Ahead of the 2023 general elections, a pan-African non-governmental organisation, Madiba Foundation for Good Governance (MFGG), has launched a project aimed at re-igniting active citizenship among Nigeria’s literate youth and grassroots communities for civic participation.
The organisation’s Chief Operations Officer, Frederick Adetiba, said on Wednesday in Abuja that the project tagged ‘Organising for a New Nigeria (ONN)’, would use the tools of media, technology, and grassroot platforms to build a movement that engages youth in Nigeria’s democratic processes from elections to governance.
He said, “Our conception of youth is not simply as a time in life, but in the words of Robert Kennedy ‘a state of mind, a temper of the will, a quality of the imagination, a predominance of courage over timidity, of the appetite for adventure over the love of ease’.”
He said the organisation would work with skilled people, who may be older than the constitutionally defined age of youth, but who possess a compelling vision of the future and the requisite energy to do the work required to realize our collective aspirations.
He said, “We will reject the corrupt ways of the past which privilege wealth for its own sake, rather than as an output of productivity.”
Adetiba said that with the current state of affairs in the country, there are two options available to citizens: leave the country or stay back and fix it.
“Madiba Foundation is creating a platform that would give passionate and patriotic Nigerians, especially young people, an opportunity to stay back and fix the country.”