Nigerian Youths Stand Up to Stop Mediocrity In Leadership: GOTNI Launches SMILE

Nigeria over the years has encountered the malaise of poor leadership and a weak democratic state. Rather than citizens’ vote count, the Nigerian society has experienced corruption, forgery, victimization and in extreme cases, murder of innocent citizens in her electoral process. After the 2011 elections rated as by the International community as relatively free and fair, was marred by several deaths of some electoral officers (mainly Youth Corps members), the situation have rendered many Nigerians (especially young Nigerians) hopeless in believing their votes will count in the recent 2015 election which has been at the crux of the present tension.

It is on this basis, that the SMILE campaign was initiated in 2011 and finally unveiled on February 2, 2015. The Social Media Advocacy begins from February 3 to March 30th, 2015 in two phases- The awareness phase 'I AM #Ready2SMILE' which holds from Feb. 3-13th and the Opinion phase #SMILE and 'Opinion'  from Feb. 14 -March 30th, 2015.

This Stop Mediocrity in leadership (SMILE) campaign was unveiled during the Brand awareness session of the GOTNI Leaders Forum,  on Monday, February 2, 2015 at Reiz Continental Hotel Abuja.

This campaign will be an opinion poll from young Nigerians proffering solution on how they think mediocrity/ mediocres can be stopped in the leadership circuit in Nigeria. 

The first campaign is for awareness with the hashtag #Ready2SMILE which is will run for Feb. 3-13 after which the #SMILE "Opinion" major campaign will begin from Feb. 14- March 30, 2015.

The #Ready2SMILE and  #SMILE campaigns will be purely social media based. The format for the first phase is (Write "I AM #Ready2SMILE") put it up on your facebook update or twitter and tag/mention us via (gotning). The next campaign from Feb. 14, 2015 (Use a plain surface, Write #SMILE then a one-phrase solution underneath" then snap a picture with it and upload/tag the official GOTNI pages on Facebook and Twitter; www.facebook.com/gotning or www.twitter.com/gotning) from February 14, 2015.

This conversation will take place from February 14 to March 30, 2015 after which the entry will be closed for the next phase of the campaign. 

Continue to read the objectives of this all-important campaign

OBJECTIVES

  To set a standard for electing the right political candidate

  To create awareness on Voter & Civic education 

  To motivate young Nigerians to participate actively in the voting process 

  To promote good governance & democracy by emphasizing that power is vested in the people

  To create a transparent platform for electing political office holders 

  To encourage men and women of honour across political platforms and geographical locations to participate in elections at all levels, irrespective of their social status 

 To encourage Nigerians in Diaspora to engage in active participation in political processes 

IMPLICATION OF THE PROJECT 

 Credible and competent leaders will assume political leadership positions/ public office

 The emergence of leaders who are on a mission to fix the problem of corruption, alleviate poverty among Nigerians, provide adequate and standard infrastructure, and embark on large scale job creation and employment opportunities for the unemployed. 

 Nigerians across culture, religion and ethnicity will be saddled with the responsibility of electing their own leaders. 

 The emergence of a true democratic state will become a reality and no more a “CLICHE”.

 Our first strategy is to utilize social media (i.e. Facebook, twitter and later Youtube) to compile an opinion database of young Nigerians. 

Join the cause, send in your entry-opinion to join the conversation.

Use the official hashtag #Ready2Smile 

Be heard, Let's SMILE!