Victor EzejaA coalition of Nigerian youth advocacy groups, known as Enough is Enough (EiE) Nigeria,has launched a WhatsApp bot for active engagement of citizens on civic matters.
The social network platform is designed to engage citizens in an automated fashion, providing them with information on registration, Permanent Voter Card (PVC) Collection, Debates and townhall meetings, contact information on elected officials and other channels to take action on political/electoral issues.
Join our WhatsApp ChannelThis was revealed by the Executive Director of EiE, Yemi Adamolekun, during public presentation of the group’s book titled “Footprints: Past. Present and Future,” -a 12-chapter book- on Monday, December 12, 2022.
The book presentation was part of the 12th Anniversary Celebration of EiE.
The book which features contributors like Aisha Yesufu, Tunde Bakare, Innocent Idibia AKA Tubaba, Seun Onigbide, BankyW and 41 others, reflects on the organsation’s history through the eyes of its founders and partners. It has its foreword written by a retired career diplomat, Christopher Kolade.
In her remarks titled “Is Enough not Yet Enough?” the activist went down memory lane recalling how the group, EiE was founded in March 2010 and subsequent opening of its office in January 2011.
She also highlighted the challenges in the journey so far and the significant progress made in the struggle as seen in the establishment of different programmes within its 12 years of existence.
Enough is Enough Nigeria is a network of individuals and organisations with the goal of instituting a culture of good governance and public accountability through active citizenship. The group has been involved in a number of campaigns since it was set up which include #The Occupy Nigeria in 2012, and the ongoing #Open NASS which started in 2013.
The group also launched the #OfficeoftheCitizen campaign in 2015 to mark its 5th anniversary and the #OnePerson campaign in 2020 to celebrate its 10th anniversary.
“It has been a rough road leading an organisation that wasn’t planned and in some ways didn’t have ‘owners.’ The founding members allowed me to run with it and figure things out as they led their own organisations. While I was grateful for the vote of confidence, it was also a very lonely journey as I didn’t know what I was doing half the time. It was very fluid and I kind of got stuck trying to make sense of the organisation; trying to give it life and figure out what to do as initial advocates focused on entrepreneurship or joined partisan politics.
“I didn’t expect to be here this long but for our 5th anniversary when we hit on the “Office of the Citizen”, I knew I had found something I could run with to teach citizens that they have power to demand their rights and better governance outcomes.
“We have other projects like ‘Missing in NG’ where we track missing people in Nigeria – an offshoot of the Bring Back Our Girls campaign. We had advocated for a Missing Persons Register for Nigeria after the Chibok abduction, but in 2019, Femi Falana suggested that we take it up as civil society because the government would be too embarrassed to document the number of people that are missing,” she said.
Adamolekun explained that the digital service is in partnership with the Global Citizen, a platform dedicated to tackling poverty, inequality and poor governance across the world.
“While these projects continue, we are excited to unveil a new addition to our programs this evening. It’s a WhatsApp Bot that engages citizens in an automated fashion with information on registration, PVC Collection, Debates, contact information on elected officials and other channels to take action in partnership with Global Citizen.
“I won the Global Citizen Award earlier this year, so this is a special partnership. Save the number 017006381; send ‘Hello’ as a message and start engaging!”
Concluding her remarks, Adamolekun challenged the citizens to take necessary actions to combat poor governance in the country, especially as the 2023 general elections draw closer.
“Nigeria is where it is because of actions we have taken and actions we have refused to take. My challenge to you this evening is to ask, Is enough not yet enough? And if it is, what are you doing about it? Let your money speak for you; let your network speak for you; let your talent and skills speak for you in how you decide to deploy them, but you must determine that if enough is truly enough, it’s not just about saying so, it’s about taking action!” she concluded.
Victor Ezeja is a passionate journalist with six years of experience writing on economy, politics and energy. He holds a Masters degree in Mass Communication.
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