2007 Election Support In Nigeria Civil Society-Led Voters Education North Central Zone

YARAC’s Final Narrative Report For The Joint Donor Basket Fund Project: "Beyond Elections: Protecting People’s Mandate through Transformative Voter Education for Grassroots Women and Youth Organizations in North Central Nigeria." For the full report, download the attached Word Document.

BEYOND ELECTIONS:

PROTECTING PEOPLE’S MANDATE THROUGH TRANSFORMATIVE VOTER EDUCATION FOR GRASSROOTS WOMEN AND YOUTH ORGANISATIONS IN NORTH CENTRAL NIGERIA

PROJECT SUMMARY:

1. IMPLEMENTING PARTNERS: (Three organizations partnered to implement the project)

• Youth, Adolescent Reflection & Action Centre (YARAC Jos) as the Lead Partner.

• Lawyers Alert (Makurdi) Benue State as the support organization

• Centre for Communication and Reproductive Health Services (CCRHS) Bida, Niger

2. OUR MANDATE:

Essentially YARAC and the partners applied to carry out a voter education for specific vulnerable groups i.e. women and youth grassroots organization so as to mobilize their participation in the 2007 General Elections. And the goal is ‘Citizens in the North Central Zone of Nigeria actively participate in the 2007 electoral process and sustain a sense of desire and responsibility to participate actively in the political process between elections’.

The objectives therefore were:

1. To increase knowledge about democratic electoral processes among 50 leaders of grassroots youth and women’s organizations and networks in each state of North Central Nigeria including FCT through training, production and distribution of I.E.C materials by March 2007.

2. To decrease voter apathy and stay-aways from voting in the zone.

3. To establish youth and women’s groups as active participants in electoral and democratic processes in all states in the North Central Zone by March 2007

4. To enhance and strengthen women and youth networks in the North Central zone for collective action for mandate protection by March 2007

5. To increase the levels of constructive engagement with the elections and to discourage violent or extra-judicial methods of mandate protection especially among youth groups by 2007.

6. To encourage political elites to be more sensitive to the quest of electorates through advocacy, public and town hall meetings by 2007.

7. Promote equal Access to the Media by political parties and contestants during the general elections

Based on these objectives the team looked forward to the following achievable gains:

1. Active and visible participation of a huge population of women and youth in the political landscape at community, local, state and national levels beginning with the 2007 elections

2. Greater involvement of citizens in all electoral processes including mandate protection

3. Greater recognition and respect of the power of electorates by political parties and candidates. Political parties and candidates consult and negotiate with electorates for consideration

4. Voter apathy greatly reduced during the 2007 elections

5. Women and youth groups network and as a result cases of electoral violence greatly reduced

6. Legal approaches to resolving cases emanating from elections are explored

7. General satisfaction with the conduct of the elections and electorates will see themselves as agent of change.

8. Equal access to the Media by political parties and all those contesting elections

3. TECHNICAL PROCESS:

Technically, YARAC and the partners carried out the following activities:

• Training of 50 leaders of women and youth groups in every state including the Federal Capital

• Town Hall meetings and Community workshops on Voter Education, Mandate Protection and knowledge of the electoral act

• Transformative Theatre performances at community levels in all the three senatorial districts per state and FCT

• Media Education through jingles, production/distribution of IEC materials.

4. WHAT WE ACHIEVED:

Generally, by our assessment we were satisfied with the quality and number of participation. We wanted to:

• To increase women’s participation in the 2007 general elections.

• To reduce voter apathy

• To reduce/eliminate the use of youths in political violence/ electoral malpractice.

• To enhance people’s capacity to protect their mandate in the elections.

These we were able to achieve through the following activities:

• The central training workshop, which was to have trained 350 participants from the North central States, had an increase of 6% from the initial 350 anticipated participants to 373 participants were eventually trained. This training had an almost even gender balance 187 females, 186males.

• The community-training workshop was to train 950 women/youths, trained 1080women/youths an increase of 13%. (541 female and 539 male)

• The community theatre performances in each of the senatorial zones of the North Central states drew enthusiastic crowd and provided instant learning strategies and non-violent intervention approach to mandate protection

• This is one achievement we must talk about. In Plateau, one of the youth groups, Dadin Kowa Youth Community Development Initiative that participated in the series of trainings took an outstanding action. On their own they organised road campaigns against electoral violence, rigging and the use of young people to initiate violence. They also monitored the elections within their community.

• Similarly, in other North Central states, Networks of youth groups were formed to monitor the general elections with amazing results received.

• The Target groups, Women and youths came out enmasse to vote and be voted for during the April 14th and 21st general elections.

• The people actually protected their mandate in various parts of the North Central states especially in Plateau Central, Gwer local government area in Benue, kogi, Niger states etc.

• In most of the North Central states elections were almost violent free.

• The use of youths for election malpractices was drastically reduced

• The use of money politics was very unsuccessful in this dispensation; money could not change people’s opinion of whom to vote in e.g. Plateau central where the former deputy senate president lost his seat.

• In the North Central states politicians are taking the legal means of reclaiming their mandate where they believed rigging denied them the seat instead of taking the laws in their hands as the case in the past.

• With the Radio jingles and other IEC materials, we were able to cover a wider area and reach more number of our target groups of women/youths groups with our messages.

• We received persistent calls from all categories of well meaning Nigerians including traditional rulers to continuously air the jingles because of the quality of message it carried. This means people listened

• The IEC materials were appropriately used. The T-Shirts and Face Caps for instance were worn by some electorates at the voting exercise with relevant messages boldly written.

Generally people were adequately educated and mobilized to vote in the North Central. People came out in huge numbers to vote, women and youth. And so there was the satisfaction that people exercised their franchise in spite the efforts to discourage participation by INEC. In some states people were successful with their mandates, in some the over powering role of INEC was a major frustration. The final outcome would have made the difference if INEC the officiating body had not arranged to manipulate the results. Other wise the beneficiaries had set out to vote and protect their mandate peacefully. We actually saw a patient electorate determined to wait and in deed waited for voting materials till the late nights. This was remarkable.

To enhance awareness the following IEC materials were produced and widely distributed women and youth participants and during advocacy activities to policy, security and traditional institutions:

• Posters (8000copies)

• Calendars (6000copies)

• Fez cap (3000copies)

• T-shirts (2250copies)

• Flyers (2000copies)

• Workshop bags (1300 bags)

• Pamphlets (2000copies)

5. BUDGET:

Total Amount approved including (approved revised budget) N25,336,396.80 (Twenty Five million, three hundred and thirty six thousand, three hundred and ninety-six Naira only).

6. CHALLENGES:There were challenges during the implementation. Some of these include:

• Late commencement of project put unnecessary pressure on the partners and staff were overstretched as a result

• Suspicion from political parties: some political parties were not comfortable with the awareness being given to the public

• Time was quite short and so some activities were rushed

• The fuel pump price increase affected the budget for some of the items like transportation during the theatre performances.

• Untimely release of funds from UNDP equally delayed some of the activities

. 7. RECOMMENDATIONS:

• Early commencement of similar project in the future

• Relaxed rules on release of funds will enhance timely implementation

• More visits by PMU Staff during implementation

• Additional funds

• Involvement of more CSOs

8. CONCLUSION:

By and large it was a great experience both for the partners and the communities that benefited from the intervention. Women and youth grassroots organizations that had showed great apathy participated adequately in the general elections. Cases of electoral violence greatly reduced. The objectives were 98% achieved by our assessment. Equally very important to the success of the project is the commitment of the partners. That we used our organizations funds meant for other projects to ensure that there were no delays in the implementation, pending release of funds from UNDP is work acknowledging. It is for this reason also that we request understanding from UNDP to refund accordingly. Finally, we want to commend most sincerely the technical support and understanding of the PMU staff during the implementation. Their timely intervention and responses to our requests despite the crowded events at the time was remarkable. Similarly their presence at the programmes assured us and helped our focus. We think that we cannot speak about our achievements without mentioning their contributions. We at this moment want to appreciate JDBF for the opportunity. It was quite a great moment for the partners and has indeed enhanced our capacities to take on greater projects.

Contact person for the Project: Tor Iorapuu Ph.D (Executive Director)

SUBMITTED TO

The Resident Representative

Anand Kumar

Election Project Manager

Plot 617/618 Diplomatic Zone

Central Area District, FCT, ABUJA