[Image]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: [Image] 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 UnionGovernment (SUG) hosted the first EnoughisEnough Nigeria (EiE) Town HallMeeting in Nigeria. The purpose of the Town Hall meetings is to facilitate discussion aroundEiE’s campaign for the 2011 General Elections –Register.Select.Vote.Protect (RSVP). Each of the 4 aspects of the campaignare discussed in depth with the objective of identifying practical stepsto engage the electorate in the process. Many will remember that the duoof Professor Wole Soyinka and Governor Babatunde Fashola activated thiscampaign on a nationwide scale at the Save Nigeria Group’s Voter EducationRally supported by EiE. Short speeches were given by the presidents of the partner organisationsas well as Amara Nwankpa and Blaze Otokpa of LightUpNigeria and ‘GbengaSesan of Paradigm Initiative, which are EiE coalition members. Nwankpa challenged the young people with a statement from Pastor TundeBakare, the convener of SNG, making the point that collaborating towardsthe goal of changing Nigeria is the only way. The guest of honor was Alhaji Danladi Umar, Director General, Directorateof Values Re-Orientaton and Poverty Eradication in Niger State. He spokeon the ‘Role of the Youth in Sustainable Democracy’ through a highlyinteractive session. In his short introduction, he said that in Nigeria,democracy can be defined as “Government of the few, for the few, by thefewer,” and encouraged young people to “engage constructively in theelectoral process.” He then facilitated the interactive session where heasked the audience to provide examples of how young people can engageconstructively in the electoral process. Jane Frances, one of the female students, said very passionately thatyoung people must be willing to make sacrifices for Nigeria as thestruggle 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 hisexperience in Oyo State where cutlasses were placed behind people’s necksas they voted to ensure they voted for a candidate. As a result of thatexperience, his mother has banned everyone in the house from registeringand participating in the electoral process. He ended by asking if violencewas a viable option to ‘Protect’ our votes. Sesan, speaking on behalf of EiE, said the coalition does not condoneviolence as a tool, but we do expect people to act in self-defense whenthe situation demands. Issues around the Voters Registration Exercise andElection Monitoring were also discussed. It was a rewarding 4-hour session and the organizers are planning otherTHMs for the main campus of FUT, Minna as well as the polytechnic. Thefirst THM was held in London under the Dial-a-Vote Campaign which urgesNigerians in the diaspora to encourage their friends and family in Nigeriato vote. Subsequent THMs are planned in the US and across in other states.Participants are made to become ambassadors for the RSVP message aftereach town hall. “As more funding comes in, our plan is to visit all of Nigeria’s 36states,” Nwankpa said. “This is in addition to all our other plans tomobilize young people in the urban centres to vote in 2011 – all ourefforts are focused relentlessly on that mission.” EnoughisEnough Nigeria (EiE), founded in March 2010, is the largestcoalition of Nigerian youth and youth-led organizations. Our goal is civicparticipation and, for the next one year, we are focused on mobilizingyoung Nigerians to influence the 2011 general elections by voting forcredible candidates and protecting those votes. We are a non-partisan movement, which means we are not aligned to anypolitical party and not aligned to any political candidate.
"Enough is Enough in Minna"
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