CODE launches Ewah Eleri Climate Justice Fellowship, selects 5 winners

Communications November 3, 2022 0

Five young Nigerians have emerged as the inaugural fellows of the Ewah Eleri Climate Change Fellowship implemented by Connected Development (CODE), Africa’s leading civil society organization.

The winners were announced at a press briefing held in Abuja on November 1. The fellows are the first cohort of the prestigious fellowship named after the Executive Director of the International Centre for Energy, Environment & Development (ICEED), Ewah Eleri, and will serve as technical advisers to the Nigerian government at the forthcoming United Nations (UN) Conference of the Parties (COP) on Climate Change, holding at Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt from 7-18 November 2022

This fellowship will also serve as an opportunity for the fellows to engage signatory governments on plans for nations of the world to jointly address climate change and its impacts. This conference could be a chance to turn the Glasgow outcome into action, through implementing climate change adaptation, mitigation, and financial strategies.

Speaking at the ceremony, the Chief Executive, of CODE, Hamzat Lawal, noted that the COP, stands as the supreme decision-making forum of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and there is a need to empower young leaders who can contribute to solving climate change.

“Leveraging innovation and technology, young people have an advantage and can contribute immensely to solving climate change. This is why we are taking the step to empower young leaders who can shape the very important conversation at COP 27.”

“This is a legacy inspired and named after my mentor, Ewah Eleri. I’m optimistic that it will bear the right fruit,” Lawal said.

On his part, Eleri explained that the initiative was necessary following the hazards experienced in recent times, such as flooding which had destroyed lives and properties as well as rendered thousands of citizens homeless.

According to him, it’s important for Nigeria to begin to convert climate transition to opportunities, build resilience with people through human capacity development and create more awareness of climate justice.

The winners include Gift Olivia Samuel, Seasoned Journalist of The SightNews; Gregory Odogwu, Environmental Columnist at Punch Newspaper; Idowu Esuku – aka Climate Man, A Climate Change musician, and activist; Etta Michael Bisong, Abuja bureau chief EnviroNews Nigeria and bio-diversity advocate; and Hyeladzira Msheila – Climate Change Activist.

Over 500 diverse world Leaders; A thrilling experience!

Hyeladzira James Mshelia October 17, 2022 0

A cross-section of Sub-Sahara African Shapers 

I would easily describe the Global Shapers Annual Summit as an immeasurably life-changing moment. This event inspired me in profound ways.

Weeks after, I am still finding the right words to describe how immensely powerful and liberating it was to be amongst over 500 diverse young people from across the Globe.  Let me put it in perspective, under 30 leaders who were Asians, African Americans, Europeans, and Australian were adequately represented under one roof. 

I received an email from the World Economic Forum (WEF) inviting me to attend the Global Shapers Annual Summit in Geneva, Switzerland. After more than two years, WEF opened up the summit for physical participants at the Forum Headquarters. Of course, this was an opportunity for shapers around the world to have a chance to connect, learn and plan to make a difference in the year ahead. 

The summit served as a favourable time for us to develop an understanding of our communities and what they truly stand for. We were also expected to test new ideas, skills and tools to lead change in today’s unique context. Of course, my role at Connected Development as someone who leads and coordinates some campaigns across Nigeria has availed me with numerous opportunities to work directly with marginalized communities  while understanding their context and exploring possible solutions. 

As I sat through the opening plenary at the United Nations building listening to Klaus Schwab Founder and Executive Chairman of the World Economic Forum speak about the dimensions of leadership and how best these principles can be applied, I swiftly took a glance at the people sitting next to me. It was at that moment I realised that indeed diversity opens up fresh, unexplored avenues of thought and avoids myopic views, which is critical in our world today. 

Diversity is beautiful. Diversity gives us strength. Diversity makes life interesting. Diversity propels us forward. Diversity inspires unity. I could feel the power in the atmosphere. 

Global Shapers bonding during climate-related conversations 

I was born and raised in Nigeria; arguably one of the most diverse countries in the world. Despite colonialism, today, we boast over 500 unique languages and rich cultural heritage. However, We struggle to accept one another. I would rather refer to my neighbour by their tribe or religion. Tribalism has eaten deep into the flesh of Nigerians. Forgetting that we are all Nigerians, and in our differences lies our strength. I could certainly feel the energy. 

I bonded with a number of people on the first day. We spent hours talking about the various challenges we faced in our countries. Particularly, the shaper from Pakistan mentioned how over one-third of his country was underwater. This was a result of increased precipitation and glaciers melting fueled by climate change. Pakistan contributes less than 1% of the global greenhouse gases that warm our planet but its geography makes it extremely vulnerable to climate change. He delved into the root causes of terrorism, which occurs due to a lack of law enforcement, poverty, and unemployment. I could instantly relate because Nigeria is faced with similar challenges and we are working tirelessly at Connected Development to take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts. We must keep playing a vital role while anticipating the necessary evolution.

Most of us spread across all the continents of the globe are constantly thinking of ways to make impacts. We remain bound together by the desire to facilitate change and that is the epitome of diversity and inclusion. Change-makers from across the world move together as a team, yet spread from pole to pole of the planet earth. 

As the days progressed, I shared the work done by my hub while exploring areas of collaboration and partnerships. The most recent was the Climate reality project incubator which the hub won $3,000 to carry out a Gender-inclusive Plastic Recycling Action within two schools in Abuja, Nigeria. The summit had various breakout sessions under the community’s main impact areas. Areas like Protecting the planet, Creating inclusive communities, Strengthening civic engagement, reskilling for the future, Delivering basic needs and Improving health and well-being.

While we networked, learned, relearned and unlearned, we had tons of fun. We never hesitated to dance or sang during breakout sessions. We spent the night looking for fun activities and most importantly, afro-pop concerts on the heavenly streets of Geneva.

Lf- Natalie Pierce head of Global Shapers Community Rh- Hyeladzira James Mshelia Abuja Global Shaper 

This life-changing experience has deepened my understanding of the importance of diversity. Indeed, a multicultural exchange of ideas reinforces richer ideas, better impact and comprehensive solutions to perhaps, the global challenges we face in our world today.

I am thankful to World Economic Forum for this opportunity that I now hold so dearly to my heart. 

Community Interventions and ‘The Do No Harm’ Principle: My Experience in Northern Nigeria

Communications August 25, 2022 40

By Msen Nabo (Digital Media Associate, CODE)

One important lesson being in the civil society space has taught me is: “It doesn’t matter how backward you think a people’s culture and beliefs are, you must approach and engage with respect and carefully plan your actions and execute them in ways that doesn’t expose them to more harm”! The goal is to win them over, not prove a point.

You can’t show up scantily dressed to a meeting with stakeholders who have deep rooted culture of being covered up and hope to convince them on why the girl-child belongs in the classroom. These are people from communities whose larger population believes western education does nothing but makes the girl-child go wild, in their words “lalata, karuwance, da rashin kunya” hausa words loosely translated to mean “getting spoilt, turning to harlots and throwing all moral caution to the wind” if anything, showing up dressed in any way other than what conforms to their culture and beliefs only strengthen their resolve to never let their wards see the four walls of a classroom cause in their mind, “I wouldn’t want my daughter dressed like that”

I had the rare privilege of representing our CEO and Malala Fund Champion, Hamzat Lawal at a two-day capacity building workshop for School Monitoring Teams (SMTs) in Adamawa State Northern Nigeria, for the continuation of the ongoing engagement for Girl-child education in the state. A campaign by Connected development with support from Malala Fund.

During the workshop which had stakeholders comprising of religious leaders, teachers, principals, community leaders, students and other key stakeholders, the team assured them of CODE’s commitment to bridge the communication gap between them and the government in providing a safe, conducive learning environment, with WASH facilities, lack of which has been one of many factors why parents don’t enroll their wards. 

To further sensitize them, I facilitated a session on the role of social media in amplifying conversations around community needs and guided them on how to sign up, use these platforms, add hashtags and tag the appropriate handles to their posts to achieve desired results.

A key advantage for me on this trip was understanding and speaking hausa fluently which is the Lingua Franca in the North. It was handy in facilitating the workshop both in English and Hausa to further drive the message home and ensure no one was left behind due to language barrier. This, in addition to our appearance, helped shape the conversation and strengthen the feeling of “togetherness” which made them see us as the solution and not the threat.

The end result of the team approaching them with the respect they deserve was an engaging two days where participants were actively involved and made contributions towards addressing issues like insecurity that has been ravaging the region, dilapidated school buildings, understaffing of schools due to lack of trained teachers, and cost of Education.  To address these issues, CODE is advocating for 12years free compulsory education in the state and getting the government to commit to recruiting more qualified hands and address insecurity to ensure a safe learning environment.

As we go about seeking to intervene and address injustice in various sectors, I hope we take a step back to look at the broader context. I hope we make a deliberate and conscious effort to put ourselves aside for a moment and “DO NO HARM” while trying to help. The cause will always be bigger than us!

The PIA, Nigeria’s loss of Over 2 Billion USD to Dwindling oil production in June 2022 and the Power of Voices Partnership (PVP) solution

Communications July 17, 2022 2

By Kingsley Agu (Programs Manager, CODE)

It is no longer news that the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) is now transiting into a private company now known as Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC Ltd). NNPC Ltd is to be regulated in line with the provisions of the Companies and Allied Matters Act (CAMA) and the title of the former Group Managing Director (GMD) of the NNPC would now become Group Chief Executive Officer (GCEO) of the new NNPC Ltd (which means the GCEO has the powers to make decisions for its subsidiaries and holding company unlike before that it had to be via the Federal Executive Council). The new look NNPC Ltd is all as a result of the Section 53(1) of the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA) 2021 which mandated the Minister of Petroleum to incorporate NNPC Ltd within 6 months of the signing of the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA) 2021 into law. The PIA 2021 was signed into law by President Muhammadu Buhari on the 16th of August 2021 upon passage by the National Assembly in July 2021. 

The NNPC Limited is currently the company with the highest share capital in Nigeria with 200 Billion Naira initial capital. The incorporation of the NNPC Ltd by Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) was concluded within 1 month and 5 days from the date the President signed the PIA 2021 into law as this was completed on the 21st of September 2021 by CAC. NNPC Limited is expected to be unveiled by President Muhammadu Buhari on 19th July, 2022.

Despite the current efforts at making NNPC to function optimally in line with the PIA 2021, crude oil production has been on a steady decline year-on-year from 2020 to 2022 half year. Available data from the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC) a subsidiary of the new CAMA incorporated NNPC Limited shows this worrying trend. 

The data analysis above of Nigerian crude oil production for January to June 2020 to 2022 shows a consistent and worrying decline in oil production. In January 2022, the data shows a 11,795,487 Million Barrel drop in oil production of 43,353,723 Million Barrels in January 2022 when compared to January 2020 which was 55,149,210 Million Barrels. In February 2022, the data shows a 16,963,273.53 Million Barrel drop in oil production of 35,217,997.47 Million Barrels in January 2022 when compared to January 2020 which was 52,181,271 Million Barrels. This downward trend is visible across January to June as seen in the graphical representation of the analysis above.

The 2022 first half crude oil production performance shows a decline of 11.8% when compared to June of 2021 production. In June 2021, Nigeria produced 39,401,749 Million Barrels of crude oil while in June 2022, the production was pegged at 34,748,214. The graph below shows data visualization of the downward trend of oil production in 2022 when compared year on year with 2021. Though the data also shows an improvement in crude oil production in June 2022 when compared to the previous month of May 2022. 

This is amidst dwindling foreign reserves and revenue shortfall in the country. This worrying trend has to be addressed else Nigeria might be in a more serious revenue crisis which might affect the functioning of the Nigerian government as crude oil still remains the major source of foreign exchange in the country. To visualize the extent of the revenue crisis due to oil production decline, out of the 1.772 Million Barrels per day (bpd) of crude oil production allocated to Nigeria by the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting  Countries (OPEC) in June 2022, Nigeria was only able to produce 1,158,273.80 Million bpd leaving a shortfall of 613,726.2 bpd which if calculated based on the $110 per barrel oil was sold for in June 2022, amounts to 67,509,882 Million US$ loss per day and as much as 2,025,296,460 Billion US$ loss in the whole of June 2022.

The decline in oil production is largely attributed to oil bunkering activities in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria, oil theft as well as decaying oil infrastructure. The oil bunkering activities in the Niger Delta is fueled by degraded environment due to crude oil activities thereby destroying the livelihood of community members in oil-producing communities who are predominantly crop farmers and fishermen/women as well as long years of neglect by successive governments which is evidenced by poor social infrastructures such as roads, schools, WASH and healthcare facilities despite the 13% oil derivative given to oil producing states by the Federal government of Nigeria. 

To address this social misnomer across oil producing communities, Connected Development (CODE), Africa’s leading civil society organization, through its Power of Voice Partnership (PVP) Fair for All Campaign has via its collaborative intervention and advocacy worked with other CSOs including government agencies, resulting in the passage of the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA) with support from OXFAM.

The Act has well spelt out provisions for the establishment of the Host Community Development Trust to provide organized funding for development of oil producing communities and mitigate the risk of high conflict and restiveness in the areas and #RevampNigerDelta. Our specific engagements built the capacity of CSOs, community leaders and young people to be able to engage the private sector, oil and gas companies and the government and demand a participatory open budget and contracting system.

In the second phase of the PVP campaign, CODE will continue this engagement by giving attention to the implementation of the provisions of the newly enacted regulatory framework in the petroleum industry (Petroleum Industry Act). CODE will ensure that the government sustains the already created “Commission” and the “Authority” via the transition of NNPC to become a commercial entity with no regulatory powers as NNPC Limited. At the Community level, we will strive to track and monitor the implementation of the Host Community Development Trust. To address the gap in access to information by citizens in states where the Freedom of Information Act has not been domesticated, we will carry out advocacy drives to stimulate citizens to push for the domestication of the Act at the focal states of Delta, Akwa Ibom, Cross River, Imo, Rivers and FCT Abuja. For sustainability, we will also improve the capacity of CSOs to conduct evidence-based tracking and advocacy using the FollowTheMoney model to ensure effective utilization of resources in oil-producing states in Nigeria.

How One School Network is Helping Revive Post-COVID Education in Kenya

Communications June 26, 2022 1

For over a decade, Connected Development has worked hard to empower marginalised communities. In particular, its social accountability initiative, Follow the Money helps these communities hold their governments accountable. This project has become even more important due to COVID-19.

In its Kenya, Malawi, and Cameroon COVID Funds Report, CODE found that due to the lack of financial information it was difficult to track where resources were allocated in Kenya alone. This poses a further challenge for communities rebuilding in the post-COVID era.

In these circumstances, private or non-government-affiliated organisations play a significant role by providing resources where they’re most needed. One standout case in the field of education is Bridge International Academies, an Africa-wide school network that is helping revive post-COVID education in Kenya.

What is Bridge?

This school network spans African countries Kenya, Nigeria, and Uganda, as well as the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. Like its counterparts, Bridge Kenya offers low-cost yet high-quality education to the country’s communities. Its teachers are given data-driven, standardised teaching guides. They are designed to create a dynamic learning environment that gives pupils the opportunity to practice a core set of skills.

Amid COVID-19, Bridge Kenya instituted its ‘@Home’ programme. This provided pupils and their families with the parent-friendly learning guides, self-study activity packs, digital storybooks, and WhatsApp-accessible quizzes needed to continue learning throughout the pandemic.

Currently Bridge provides its education to communities hit hardest by the pandemic as they strive to rehabilitate. The network’s structured teaching system is also helping the pupils close any learning gaps that may have been caused by COVID-19.

The Bridge Effect

Although the structure of learning in a Bridge classroom may seem rigid, the teacher guides that nurture it are just guides. They allow teachers to merge their creativity and innovation with the speed and effectiveness that they deliver their lessons.

2019 Nobel Prize winner Michael Kremer even found that pupils at the pre-primary and primary school levels learn 53% more at Bridge Kenya. In other words, pupils could learn enough in two years’ time that would usually take other schools three and a half years to teach.

This makes a strong case for standardised education, especially today. With pupils going back to school after at-home learning and even younger pupils enrolling for the first time, the low-cost effective lesson plans Bridge provides proves that their method of teaching can quickly help Kenyan education get back on its feet.

Lessons to Share

In reviving post-COVID Kenyan education, we can learn from the challenges that the school network overcame to reach success. One was how to recruit and train teachers best suited to Kenya’s communities. This was solved through the Bridge Teacher Training programme – a rigorous selection process that recruits experienced teachers from their local communities.

Despite being a private institution, Bridge has also gained government support by sharing its “school-in-a-box” methods. This was evident from the launch of the EkoEXCEL programme in Nigeria in 2019 — a programme that’s seen similar results to the findings in Kremer’s study.

Finally, Bridge is taking steps to tackle gender inequality by changing pupils’ perspectives on gender roles while they’re young. All its textbooks, workbooks, and digital storybooks portray male and female characters in equal fashion and represent the latter in empowering and unconventional roles.

When it comes to bolstering Kenyan education post-COVID, Bridge International Academies in Kenya has a lot to offer. Its methods for training teachers, fostering learning, and tackling societal inequalities are definitely something to consider as possible solutions elsewhere in the country.

Article was written for https://www.connecteddevelopment.org/ by Allie Cooper

Allie Cooper is a mother-of-two writer who loves to cover how COVID-19 has impacted different spheres of everyday life – and how we can recover and thrive in the wake of the pandemic. In her free time, she loves reading, baking, and doing crossword puzzles.

Nigerian Elites are Cannibalising the Poor. It is time for Business Unusual

Ani Nwachukwu Agwu June 21, 2022 0

Typically, Nigeria’s fiscal position improves when oil prices rise. This economic phenomenon is called the ‘oil boom’ effect. The recent increase in crude oil prices (33% between January and March 2022) triggered by the war in Ukraine should ordinarily be beneficial to Nigeria’s fiscal position. However, in contrast to past periods of oil boom, two factors are eating up the opportunities presented by high oil prices.

The first factor is falling oil production. Oil production has consistently fallen below Nigeria’s Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) quota (1.8 million bpd). As of May this year, oil production stood at 1.5 million barrels per day (bpd) – the lowest in 15 years – stemming mainly from oil theft and production inefficiencies. The second factor is petrol subsidy payments. In 2020, the cost of petrol subsidy stood at US$0.3 billion. In 2021, it had risen to US$4.5 billion. In this year’s amended budget, petrol subsidy is estimated to cost Nigeria US$9 billion – higher than the combined budget allocation for education, health and social protection.

Whereas households in the bottom 40% of the income distribution account for less than 3% of all gasoline purchases in Nigeria, three-quarters of all gasoline sold in Nigeria is consumed by private firms, public transportation services, and government agencies and a substantial share is smuggled out of Nigeria for resale in neighbouring countries. Somewhat, the government is subsidising illegal trade (smuggling) while also preventing the formation of a legitimate market for cross-border petrol transportation and sale.

To keep it short, perhaps, the best way to understand the politics of petrol subsidy is to borrow insights from President Muhammadu Buhari who in 2015 described petrol subsidy as fraudulent payments. His position that petrol subsidy is a brainchild of political corruption cannot be truer because the benefits overwhelmingly accrue to wealthier households, and a large share is captured by smugglers and black marketeers. Under the subsidy regime, we are unconscionably sacrificing opportunities for critical investments in physical and human capital to fund some unholy appetites of the elites.

Where are the poor and vulnerable groups in all these? Where are their interests? Are they forgotten? They simply do not matter? For every US$1 billion paid to subsidy marketeers or oil smugglers, there are prohibitive opportunity costs. While petrol subsidy unforgivably constitutes unsustainable fiscal burdens on the federation, it disproportionately affects the poor and vulnerable groups. One specific way this happens is through inflationary pressures.

Before the war in Ukraine, higher inflation pushed an estimated 8 million more Nigerians into poverty between 2020 and 2021. In 2021, inflation averaged 17 percent, undermining Nigeria’s economic recovery by eroding the purchasing power of the most vulnerable households. The World Bank projects that the added inflationary pressure emanating from the war in Ukraine could push as many as one million more Nigerians into poverty, on top of the six million already projected before the war. Overall, the “inflation shock” is estimated to result in about 15 million more Nigerians living in poverty between 2020 and 2022.

Perhaps, the most frightening implication of petrol subsidy on public finance is the precarious fiscal position of subnational levels of government. This is because most states rely heavily on Federation Account to meet their obligation. As such, diminished revenue inflows to the Federation Account distort revenue integrity and jeopardise fiscal sustainability. For example, in Bayelsa State, Federal transfers account for 91 percent of revenues, and declining transfers caused a 22-percent drop in Bayelsa’s revenues per capita in 2021.

According to the World Bank, Nigeria’s fiscal deficit in 2022 is expected to grow to 5.8 percent of GDP, up from an earlier projection of 5.3 percent. Already, the results are trickling in with NNPC’s zero remittance to Federation Accounts for months going now – a situation that may lead to state governments’ inability to pay salaries and administrative expenses. Inevitably, this will lead to more borrowing.

We fear that the unholy appetites of the elites (petrol subsidy and its consequences) are fueling citizens’ distrust, cynicism and social grievances. Left unresolved for a longer time, they could crystallise into violent demonstrations and political instability. From catastrophic security experiences to tertiary institutions being closed down due to perennial industrial disputes, mass protests will be a dangerous path for Nigeria. In this likely event (may it not happen), the poor and vulnerable will be balkanised and further cannibalised – they are always at the receiving end!

For macroeconomic survival and stability to return, Nigeria needs the consensus of the elites on the future of petrol subsidies. As everyone already knows, petrol subsidy is regressive, opaque, costly, inefficient, unsustainable, harmful, and unfair. It has to go and the proceeds reinvested in critical sectors that would spur growth in a pro-poor manner. It is true that many Nigerians do not support removing the petrol subsidy. This is simply because they do not trust the government to use any fiscal savings for pro-poor causes. While petrol subsidy removal will remain politically sensitive, it is disproportionately benefitting the elites who need no subsidy. It has to go!

We must admit, however, that the poor and vulnerable groups would need to endure temporary hardships if petrol subsidy must give way to a long-term reform agenda. Since the buck stops on President Buhari, he must, therefore, summon the will to lead the conversation; overcome all constraints and generate the trust needed to pursue politically sensitive and hard reforms. Fundamentally, this does not require business-as-usual gloves.

The mix of politics and policy that will play out must be “business unusual”. The recalcitrant insistence and politicisation of subsidy removal arguments is a way the elites cannibalise the poor and vulnerable groups. By any means necessary, petrol subsidy has to give way. It is economic cannibalism!

Written by Hamzat Lawal; Founder/CEO at Connected Development and Ani Nwachukwu Agwu; Head of Research and Policy at Connected Development. For correspondence, please contact Ani at nwachukwu@connecteddevelopment.org

Acknowledgement
This piece immensely benefited from the Nigeria Development Update. NDU is a World Bank report series produced twice a year which assesses recent economic and social developments and provides an in-depth examination of selected economic and policy issues and an analysis of Nigeria’s medium-term development challenges.

Public Speaking: What are You Afraid of?

Communications January 27, 2022 161

By Pearl Utuk

Standing before a room full of people can make you suddenly realize what a bad idea having that beautiful cup of tea this morning was. Thoughts of your inadequacies and how Mr Y or Miss G will always be the best person for such a daunting task, would begin to torment you. Next thing you know, sweat is pouring out of glands you didn’t even know you had.

Stop. Breath in. Hold it in. Breath out slowly. (Seriously, do it!)

Pearl Utuk gives a presentation on the poor state of PHCs in administrating COVID vaccines

What are you really afraid of? 

Stammering? Your mind suddenly going blank? Fear of not being good enough? Fear that you do not really understand the subject matter? Fear of being ridiculed by your audience? Once you have been able to appropriately identify the source of your fears, you have solved your own problems by 50%. Congratulations. 

Let me share my story. 

In October 2021, I was asked to represent my organisation (CODE) at a congregation of health experts from around the world with focus on the African Continent- Global Emerging Pathogens Treatments Consortium (GET-Africa) Conference. You see, we had just concluded the first phase of COVID-19 Transparency and Accountability Project (CTAP) in 7 African Countries. I was the Programme Officer for Nigeria where we had tracked the State of Primary Healthcare Centres (PHCs) so it made sense that I should present the findings of the PHC campaign at the conference. 

But hey! I’m not talking about a bunch of development professionals or to children in underdeveloped communities where I could just be myself and enjoy humanity in its most basic form. I’m talking about top guns like the Nigerian Ministry of Health, WHO, a United Nations body (UNODA), NPHCDA, the Lagos State Governor, the marines and many other “adults”. The child in me began whimpering. I began hyperventilating and sweating despite the cold blast of the air conditioning. 

CODE had spent a lot of money bringing me to that conference and like it or not, I was going to deliver and so I became my own shrink. I spoke to myself in the mirror for at least a week, I practiced my presentation, I even inserted a joke in my opening. 

When I got to the hall, I made myself look into each of their faces. I saw them for the flawed humans they are. These magnificent and brilliant minds that have issues of their own. No, they do not have life all figured out. They take chances just like me and they hope with bated breaths that they made the right choice, just like me. They feel pain and joy, they laugh and cry (well, most of them do). And when they go home, they take off their magnificent regalia and put on shorts and slippers too. 

A beautiful realization hit me soon after. They were all waiting with expectation for my presentation! And so with my head held high and shoulders squared, I climbed the podium and began with “I am not a medical professional. I am an activist…” I spoke with the voice of one who had witnessed the poor and sick who have no choice but to utilize dysfunctional, substandard PHCs, hustling for COVID-19 vaccines that were being hoarded by personnel.

The ovation that followed that presentation still rings in my ear if I listen closely. 

Back to you. So when preparing for that daunting presentation, practice! Commit yourself to understanding the subject matter, know your audience, dress the part, read the tone of the room and adjust your presentation accordingly, and finally, remember to breathe. You’ve got this!

How vital is the National Orientation Agency’s collaboration with CSOs

Lucy Abagi February 6, 2018 2

National Orientation Agency is a Nigerian government agency created in 2005 and tasked with communicating government policy, staying abreast of public opinion and promoting patriotism, national unity, and development of Nigerian society.

Do Nigerians have faith in NOA to build a communication bridge for citizens to interact with the government? Is citizens’ inclusion and engagement in demanding transparency and accountability encouraged? Or should we go ahead and advocate for ourselves liaising with civil societies in ensuring that our voices are heard and sideline this agency and all it stands for because of constant interferences of political bureaucracies in decision making and activities of NOA.

Am a little bit indecisive on what to think about NOA, but not entirely conclusive because of recent development by this agency to partner with civil society organisations in Nigeria. NOA gave an open call for collaboration with CSOs on the 31st of October 2017 at Ibeto Hotel, Abuja where a good number of representatives from different NGOs were in attendance.

The Director-General @GarbaAbari represented by The Director, Planning, research and strategy Dr Bonat J. Tagwai gave a brief review of NOAs five years strategy plans and their ongoing projects was made available to all participants, and full involvement of CSOs in the implementation of this program welcomed.

Some highlight of their activities includes

  • A well-structured agency and adequately staffed across the country comprising of National Headquarters, 36 States Directorate, FCT 774 Local Government Offices and  3000 volunteer Corp.
  • NOA has visited about 120 LGA and  communities to update them on their activities
  • They have interpreted the Freedom of Information Act into 20 languages to ease understanding of the Act and drive citizen mobilization and participation in demanding accountability and transparency from their government.
  • Has started a survey of 130 MDAs to engage public institutions
  • And have launched NOA FM Radio 97.7 though still test running and ideas will be welcomed on how to utilize this station efficiently.

Civil Societies present participated in group work to explore opportunities for partnerships with Short presentations of each group to highlight areas of collaborations with NOA.

A Cross-Section Of CSOs During The Group work

A Cross-Section Of CSOs During The Group work

The benefit for CSOs to collaborate with NOA was further stressed that based on their staff’s strengths and 3000 volunteers scattered around the country. Ease of carrying out campaigns using this volunteer will be efficient because instead of looking for new hands or travelling to places you don’t know, NOA could provide:

The contacts of their volunteers who are always on the ground in all the state.

Location and addresses of their state offices to assist in working in new terrains.

These, in particular, will assist connected development in further driving their campaigns and growing networks.

A Cross-Section Of CSOs During The Group work

To encourage full involvement and authentic evidence of collaborations, interested Civil Societies should send official letters to the Director-General making reference of this event.

This event was viewed and broadcast on PTV News. 

Hon. Emmanuel Njoku and DG Political, Civic, Ethics and Values Dept. Mrs Ngozi Ekeoba

Connected development as started utilizing this partnership opportunity with NOA as our Program Manager for democracy and governance Hon. Emmanuel Njoku plans on working with NOA in his campaign Engaging Emerging Voters for young people below 18 years in senior secondary two and three respectively.

A little brief of the objective of the campaign by Emmanuel Njoku is to increase voter education among eligible secondary school student. The project hopes to create clubs in secondary school for sustainability across the country and provision of short training on democratic values for members

We anticipate NOA full support in achieving this campaign and ensuring that the younger generation will understand the requirement of leadership and the importance of voting to reach a better outcome in the 2019 elections.

 

 

 

The Mindset 2.0: How to Initiate Effective Advocacy Campaigns

Hamzat Lawal July 12, 2017 10

SACE is a governance project funded by USAID to support civil society to advocate for reforms that improve transparency and accountability and increase inclusive governance in Nigeria.

It was now very apparent why the likes of Oludotun Babayemi, co-Founder of  Connected Development , Omojuwa; Social Media Commentator, Maryam Uwais; Human Rights Lawyer and Activist were representatives of their respective organizations to share thoughts with the group of CSOs present at the event.

Japheth Omojuwa, a Nigerian blogger, public speaker, socio-economic and political commentator and social media expert gave doses of advice for Social Media folks. He said “One of the fastest ways of reaching people is perhaps through Social Media” but, a caveat was labelled on to that “We have to take responsibility for the platforms we consume our news from”.

The 2016 Best Twitter Personality Of The Year said part of what drives our movement towards achieving success with Social Media is that, “the citizens now have the power to drive change via new media but because we are now in the era of masses; Mass media, mass production, mass movement, we have move from the stage where organizations say something and we follow”.

Oludotun Babayemi, shared essential information on how Connected Development’s  FollowTheMoney – the largest grassroots movement  was designed to track and visualize government funds in Africa .

He said “Passion drove us to Zamfara State to link what was happening but we never thought of sustainability; however sustainability is an essential component of building effective public campaign strategy.” Speaking more on how passion drove their activity, he said “the first time we journeyed into Zamfara State, Bagega wasn’t even on Google map“.

He also intensively debated that “No country has been able to move from underdevelopment to development without Education”.

The Stanford University Centre for Development, Democracy and the Rule of Law fellow enthused further that “We decided not to be conventional in our campaign but to leverage heavily on the media, both traditional and the new,  in innovative ways.

We started Follow The Money campaign by tracking government funding on health, education and environment and we constantly leveraged on champions to drive the Bagega Campaign such as Omojuwa as key influencer, as it is always sane and reasonable for long-term sake that “NGOs should focus on their strengths and have one thematic area of work to remain relevant and in sync with the public because originality, people and technology are key to success”.

Babayemi advised that “evidence based advocacy is important in having focused campaign” to be able to have strengthened public awareness, discourse and support for key democratic governance issues such as transparency, accountability and good governance.

As part of the Objectives of the 2.0 Mindset series which is to share lessons learned based on the achievements and challenges of CSOs in TAGG engagement.

Mariam Uwais, Special adviser to the President on Social Protection plan made cases for how we can effectively manage some social vices and curb them, in line with focus. She was quick to relay to the audience that “persistence has reward”.

Mariam Uwais, Special adviser to the President on Social Protection plan made cases for how we can effectively manage some social menace and able to curb them, in line with focus, she was quick to relay to the audience that “persistence has its own reward”.

“Identify our audience well”  because she said “Working on Child marriage in the North, we targeted the turbaned and bearded.” Because “It’s always important that you stand for something; build network and reach out to people”

The seasoned lawyer and activist also tasked the audience that in carrying out the functions, we must “be kind, be compassionate, put yourself in the others shoes and always keep the bigger picture in view”.

Moreso , as the program also seek to provide an opportunity for key stakeholders to have in-depth discussion on the expectations and way forward in optimizing CSOs role in policy dialogue and reform. She enthused that “We’re enlisting 3rd party monitors to track social investment because it’s important to hear the other party’s’ voice.

“Every beneficiary of social protection program of the Federal Government has BVN and their names in register” she added.

Also as this initiative seeks to complement the project’s subsequent dialogues on fostering and strengthening public discourse and support for key democratic governance issues, e hope to , continue the conversation via http://ifollowthemoney.org  and be part of the people that will drag positive change into the country. Do join us!

Olusegun Olagunju is the Social Media Strategist for Connected Development (Follow The Money), a Sociologist and a non-conformist. He tweets using @mobolsgun

But Who are You? The Global Media Forum in 2017 focusing on Identity and Diversity

Oludotun Babayemi June 18, 2017 3

Put seven people from the different continent in a room, and let them share experiences of how growing – up looks like in their various continent. You will get different perspectives. Ask same people, how they think their growing up could have been made smarter, I am sure they will not give you the same answer. So, do we think we have general solutions to today’s world problems? Are we living some people behind, especially in the post-cold war era? Whether it’s populism, liberalism, or extremism – it seems there is a new world order, and marginalized communities are starting to feel they have a voice, and they really want to leverage on this voice to make a certain statement!

“It is not really about liberal democracy, it is about identifying what works for your community, for your people, and what makes you tick as a nation” a resolution from a heated debate that ensued between myself, a Chinese, a Cameroonian, and an Ethiopian while passing through the border control at Frankfurt, Germany. It’s another edition of the Global Media Forum in Bonn, and I will be attending the Forum again for the second year in a row – this time to join in the discussion about Identity and Diversity. The Deutsche Welle Global Media Forum is an international congress that provides a platform for more than 2,000 media representatives, and experts from the fields of politics, culture, business, development and science.

At the end of my Junior High in 1993, Samuel Huntington published an article in the Foreign Affairs on The clash of civilizations and he reiterated his hypothesis that people’s cultural and religious identities will be the primary source of conflict in the post-Cold War world. Fast forward to 2017, the world is facing the challenge of democracy decline in developing countries, alignment between groups that find common goods amongst themselves – Qatar, Iran, Syria, China and Russia; the new revolution in France – Le Marche, which is either Left or Right; the Isolated North Korea; the British exit from the European Union; and not to forget the emergence of the blockchain technology that breaks the monopoly of powerful central banks and government agencies in maintaining single entities.

As a matter of fact, the media is not immune to this change in world order. It is becoming difficult for the media to decipher fact from lies! Cultures can decide to have their own media and share with the world, for some people – Twitter and Facebook have become their media, and as the world evolves from the 24-hour news stream, it is becoming more challenging for the media to communicate solutions. For the next three days (June 19 – 21), I look forward to engaging with delegates at the Global Media Forum to designing interdisciplinary approaches for meeting the challenges of the new world era, and explore how the media can play a central role in this post – factual time.

To follow the conversation at the 2017 Global Media Forum 2017 in Bonn, Follow The Official event Twitter handle – @DW_GMF; Official Event Hashtag #dw_gmf; and also our Twitter handle @connected_dev 

Oludotun Babayemi is the co -founder of Connected Development [CODE] popularly known for its Follow The Money Project in Nigeria, and now in other countries in Africa. You can schedule a meeting with him by commenting on this blog post, and via his Twitter handle – @dotunbabayemi