Country of Residence
Nigeria
Age
20
Project title
The People's Initiative
Project Summary: Describe your project in one sentence
The People's Initiative is a civic education project that aims to inform children, youths and adults of the need to have the right type of leadership in our Country.
Website URL(s) or social media handles.
Project Category
My project is an existing project that I started
Project Stage
Pilot-Stage (We’ve tried an activity or two)
Founding Story: What was the spark that led you to start your project? What was the "Aha!" moment that led you to get started and see the potential for this to succeed?
It was when I was watching a program on the television where the UK PM and the opposition leader where debating and I noticed we don't have such in Nigeria, it's mostly insults and money sharing when no one communicated positions on critical issues. That was my aha moment!
The Problem: What problem are you helping to solve? Why does it matter to you and your community?
All over my community and neighbouring communities, there is a problem of bad leadership and citizens seem to be disconnected from the issue, their words can best be summarized as "God will help us". Solving this problem matters to me because I think it's people that build the society they want to live in and I want to live in a better society where there is accountability.
Your Solution: How are you solving this problem? Share your specific solution.
I am solving this problem via civic education and community engagement, one step at a time. My idea works when people ask a candidate what have you done before, what is your position on this issue and I am going to cast my vote and not how much will you participate me to vote for you. It makes a huge difference in the sense that, you can now hold your leaders accountable, scrutinize their past actions and use it to judge if they would be faithful to what their saying. In short, It will bring a people-centred leadership that will lead to progress.
Impact: How has your project created impact / made a difference so far? Or, if at an early stage, what will impact look like?
When I started from my church, I read some books on how public leadership should be and then started reaching out to people. So far, I have reached out to over 1,000 people and have gotten about 110 people, mostly young people to register to vote and ask the right questions.
Your Innovation: What is different about your project compared to other programs or solutions already out there? How is your project new or innovative?
My solution is result driven, after talking with you, we follow you up to make sure you are registered to vote because that's one active educated and informed voter to make our society the way we want it. We don't just leave you and move on. I don't see anyone doing what we are doing here in my State. Most groups like this focus on the mostly ultra-urban states of Lagos and Abuja, leaving the more rural states that actually swing the results. The new challenge we are tackling is the unwillingness by some young people to take action, but we are tackling it through new technologies that are coming up everyday.
How many people are on your team?
4
Your team: What role(s) do your team members play? How do you share leadership with them?
I have 4 team members, my brother, his friend and a senior colleague who helps us with our community mobilization and outreaches. I and my brother do the planning and organization and his friend helps us with Public relations. We work together pretty well.
What’s Next: What are the next steps you plan to take to grow or strengthen your project over the next year? If your project is still in the idea stage, describe the steps you will take over the next three months to launch or begin developing it.
In the next months I plan to organize debates at the local level between political leaders and aspirants for elective positions in the full glare of their constituents, whether at town halls or televised, whichever the funds provided for can achieve. This will help us achieve a bigger impact and reacher a much larger audience at once. Having such successful events will be a big dream come true.
How do you encourage other people to join your project or learn about the problem you’re working on? If you have a new idea, tell us how you will do this in the future.
I do so by informing them that they do not need to commit their money necessarily but just a little of their time. Then I inform them that things can certainly be better if we work together. I educate them and make sure they can always reach out to me or our community outreach member for more info. So far, we have engaged over a 1000 people, about 110 are newly registered voters, 23 revalidated and over 200 will be registering in the next cycle. They are informed and done also helped in registering and educating others. The change we seek is near.
