By Ekemini Simon

A youth-based organisation, Youth for Change and Social life Development Foundation popularly known as Youth for Change Initiative (YOFCI) has held a strategic engagement and advocacy interface with its partners towards a peaceful 2023 elections in Akwa Ibom State.

It could be recalled that YOFCI had recently launched an awareness campaign against election violence in the forthcoming general elections in Akwa Ibom State.

On Thursday, January 12, 2023, YOFCI met with its partners drawn from the Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) and the Media.

From the CSOs were Policy Alert, Youth Alive Foundation, Clement Isong Foundation, Youth Pride, FACICP Disability Plus, and Greater Tomorrow Initiative (GTI).

The Media partners included the Nigeria Union of Journalists, TheMail Newspaper, XL106.9FM, The Dune, Hype Station, and Inspiration FM.

Briefing its partners on the project, the Executive Director of Youth for Change Initiative, Mr. Peace Edem said the campaign they are implementing in Akwa Ibom State is tagged Strategic Engagement and Advocacy for 2023 Peaceful Elections Project (SEA-P).

He said the project which is implemented in Akwa Ibom State through the Nigeria Youth Future Fund (NYFF) for LEAP Africa, a project jointly sponsored by MacArthur Foundation and Ford Foundation is geared towards promoting the peaceful conduct of elections in Nigeria.

The Executive Director noted that in Akwa Ibom State, the project would take place across six local government areas of Ibiono Ibom, Itu, Essien Udim, Ini, Eket and Onna, covering all the three Senatorial Districts.

Edem however pointed out that although the project is designed for the six local government areas, it is the organisation’s commitment to use its partnership to cover the entire 31 local government areas of the State.

The Project Lead, Harrison Udim in his presentation explained that the organisation will engage with the political party’s stakeholders, aspirants, religious/traditional leaders, youth leaders/groups, media houses / social media influencers, women leaders/groups and the people with disability clusters in its campaigns.

He explained that the Project SEA-P will raise awareness of citizens on conflict sensitivity and election violence before, during and after the 2023 general elections through advocacy visits to relevant stakeholders.

Udim pointed out that the campaign is borne out of research, especially the outcome of the elections primaries across the State.

He added ” We know the dust that has been raised throughout the party primaries. The pre-elections and political events in the State have shown that there is a strong likelihood for violence to ensue and it may hinder the free and fair conduct of the 2023 general elections.

“We want to make the stakeholders understand that election is not a do-or-die affair. Whatever the outcome, we give God the glory.”

The Project Lead said the organisation will address the concerns through advocacy, awareness campaign, critical stakeholder and citizens engagement.

He pointed out that the anticipated violence can be reduced if there are more organized and enlightened citizenry (community stakeholders/die-heart party supporters) within the state to sensitise and engage the process by collaborating/partnering with relevant stakeholders such as media houses, (Print, Radio and online influencers), traditional and religious leaders, youth groups, and influential aspirants who will sensitise the die-hard party supporters on the need for peace irrespective of the outcome of the elections.

Meanwhile, the event witnessed presentation on electioneering process/reviews on the Electoral Act 2022 and discussion on SEA-P messaging.

YOFCI Flag-Off Awareness Campaign Against Elections Violence In The Forthcoming 2023 Polls In Akwa Ibom State Under The NYFF Project #THENIGERIAWEWANT

Youth for change & Social life Development Foundation aka Youth for Change Initiative (YOFCI) is a registered youth-based organization with CAC registration number CAC/IT/No.73499 established to help minimized societal challenges through the transformation of young people’s mentality positively and has achieved levels of success over the years with commitment in improving the quality of young people’s lives in urban/rural areas through advocacy, awareness sensitization and capacity building on education/leadership development, peace/policy advocacy, gender/social inclusion and good governance. As part of the Organization’s commitments to promote the peaceful conduct of elections in Nigeria, YOFCI is implementing the Nigeria Youth Future Fund (NYFF) for LEAP Africa in Akwa Ibom State a project jointly sponsored by Mac Arthur Foundation and Ford Foundation-themed “Strategic Engagement & Advocacy for 2023 Peaceful Elections Project (SEA-P)”.

In every election in Nigeria, there is also heightened tension and early signs of presumed violence across the Federation, and the 2023 general elections are no exception. Findings from the recent pre-elections and political events in the Country as well as Akwa Ibom State have shown that violence would still ensue and characterize as well as hinder the free and fair conduct of the 2023 general elections. Thus, it is eminent and imperative to address this through advocacy, awareness campaign, critical stakeholder and citizens engagement. Also, this presumed violence can be minimized if we have a more organized and enlightened citizenry (community stakeholders/die-heart party supporters) within the state to sensitize and engage the process by collaborating/partnering with relevant stakeholders such as media houses, (Print, Radio and online influencers), traditional and religious leaders, Youth groups, and influential aspirants to sensitize the die-hard party supporters to maintain peace irrespective of the outcome of the elections since nobody’s life is worth the conflict.

Hence, Project SEA-P seeks to raise awareness of citizens on conflict sensitivity and election violence before, during and after the 2023 general elections through advocacy visits to relevant stakeholders’, town-hall meetings/ sensitization, capacity building, and use of media, to sensitize the public on how to maintain peace to help reduce conflict and violence all through the 2023 general election process. The project will also vest citizens with information on how to conduct themselves in a peaceful manner all through the election period to avoid conflict or violence, we believed that the outcome of the project will lead to an increase in citizenry awareness of peacebuilding and conflict sensitivity and avoidance to project positive outcomes that will lead to developmental stride.

In Akwa Ibom State, the project would take place across 6 Local Government Areas in the three Senatorial Districts, where we would engage with the Political party’s stakeholders, Aspirants, Religious/traditional leaders, Youth leaders/groups, Media houses / social media influencers, Women leaders/groups and the People with disability cluster. The Local Government Areas are Ibiono and Itu in Uyo Senatorial District, Essien Udim and Ini in Ikot Ekpene Senatorial District and Eket and Onna in Eket Senatorial District of Akwa Ibom State.

We look forward to a robust engagement as we are set to partner with other CSOs, Media and Youth groups to drive this change for #TheNigeriaWeWant.

Signed

Harrison Udim

Project Manager – SEA-P

Youth for change Initiative(YOFCI), a non governmental organisation working to promote youth development in Africa with focus on leadership development, good governance and social inclusion, today joined the Nigerian youths in a peaceful car parade remembrance protest held today at the lekki toll gate in remembering the fallen heroes of the lekki toll gate massacre that occurred on the 20.10.20 . A date inscribed by the Nigerian youths “Never to be Forgotten “.

PEACE is not the absence of war but the presence of JUSTICE

The mass peaceful protest which lasted for a week took a bitter turn when the Nigerian Army were deployed to the toll gate to open fire on the peaceful protesters, the blood of young Nigerians was spilled and there is no accountability from the government nor justice served. The BIG question on the lips of Nigerian Youths has been who ordered the shootings at the lekki toll gate?
Today many Nigerian youth took to the streets in remembrance of all the fallen heroes of the #endsars protest as well as police brutality. Excerpts from the punch live feed witnessed peaceful protesters demanding for justice, policies, governance reforms and end to police brutality.

The organisations’ Program Lead Mr. Harrison Udim said that the organisation demands that the #Endsars Judicial Panel report should be on the public domain and accessible to every interested Nigerian citizen, also that this remembrance protest is to remind our leaders that they are not infallible and the rule of law should prevail, thus there should be positive governance reforms in policies, social inclusion and engagement of youths in leadership and decision making process.

Mr. Udim also added that this is the point where Nigerian youths should be United and speak in one voice and refuse to be divided by ethnicity, religion and political ideologies. He maintained that in building the Nigeria we all want we should engage constructively and proactively with our leaders by continually demanding for accountability, transparency and good governance from them. In his words Nigeria is ours and it’s our fundamental responsibility to protect and redeem our fathers land, and those that lost their lives during the #endsars protest are gone but never to be Forgotten, as we will collectively fight to give them justice.

… PEACE is not the absence of war but the presence of JUSTICE…

A woman is a female adult, women are rare gold in the hands of their creator. I choose to write this article to describe a great woman in my life and that woman is my mother, she is like a polished diamond, trying her best in all she does. As an intelligent and hardworking woman, she never relents effort until she has achieved her goals. She believes that there is a brighter future for all of us. She tells us that “Spare the rod and spoil the child” is not just a proverb. She will continually be my role model.

SWAG Initiative –
Article by Edem, Emmanuella Emem in Commemoration of the INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S DAY CELEBRATION, 2021 #ChooseToChallenge, #IWD2021

Youth for Change initiative (YOFCI) – is a Youth development organization with a passion for developing young people through capacity building. We increase youth active participation in governance, with necessary information about democracy and good governance. Most of our project contributes to the attainment of Sustainable Development Goal SDG 4 &10 which empowers youths with the key ingredients of quality democratic system of government. One of our projects the formal launch of the Nigeria Youth Agenda on Political Participation & Inauguration of The Nigerian Youth Inter-Party & Civil Society Forum in Akwa Ibom State and THE VOTE NOT FIGHT…Election no be war CAMPAIGN were national campaign supported by the National Democratic Institute (NDI), 2face Foundation, Young stars Foundation and other youth-led /focus organization across the country where YOFCI coordinated the campaign in the South-south region of the country.

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On Youth and Civic Engagement. YOFCI join other youth groups in south-south Nigeria to participate in the 24HOUR OPENGOV HACKATHON challenge to develop a solution that can contribute to kicking out corruption in governance through open budgets, the Akwa Ibom State Youth Development Fund Bill – AKYDF Campaign, this a grassroots campaign that promote and seeks to establish a legal framework for youth development in the state and also engage critical Policies Stakeholders from Ministries of  Youth Development, Justice, State legislators and other influencers for effective youth representation to achieve the goals of the campaign which was in partnership with YOUTH ALIVE FOUNDATION,  we also implemented in collaboration with the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences (ICPC) on the ACORN Project (Youth Participation Against Corruption Y-PAC) in implementing the Integrity Clubs in various Schools in Ikot Ekpene Senatorial District of Akwa Ibom State. The purpose of the project was to also established and re-activate the existing integrity clubs in schools.

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YOFCI organized a three-month capacity building workshop for volunteers and youth organizations in Akwa Ibom State. The program tagged Capacity Boost 1.0 was the first of its kind within the development sector of Akwa Ibom State. YOFCI rolls-up year 2019 in a grand style with lots of activities to honour her Volunteers, Partners, Funders, Colleagues and Well-wishers with an award of certificate to participants of the just concluded YOFCI-CBS Capacity Building School (Capacity Boost 1.0), certificate of honour and YOFCI branded souvenir to all participants of the event. YOFCI launches her most recent Anti-corruption project within the Niger Delta region called #Keene Budget Nigeria #KBN which is an anti-corruption campaign tool that aims at ensuring that public funds particularly at the sub-national level are used for the development of social infrastructure and benefit of the people. As part of its citizens’ engagement activities, the #Keene Budget tracking team recently identified some non-existence, abandoned and uncompleted federal constituencies project in Akwa Ibom State communities.

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YOFCI partner other organizations to provide Personal Protective Equipment PPE such as Face-Mask to help protect citizens from the current pandemic ‘’COVID-19’’ and also help to sensitized the citizens on the prevention measures. In 2021 YOFCI has development her yearly work-plan which focus is on Education, Gender and Good governance. We have developed a project on Education with focus on assisting some special schools in the country with educational supporting materials, also designed an intervention on reducing SGBV through stakeholders engaging and using the VAPP law to develop IECs materials to sensitized the public on SGBV prevention. Finally, we have in motion a project to partner with other anti-corruption crusader to tackle the corruption in awarding and executing the federal constituencies project through our #Keene Budget Nigeria (#KBN) tool.

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An Article From Yofci On

An Article From YOFCI On Youth Development by Amb. Peace Edem – YOFCI Executive Director