Lets begin with our communities

These last quarter of year 2014 has been very experiential, memorable, fun and most especially awesome for me. There is a lot I will be sharing with you so, one, two …… put on your seat belt and enjoy the ride.

Starting with initiating the #WashToHealth  campaign to create sensitization on facts about hand washing with soap  to primary school children in some rural communities in Nigeria,  to contributing my quota as A World at School  Global Youth Ambassador by  touring to various schools in Kaduna State to collect signatures and gain support for  the #UpforSchool Campaign and finally crowning it all with a tremendous experience so far as  an ambassador of the #VotenotFight campaign to promote a non-violence and credible election for the coming 2015 election in Nigeria.

From left Kaks, Happy and Nina

Yea, lots of campaigns going on out there for me, trying my best to make good use of opportunities to make my community and Nigeria a better place. And I repeat my community, because that's where it all begins. But right now I will be focusing mainly on my activities on the past few days precisely this second week of December 2014.

Granted an amazing opportunity by Mr Nentawe Gomiyar Coordinator of the #VotenotFight  Campaign in Kaduna State and Coordinator Fusion Nigeria to carry out my duties as a community Based organization Representative of the Chikun Local Government Area of Kaduna state, to promote the #VotenotFight campaign.

Alex Philip, Nina Mbah and Nentawe Gomiyar

The Vote not Fight: Election No Be War project is a youth non-violence voter education campaign that seeks to promote peaceful participation by Nigerian youth, young women and young persons with disabilities in political activities by encouraging them to sign a pledge committing to non-violent political participation before, during and after the 2015 elections.

On Monday 8^th of December 2014, the campaign started with a road show and public awareness from rural communities to the metropolis of Kaduna state and concluded with a Beauty pageant contest and Cultural Dance competition amongst school children at the St. Paul’s School Nassarawa community of Kaduna state.  I was honoured to be one of the judges of these entertaining contests that brought delight to both the audience and the contestants alike.  

To ensure that a wider spectrum of youth and the society at large buy into the message of non-violent elections and voting peaceably,  on 9^th December 2014, we (youth focused organizations/community representatives) were trained on the kind of campaign strategies and youth mobilization methodologies to employ at the ASA Pyramid Hotel Kaduna. The training was facilitated by National Democratic Institute (NDI) represented by Machill Manidu Maxwell, Christine Schoellhorn and Annabel Ugwoke .  

I had the opportunity to personally converse with NDI’s Christine Schoellhorn who did not take up to 10 minutes of conversing with me to conclude that I was an achiever and she took an instant photo of me and immediately uploaded it on twitter. At the end of the day I ended up with a pen as a parting gift from her *smiling*.  

I also had the opportunity to talk about the #UpForschool campaign during one of the training sesssions and as much as we were all gathered there to plan strategic ways to create credible and peaceful elections in Nigeria in 2015 they all showed support that whoever wins ought to provide universal quality education andsafe schools for Nigerians by signing the #Upforschool petition.

Christine Schoellhorn signing the #Upforschool

Some of the highlights of the training were:

• Overview of the vote not fight: Election no be war campaign by Mr Bola Abimbola representing Youngstars Foundation.

• Campaign and Campaign strategies.

•  Break out session/Group work on Identifying target audience for a campaign

• Tactics for youth mobilization

• · Identifying effective social media platforms for youth mobilization and campaigns.

• ·         Break out session/Group work on campaign plan and youth mobilization strategy for vote not fight at the community level.

Though the time we spent together was short I made lovely memories and got acquainted with Mary Dafie (Kaks), Happy Amos, Alex  Philip, Ezra Jinang, Rotji Kassam, Edibogi Marcus, Aisha Aminu, Barak Zebedee, Eshak Felix, Nenki , Nanlep, and Mrs Promise Godiya Gomiyar,Uncle DD, Emmanuel Idika,  Mr Kingsley Bangwell and Faith of Youngstars foundation and so many other lovely people that I interacted with but were not mentioned.

The three days vote not fight campaign experience culminated on 10^th Dec 2014 with visits to 2 rural chiefdoms in Kaduna state. These visits were the first for the #Vote not fight campaign in Nigeria and was intended to inspire community leaders to effectively motivate their young people to shun violence before, during and after elections. In order for these visits not to be mere word the leaders and their councils signed the Vote not fight pledge to show their commitment. To further raise the morals of these communities the visits were pre-arranged to be accompanied by a Nigerian Music icon and #VotenotFight project Ambassador Tu-Face Idibia (Tu-baba). Although flight delays tried to sabotage these well intended plans as we visited the Sarkin Gabbas of the Nassarawa community and Sarikin Kudandan both in Kaduna state without Tu-baba but the Sarikin Kudandan pleaded for a reschedule and that he will not mind if his community will be spared just a few minutes to have the honour of actually meeting our music icon and project Ambassador Tu-Face Idibia.

From left: Tu-baba, Mr Maxwell (NDI), Ezra Jinang and Nina

And YES that request was granted! Tu-baba was live at the Sarikin Kudandan’s Palace at about 5pm later that evening. Kudandan was wild with exhilaration and cheers in the air and I was opportune to be a part of his entourage. After stating the purpose of his visit the Sariki revealed to the excited audience he first saw Tuface for the first time while he was a 100level student at the Ahmadu Bello University (ABU) Zaria, then Tuface was still under the group the Plantation boys and today he was happy to be hosting him in his community after so many years.

Turban of Tafidan Kudandan

The climax of the visit? Yea there was, lo and behold to our astonishment Tu-Baba was turbaned with the title of the “Tafida Kudandan” (Kudandan’s Ambassador)!  There were lots of shouts of Twale in the air as they hailed  and threw praises at him for honouring them and humbly carrying out the #Votenotfight  cause practically down to local communities of Nigeria. The ceremonial turban was to be fixed at Tubaba’s convenient arrangement.

Sarikin Kudandan with Tafidan Kudandan (Tu-Baba)

In compensation for not visiting the Nassarawa community earlier we later accompanied Tu-baba that night to make a special appearance at the Annual Community Peace concert hosted by Fusion Nigeria in Nassarawa community after so much doubt from the audience if they could ever get a free live show in their local neighbourhood from such an icon. The winner of the beauty pageant two days earlier and the winners of the 2014 primary school football tournament were honoured on the stage by Tu-face Idibia. He further donated the total sum of 60,000 naira to the school children, entertained the audience  and a remarkable number of pledges were signed by the audience in support of the #Votenotfight campaign. Another notable and up-coming artist who performed was Ezra Jinang from Jos and other  notable artists in Kaduna.

Sarikin Nassarawa, His Coucil and the Vote not fight team

Now the story has just began and every Nigerian can be a part of this by making sure our elections are non-violent, free and fair. Young Nigerians must realize that there are much better ways our voices can be heard without using violence. We only gain sympathy through violence but with peaceful and strategic approach we can and we will make our voices heard and create the change we want. We can first start by showing we believe by signing the pledge at www.votenotfight.org

So when I say VOTE NOT FIGHT!

You reply ELECTION NO BE WAR!!!  

Tournament Champions (LEA primary school Nass. KD.) with VNF team

You can watch out for more pictures on my gallery and on Facebook.

NOTE: Vote not fight is not an initiative of any political party in Nigeria. It is brought to you by Youngstars foundation with support from NDI, USAID and local partners like Fusion Nigeria, The Bridge Youth Development Foundation amongst others.