TOWARDS A GREATER EKITI!

Campaign4BetterEkiti

Power From The People!

Campaign4BetterEkiti is a programme initiative designed to inspire Ekiti State residents, especially young people, to aspire to engage proactively in a hands-on, do-it-yourself manner, to make Ekiti a haven of good governance and sustained grassroots economic productivity.

Campaign4BetterEkiti is a state focused project for the Campaign4BetterNigeria.

This initiative is designed with the firm belief that ultimate socio- economic power resides and should be made to be seen as residing in the people.

Whether it is the power for driving good governance, or the power necessary for entrepreneurial pursuits, commerce and industry; focus on the grassroots and the INDIVIDUAL is paramount.

Campaign4BetterEkiti is a multi-platform, multi-media people-focused, individuals-driven initiative with components that include but not limited to multi-media platforms and tools, a quarterly youth camp, structured and sustained community education and mobilisation…as outlined hereunder.

CampBetterEkiti is the youth camp component and the driving ‘spirit’ of this initiative.

It is designed as an intensive leadership and entrepreneurial development project, with five modules – Leadership, Entrepreneurship, Family Life Education, Agbe4Life and Community Mobilisation for Good Governance.

Participation at CampBetterEkiti would be by way of prospective participants purchasing an entry form. Participants for a particular cohort would then be drawn through a transparent live audience participatory lottery system. There would be four cohorts of 32 participants each. Equal numbers of participants would be drawn from each of the 16 LGAs of the state, (equal number of males and females in each cohort, for all cohorts), for the first year, and 64 participants for each cohort for subsequent years, subject to the spread of prospective participants purchasing participation forms.

However, the very first cohort would be made up 16 participants, one from each LGA of the state, and equal number of males and females.

This is the ‘pilot cohort’.

Entry qualification is a minimum of Ordinary National Diploma (OND) or the National Certificate in Education (NCE). Participants can be from any part of Nigeria, but must be resident in Ekiti State, and must situate their eventual businesses in Ekiti State.

Those not picked for a particular cohort still stand a chance of being picked for subsequent cohorts. But sale of entry forms would be continuous.

The camp is designed as a two weeks intensive residential programme. Participants would have no further financial commitment, outside of the fee for purchasing the entry forms. The camps would take place in locations within Ekiti State.

Participants are to be exposed to training sessions on the five modules as stated earlier, by seasoned Resource Persons, with the aim of empowering the participants to be able to develop credible business plans, as well as for them to be able to run their businesses successfully to impact their lives, their communities, and therefore Ekiti State in general.

WINNERS ALL BUT…

In this regard, each of the participants selected through the lottery system, to participate in a cohort will get a laptop computer, and a minimum business capital of N50, 000.00.

However, participants will be required to develop business plans  in the course of the camp, from which three outstanding business plans will be awarded the top three prizes of N1,000,000.00, N500,000.00, and N250,000.00, to start and run their agro-based businesses in their respective LGAs, in accordance with terms and conditions for the award of the prizes.

One of the major aims of this initiative Agbe4Life, and the Agbe4LifeFestival, is designed to make agriculture attractive to young Ekiti residents, especially graduates.

Ekiti is an agrarian state, but is known for producing intellectuals which is why the State is known as ‘The Fountain of Knowledge’. However, with no industries to absorb the continuous flow of graduates from various tertiary institutions across the state and Nigeria at present, there is a need to direct the attention of young people to agriculture, which has been largely neglected in the state as well as in Nigeria as a whole.

This we believe would help to get graduates gainfully employed, create jobs by generating interest in the formation of small scale agro-based industries and commerce, increase local individual spending, increase government revenue directly and indirectly, encourage elderly folks that agriculture is still worth their while, reduce rural-urban drift, and directly and indirectly reduce anti-social behaviours linked to unemployment and youth restiveness by redirecting the attention of young people away from depending on what government can do for them, to what they can do for themselves and others, and therefore ultimately, for Ekiti State.

Our slogan for CampBetterEkiti is ‘WHAT HAVE YOU DONE FOR EKITI LATELY?!’

In this regard, it therefore stands to reason that about 80% of the participants would be required to draw up business plans that focus on agriculture and agro-based businesses. This means that any participant that aims at winning any of the top three prizes must think agriculture.

Graduating participants would be required to step-down their trainings to youths and youth groups in their LGAs, and embark on community development services, in cohorts. They would be provided with technical assistance to perform these functions. The focus for the community development service would be self-employment, Family Life Education, and Voter Education.

Radio, Television, Print and Narrowcast platforms will be used to profile, promote and sustain this initiative.

Campaign4BetterEkiti on Radio is designed to propagate the ideals and benefits of this concept. Role models from across business and social endeavours would be featured on live and recorded programmes on local Radio stations.

Campaign4BetterEkiti on Television is designed to propagate the ideals and benefits of this concept. Role models from across business and social endeavours would be featured on live and recorded programmes on local television stations. The lottery draws for participation at CampBetterEkiti would be aired through this programme.

Campaign4BetterEkiti in Print is designed to propagate the ideals and benefits of this concept. Role models from across business and social endeavours would be featured by way of interviews and true life stories of individuals making change possible. The announcements for purchase of entry participation forms, draws and the results of the lottery draws for participation at CampBetterEkiti would be featured in quarterly print publications.

Campaign4BetterEkiti by Narrowcast is perhaps, the most grassroots-friendly of all the communications initiatives for this programme. The idea for the Narrowcast concept is to create a community ‘television’ network featuring programming on various key development issues. This would be the major tool for the community development service component for the participants for CampBetterEkiti. The Narrowcast concept is a key component in the PIPE (Participatory Interactive Peer Education) Model developed by Dr. Richie Adewusi, the founder of Youthaid Initiatives, the main advocates for Campaign4BetterEkiti. (Please, see http//:www.richieadewusi-parenting4life.blogspot.com/, for details of the PIPE/Narrowcast Model).

Campaign4BetterNigeria is an initiative of Youthaid Initiatives/Nigeria.