Enough is Enough in Minna

What made the 1993 elections good ones in Nigeria was in large part because of the high turnout. Its harder to rig elections when many people vote. The Enough is Enough campaign is therefore focusing on raising awareness of the importance of voting. Press release below:

EnoughisEnough kicks off Voter Education Meeting in Minna

On Saturday, July 18 2010 at the Federal University of Technology, Minna –

Bosso Campus; JCI, Rotaract, Intersynergy Consulting and the Student Union

Government (SUG) hosted the first EnoughisEnough Nigeria (EiE) Town Hall

Meeting in Nigeria.

The purpose of the Town Hall meetings is to facilitate discussion around

EiE’s campaign for the 2011 General Elections –

Register.Select.Vote.Protect (RSVP). Each of the 4 aspects of the campaign

are discussed in depth with the objective of identifying practical steps

to engage the electorate in the process. Many will remember that the duo

of Professor Wole Soyinka and Governor Babatunde Fashola activated this

campaign on a nationwide scale at the Save Nigeria Group’s Voter Education

Rally supported by EiE.

Short speeches were given by the presidents of the partner organisations

as well as Amara Nwankpa and Blaze Otokpa of LightUpNigeria and ‘Gbenga

Sesan of Paradigm Initiative, which are EiE coalition members.

Nwankpa challenged the young people with a statement from Pastor Tunde

Bakare, the convener of SNG, making the point that collaborating towards

the goal of changing Nigeria is the only way.

The guest of honor was Alhaji Danladi Umar, Director General, Directorate

of Values Re-Orientaton and Poverty Eradication in Niger State. He spoke

on the ‘Role of the Youth in Sustainable Democracy’ through a highly

interactive session. In his short introduction, he said that in Nigeria,

democracy can be defined as “Government of the few, for the few, by the

fewer,” and encouraged young people to “engage constructively in the

electoral process.” He then facilitated the interactive session where he

asked the audience to provide examples of how young people can engage

constructively in the electoral process.

Jane Frances, one of the female students, said very passionately that

young people must be willing to make sacrifices for Nigeria as the

struggle for good governance will not be easy. For each example given,

Alhaji Umar gave some practical tips from his experience.

During the Q&A session at the end, one of the students narrated his

experience in Oyo State where cutlasses were placed behind people’s necks

as they voted to ensure they voted for a candidate. As a result of that

experience, his mother has banned everyone in the house from registering

and participating in the electoral process. He ended by asking if violence

was a viable option to ‘Protect’ our votes.

Sesan, speaking on behalf of EiE, said the coalition does not condone

violence as a tool, but we do expect people to act in self-defense when

the situation demands. Issues around the Voters Registration Exercise and

Election Monitoring were also discussed.

It was a rewarding 4-hour session and the organizers are planning other

THMs for the main campus of FUT, Minna as well as the polytechnic. The

first THM was held in London under the Dial-a-Vote Campaign which urges

Nigerians in the diaspora to encourage their friends and family in Nigeria

to vote.

Subsequent THMs are planned in the US and across in other states.

Participants are made to become ambassadors for the RSVP message after

each town hall.

“As more funding comes in, our plan is to visit all of Nigeria’s 36

states,” Nwankpa said. “This is in addition to all our other plans to

mobilize young people in the urban centres to vote in 2011 – all our

efforts are focused relentlessly on that mission.”

EnoughisEnough Nigeria (EiE), founded in March 2010, is the largest

coalition of Nigerian youth and youth-led organizations. Our goal is civic

participation and, for the next one year, we are focused on mobilizing

young Nigerians to influence the 2011 general elections by voting for

credible candidates and protecting those votes.

We are a non-partisan movement, which means we are not aligned to any

political party and not aligned to any political candidate.

Signed:

‘Yemi Adamolekun

Interim Executive Secretary

[email protected]