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The Electoral College Nigeria: Celebrating Two Years of Politeracy Advocation
The Electoral College, Nigeria unlike its American counterpart is a non-governmental organization with clear targets on “Politeracy”, a term coined by the college connoting “Political literacy”, a concept that is grossly below parity in a country that is known to be the most populous black nation in the world.
Has Nigeria been haunted by its poor political decisions? Absolutely. The most glaring culprit being that many citizens perceive political events as confusing and difficult to understand. They struggle to organize and comprehend the complex and complicated political world surrounding them. At the same time, citizens find themselves in a powerful position in a democracy. In reality, there is lack of political awareness and a mystical perspective attached to governance and electoral processes.
A politically literate citizen not only comprehends the current state of governance, but also participates in an active and effective way and directs it. An individual with politeracy has the skills of understanding people’s viewpoints, realizing their effect upon her/him and responding to them in an ethical way.
The Electoral college has labored since its inception to bring to the awareness of citizens that they have a significant influence on the political decisions that they themselves submit to.
With a very simplified approach and a foremost goal to educate the citizen on politics and governance, these are a summary round up of the activities that have taken place within the college in the past year.
The Electoral College In focus in 2020
In March, the college’s advocacy for the need for politeracy caught the media’s attention and was featured on Sahara Reporters.
In April, the college launched it’s first virtual bouquet of classes for the course ‘Politeracy and Governance 101’.
In May – In Conjunction with PGI, the college launched a forum for black people In Governance across the world which was held virtually and themed ‘Connecting the Dots’.
On the wake of some actions on social media, true to the college’s mandate to provide deliverables to citizens, the college developed the social media guidelines for communication – for people in Governance, to help provide a cordial relationship between the government and people of Nigeria.
In June, the college was featured on Independent Newspaper on making a difference.
In July, we commenced registration and intake of the Second batch of Associates for training.
In August 120 students graduated from the college.
Also, the College in collaboration with We FM 106.3 Abuja rolled out the Politeracy and Governance bouquet on radio which airs every Tuesday at 8.05am
In September – the College in partnership with the Embassy of Sweden commemorated the international day of Democracy.
In October – intake and commencement of third batch of its Politeracy and Governance class with a record over 29,000 registrations and full participation of 1,710 students.
In November – The Electoral College Nigeria in conjunction with One Voice Hosted the Lagos East Senatorial debate which was well attended by candidates and the electorate.
In December, the Electoral College graduated 235 associates from its class.
With droplets of resources from friends of the college and the board, the college in 2020 and 2021 have trained over 7,000 people virtually and physically and would be working towards training over 500,000 by 2023.
This was our year in 2020, we are grateful for the support of the Board, The Regional coordinators, friends of the College and our most esteemed Associates for making this year a big step in Civic Education and rreorienting the democratic space in Nigeria.
The College has performed remarkably since its inception in 2019 despite its limited resources. The journey to Political literacy and massive political participation is far from over and there is need to capitalize on the college’s operations through extended partnerships to achieve a wider and more impactful reach.
Small steps for the Electoral College Nigeria and A big leap for Politeracy
Thank you
For God and Country
By Henry Ukazu
Dear Destiny Friends,
The importance of timing cannot be overemphasized. Timing is everything in life. It is critical to one’s success. You can lose your money and get it back in many folds. You can even lose your health and get it back all things being equal, but when you lose time, you can hardly get it back again.
The importance of timing can be seen in crops. Every crop has a season, a good farmer won’t plant maize when it’s time for oranges, nor will he plant pears when it’s the season for mangoes.
Time is very instrumental to the success and failure of anyone. Imagine having a meeting or interview at 9:00am and you arrive at 10:10am, it will take the grace of God to be interviewed. As an employee, apart from one not being able to diligently do his job, one of the fastest ways for an employee to lose his job is by being late to work.
When I was in New York Law School studying Taxation law, I did a course titled, the Problem of Timing. During the semester, I learnt about cash and accrued income. Let me do some academic exercise here. In cash income, just like the name entails, one is paid in cash as soon as the work is completed. It’s just like going to the market to make a purchase. One can either pay directly with cash or with debit or credit card. But Accrued income refers to revenue a company has earned by providing goods or services, but for which payment has not yet been received, one will have to do the work first before getting paid. This is applicable when one works in either a public or private organization where one is paid either weekly, bi-weekly or at the end of the month depending on the stipulated mode of payment.
It’s important to note that before the money is paid either in cash or accrued, one would have earned it. It’s just like one learning g before earning, and one will have to update to upgrade. These are just the practical principles that will work with life.
In the same way, in life there’s a seed time and harvest time. It’s a universal principle of life. Whether as a parent, entrepreneur, student or employee. As a parent, if you don’t train your kids very well, they will grow up to reflect the opposite of what you desire. As an entrepreneur when you invest in your business, you will get the reward in due time. As a student, if you take your studies seriously, your grades will improve, and as an employee, you stand to get promotions and opportunities when you add value to your work. In summary, one will have to put in the work before recognition comes on.
To understand how seedtime and harvest work, imagine where parents tend to like one child more than others just because they see potential in him, or he’s smart, hardworking or even creative. They fail to understand that every child is different and as such their timing can be different. Some kinds take time to develop.
I personally believe there’s something so unique about each individual which God has deposited in everyone of us. It’s just a matter of time for it to manifest. Your timing of manifestation is different from your siblings and colleagues.
Personally, I didn’t mature fast with my contemporaries. Overtime, I have seen much improvement in my personal and professional life. Maybe because I have added value to my work with the assistance of mentors and good friends, or God had to humble my colleagues and mentors . Why do I say this? During my formative years, I had little or nothing to show for it. I was looking at my contemporaries as mentor and seeing my mentors as small gods whose feat is unattainable, but now, the reverse seems to be case as I have developed capacity some of my colleagues are yet to attain, while I have even surpassed the achievement of my some of my mentors in some quarters.
In all these, they are all surprised how it happened. Some are yet to comprehend or articulate the feat. It’s just like watching a film where everyone slept and woke up to see the game and tides have changed. The secret behind it is the seed time and harvest time. I was probably learning the trade while in the wilderness, and when the training season matured and ripe enough to be harvested, I became attractive to almost everyone who loved the seed I was producing.
There are litany of examples of people, who have been in the wilderness during the seed planting season. Let’s take a case study of Joseph in the Bible, his journey to stardom took a little twist. Despite the travails he experienced in the hands of his siblings who sold him, his experience while in the jail, and with Portiphar’s wife, who tried to seduce him; they were all set ups for success. The moral here is Joseph seed time and harvest time was quite different, it wasn’t a smooth journey. Ordinarily, one would have cursed his siblings or his friends who were with him in prison and forgot him after they were released. But at the end of time, everything worked out for his favor. Joseph’s seed days were his dark days while in the wilderness.
Another inspiring story of note was that of Pastor Ibukun Awosika, the former board Chairman of First Bank of Nigeria. She once shared a pathetic story during her formative years of being in business. According to her, she sojourned for about 15 years. She cried because lines were not adding up for her and she wouldn’t do what her contemporaries were doing to get opportunities. At a point in her business, it appeared like she was in a race of own life because everything seemed to be against her, but at the appropriate time, lines began to fall in place for her. Appointments, business opportunities, favours and goodwill began to fall in place for her. Again, she had a fair share of seed time.
An interesting question I would like to ask you is, what’s your seed time? Have you ever been in the wilderness when you appeared to be fixed? It’s unfortunate many people are not willing to pass through the storms or experience seeds and harvest time. Amidst all these, one must do some work before they get opportunities. However, before such opportunities will come up, one will have to plant the seed.
In conclusion, seed time and harvest time is critical in the journey of life. Take a seat and determine what seed you would like to sow and what you’ll like to harvest.
Henry Ukazu writes from New York. He works with the New York City Department of Correction as the Legal Coordinator. He’s the founder of Gloemi. He’s a Transformative Human Capacity and Mindset coach. He is also a public speaker, youth advocate, creative writer and author of Design Your Destiny Design Your and Unleash Your Destiny . He can be reached via info@gloemi.com
By Eric Elezuo
The Senate has suspended Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghen for six months over her sexual harassment accusation and other disputes against the Senate President, Godswill Akpabio.
The Senate also withdrew her salaries for the period of the suspension, as well as her security details.
The chamber however, soft-pedaled on the salaries and allowances of her aides, who it was argued would not have any source of livelihood within the period.
Globacom is welcoming new customers on its network with the introduction of the e-SIM. The e-SIM activated in any Gloworld shop or Dealer outlet comes with an introductory free 5GB data when the customer buys a data plan of N1,500 or more.
Customers already on other networks can now join the Glo network with e-SIM as an additional SIM. Existing Glo customers can also enjoy this “SIM-less” freedom.
With the e-SIM, customers no longer have to worry about space for a physical SIM on their phones. The e-SIM is a software-based digital chip built directly into smartphones or wearable devices, thus eliminating the need for a physical SIM card for customers.
The use of e-SIM enables customers to have seamless switching between phone numbers without a physical SIM. It is ideal for upwardly mobile people who travel frequently. The e-SIM also guarantees security, as unlike physical SIM, it is harder to remove from devices. It is also eco-friendly and reduces plastic waste.
Globacom’s launch of the e-SIM enables enables it to cater to high-net-worth individuals and enterprise customers, and it also reinforces the company’s commitment to providing seamless and future-ready services to its customers.
A customer seeking to activate the Glo e-SIM needs to check the compatibility of the mobile handset by dialling *#06# on his or her phone. If an EID number reflects on the mobile screen, the device is e-SIM compatible.
“The customer can then proceed to the nearest Gloworld shop or Glo Dealer outlet to migrate to e-SIM. The process takes only a few minutes and the customer can thereafter begin to enjoy the use of an e-SIM”, the Marketing Department disclosed.
