This could imply that with 12 years left to the attainment of the SDGs (Vision 2030), Nigeria will find it extremely difficult to achieve #SDGs Goal 6: Ensure access to water and sanitation for all. WASH is fundamental to health and well-being, forming an effective barrier against disease transmission.

Despite global progress on child mortality, courtesy of Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), infectious diseases still pose the greatest threat to vulnerable children, especially children under five. According to the WHO/UNICEF Joint Monitoring Programme (JMP), 50% of schools in Nigeria do not have any water facility and 52% lack access to toilet facilities. In fact, if you walk around school facilities in any state in Nigeria, you would have reasons to argue that the issue is underreported. However, the crisis remains unacceptable and should be challenged.

My experience in 1995 had not left me. So early in January 2019 when an opportunity emerged that I lead a national campaign on WASH, I never hesitated. A major outcome from the project was that CODE mobilized a total of 36 House of Assembly; National Assembly and Gubernatorial Candidates in Edo, Lagos and Kano States to sign Pledge Cards, declaring to prioritize WASH delivery when elected into office. In the next four years and beyond, I would commit targeted efforts to engagement with authorities and office holders, tasking them on fulfillment of their commitments and campaign promises and of course improvement of lives especially in marginalized rural communities.

Taking WASH to the Grassroots is a national campaign (activities can be tracked on Twitter using #Vote4WASH) where Connected Development (CODE) in partnership with WaterAid Nigeria; demonstrated resilience and achieved a new record in the history of citizen engagement in Nigeria. We mobilized community leaders and non-profit stakeholders to promote WASH to the mainstream of political debates and conversations during 2019 electioneering and general elections. During engagements publicly declaring to revitalize rural/urban water schemes upon electoral victories was a high point and we documented outcomes, carefully. In turn, electorates were urged to perform their civic responsibility (voting) being WASH conscious and making considerations to candidates who had signed pledge cards to improve access to WASH services.

Although the support of the international donor community will remain critical in the developing world, it will remain incumbent upon national governments to dramatically increase investments. Accountability and improved financial performance can help attract additional external sources of financing and facilitate private sector involvement, argues United Nations World Water Development Report 2019.

Today, as the world marks International world Water Day, governments in Nigeria, national and sub-national, must support comprehensive investment and revitalization of rural/urban water schemes to ensure that public facilities – schools, health centres, markets and parks; are properly equipped with water and sanitation services. These services must be inclusive and affordable with special attention to disadvantaged or under-served groups in the society.

In summary, lack of access to potable water comes with a huge cost especially for the poor and vulnerable. Because they are excluded from central reticulated water and sanitation networks (where they exist), they rely on alternatives (usually more costly) such as water vendors. By implication, this is driving exclusion, entrenched power asymmetries, poverty and material inequalities in Nigeria. No child, in any part of the world should be allowed to contend with either Guinea worm or other water borne diseases.

Governance, let alone democracy, is facing grievous, structural challenges in Nigeria but WASH services should remain a priority sub-sector. From time immemorial, this cliché: Water is life, remains a popular one.  To end with a question,does lack of water mean death? Governments in Nigeria must answer this question. As we commit to local actions in pursuit of the SDGs, indeed, efforts must be coordinated that we “Leave No one Behind”.

Alarmed by the accelerating number of out-of-school children in Nigeria, two civil society organisations; Connected Development(CODE) and FlexiSAF Foundation have  come together to combine their resources in identifying out of school children and providing quality basic education. In direct accordance with the SDG 4 and SDG 17, Connected Development and FlexiSAF Foundation are on a mission to reach these targets ahead of 2030. 

Statistics show that there are about 13.2 million Nigerian children currently not in school and this figure is increasing by the day, particularly in the Northern part of Nigeria. Issues of insurgency, conflicts and unrest militating the North-East combined with deep-rooted poverty, and certain cultural factors especially in the North have pushed the rate of out-of-school children high. Even the few educational facilities in these rural settings are in deplorable conditions—dilapidated structures, no libraries, congested classrooms with poor ventilation, damaged or no furniture, causing pupils to sit on classroom floors—further discouraging children from attending school.

The United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) records that Girls account for 60 per cent of the out-of-school population. For every 100 boys of primary age out of school, 121 girls are denied the right to education, worsening gender-based discrimination and putting girls at a disadvantage. Displacement and child marriage also significantly affect a girl’s chances of going to school. Issues of water, sanitation and hygiene, and in many cases, insecurity affecting the delivery of education in conflict affected areas, are contributing factors driving children – particularly girls – away from the classroom.

Distressed by the growing number of out of school children in Nigeria, Connected Development and FlexiSAF Foundation are partnering to identify and verify the number of out of school children in selected states in Nigeria and increase citizen participation through awareness raising.

According to Ahmad Salihijo Ahmad, Chairman, FlexiSAF Foundation, the partnership comes at a time when sustainable measures must be put in place to strengthen the quality of education in the country and curtail the growing number of out of school children, which has grossly affected the Nation, particularly the Northern region. “It is indeed a remarkable feat to partner with Connected Development (CODE) in our mutual goal to reach out a helping hand to communities in need. We will be able to have access to more communities to provide quality basic education for all children,” he added.

CODE’s Chief Executive, Hamzat Lawal, stated that “the future of Nigeria is strongly determined by the quality of education of its children. How can we begin to talk about quality education when a large proportion of Nigeria’s young ones are out-of-school?” Lawal was worried that out-of-school children are constantly being exposed to danger of violence, assault, exploitation and anti-social recruitments such as terrorism, child-trafficking and kidnapping. He noted that addressing out of school children is a challenge that the Nigerian Government must tackle with a sense of urgency.

He also noted that the partnership will be a great leap in pursuing the cause of reducing the number of out-of-school children. CODE is committed to providing its resources in supporting the cause by collating the number of out of school children and providing support in areas of monitoring and evaluation (M&E)”. CODE and FlexiSAF Foundation partnership will bring about the reduction in percentage of out-of-school children and create a sustainable environment for children to study and explore their creativity.

Amina Abubakar, Coordinator FlexiSAF Education stated that there is a lot of work to be done in ensuring the Nigerian child goes to school. She called on the Federal and State Governments, Civil Societies, as well as stakeholders in the Education System, especially the Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC) to commit to securing the education of the Nigerian child.

“As countries strive to achieve the Sustainable Development Goal 4 (SDG4) that addresses attaining universal primary and secondary education by 2030, this is a wake-up call for the Nigerian government to make educating the nation’s future leaders a priority. We should begin to think up sustainable initiatives to resolve the challenging factors facing out-of-school children,” Amina added.

She also mentioned that to reach the large number of out-of-school kids, we have a long way to go. The effort required is massive, not just for FlexiSAF Foundation and CODE, but for Nigeria as a whole and the world at large. “It’s not enough to just acknowledge the problem, but a swift and effective course of action 1must be embarked upon. That is what we have began, and we are committed to staying on this course for the long haul.”

FlexiSAF Managing Director, Faiz Bashir stated that change can begin at the grassroots whereby learning opportunities start with community-based education and organising classes in community buildings so children do not have to walk miles  and miles to go to school. This is especially critical for girls, as it reduces insecurity such as harassment and conflict related incidents, on the way to school. FlexiSAF Foundation has, in its effort to reach the SDG 4 target, adopted such flexible methods of teaching out-of-school kids. These include Safe Spaces within their communities, full scholarships to qualitative schools, one-on-one mentorship and counselling and so forth.

He added that the partnership between CODE and FlexiSAF Foundation aims to identify and target regions with disproportionately high rates of out of school children, including working with leaders and other groups to advocate for increased education, especially for girls. It will also ensure safe and conducive learning that meets basic security and health standards, including toilets and safe drinking water.

Detailed plans to implement this partnership will be developed by the two organizations in the coming months.

According to the United Nations, out-of-school children are children who are yet to be enrolled in any formal education excluding pre-primary education.