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NNAH DOUGLAS Abuja
Angela Onuko Nmoh is the National Coordinator of the Nigeria Centenary
Social Media Platform (NCSMP) in the office of the Secretary to the Government
of the Federation (OSGF), barring in mind that Nigeria is on the verge of
celebrating the much publicized centenary celebration j in this interview
Angela sheds more light on how the centenary social media interactive platform
has impacted positively on Nigerian youths since it kicked off in 2013 and what
to expect in the coming year. Excerpt:
Nigeria is 100 years this year and the
publicity is all over that the Federal Government through the Secretary to the
Government of the Federation, Anyim Pius Anyim is putting all necessary
measures to make the event the mother of all celebrations but some critics have
come out to say that there is nothing to celebrate how would you respond to
this?
The Nigeria Centenary Social Media
Platform and the City Project was designed to celebrate our 100 years of
existence as a country, despite our diversity or uniqueness. In as much as we
are not perfect as a country yet, we are still together. For instance, I am
over 30 years old and I celebrate my birthday every year, even if I don’t celebrate
it, I mark it and for Nigeria to be 100 years and still together, is historical
and something that every patriotic Nigerian need to celebrate. As a typical
Nigerian citizen that I am, I promote our national symbol, like the Nigerian
national flag, if you go to my car, you will sight it there, it can be the
green white green symbol can also be seen pasted on my laptop and it is in my
house, I have tuned into the spirit of the celebration. For the fact that we
have come a long way, we deserve to pop Champaign because it is not easy to
achieve that feat; we have marked our golden jubilee as a country and silver
jubilee as well and now we have attained centenary. I still do not understand
why some Nigerians are not doing something in their own little way to key into
the spirit of centenary. We may be hungry but the fact that we are alive and
indivisible, it calls for us to be grateful to God and celebrate him our own
way. I say thank you God for giving Nigeria longevity which made it possible
for us to attain the ripe age of hundred. Most of us might not be opportune to
witness another centenary which is another 100 years so, this is the only 100
years we will be celebrating in our life time, why can’t we make the best use
of it?
We understand that the Nigerian Centenary Social Media Platform is
impacting so much in the life of the younger generation, what achievements have
been recorded so far?
As the coordinator of the social media
platform of the centenary, when I first came in I did a lot of consultation as regards
to the programme, and we discovered that most Nigerians have not cued into the
programme fully, we also discovered that the youths feeling that there was a
disconnect between them and the government, as a result, I asked the SGF that I
want to concentrate on a particular age limit especially from age 18 to 39
years old since they are the future leaders and knowing also that they lead in
their little ways, I did a lot to ensure that they start thinking Nigeria and
patriotism. Their mindset is what has the government done for them, some asked
what can the government do for them, we created a lot of awareness on the need
for the youths to contribute to the positive image of the country. Every one of
us is government because government is for the people by the people. I started
engaging them in competitions in Essays, history of Nigeria and those that are
outstanding win various awards which SGF presents to them. We used the
centenary celebration to get the youths thinking about Nigeria’s history and pride.
How many of these youths have benefitted from these awards?
The competition is done weekly online and any
time we get like 10 winners we bring them to the SGF for onward presentation of
their deserving gifts by the SGF. I want to categorically say here that we got
four winners abroad; one came all the way from Moscow in Russia, another from
the United Kingdom, India and South Africa apart from the 22 winners residing
in the country who went home with either I-pad or a laptop depending on their
choice. The competition is specially packaged for Nigerians irrespective of
where they live. Being that the world is a global village and going
computerized, we encouraged them to develop their IT skills.
No doubt, a cross section of Nigerians, particularly the youths have
lost confidence in the Nigerian project, they said that things are not working
as expected due to excess corruption in the polity, what is responsible for
this and how the country can come out of this quagmire?
The term corruption is being used by every
‘dick and harry’. I don’t think it is all about the government. Those in the
seat of authority are not aliens, they are Nigerians and they come from diverse
communities. For instance some people will accuse the police of taking bribes,
they are not aliens thrown from heaven, they relate to us one way or the other,
they are our friends, and neighbours. If you say that some people have lost
confidence in the Nigerian project as a result of corruption, I want to let you
know that those at the helm of affairs want to change things for the betterment
of the country. Painfully, it is you and I that are labelling them corrupt. For
instance, President Goodluck Jonathan is highly committed to transforming the
nation, if you have been following development effort made by Jonathan you will
see that a lot has been achieved in diverse sectors like power, road
rehabilitation, and railway, agriculture and youth employment. Some of them who
complain that things are not working, what they have done to make the country.
We should eschew from the mentality of complain and become contributors for
national growth, it is about you and I.
As the country is about to celebrate her 1st centenary what
advice do you have for Nigerians especially the youths?
If you go to our Facebook page, we have
recorded more than 20, 000 viewership and we have been able to change their
mindset, at first, they could not believe that what we are doing is real. My
advice to Nigerians especially the youths is for them to change their negative
comments about Nigeria, they should stop complaining, for instance, people
always complain of impatience of road users, but the same complainers who
complained that five lanes have been created are also guilty of creating the
sixth lane. We should stop complaining for once; I should do everything
possible to defend the country, think about the American concept of patriotism,
what can we do to adopt it, what can we do to make Nigeria work?
Can you also shed more light on the second phase of the ‘Thank God It’s
Centenary’ (TGIC) programme?
The TGIC programme will be coming both on and
off line, submission for entries is ongoing through the centenary email
account, at the moment, we have received thousands of entries and we are still
asking for more, we are going to do it in the 36 states and the FCT and it will
be done zonal, in South South zone it will be hosted in Bayelsa, in the
South East it will be done in Enugu, in Southwest, it will be done in Akure
while that North Central will be held in Markurdi and North East will hold in
Bauchi and one other state. Each of the states will get youths to compete about
Nigeria and its history which is expected to take the form of quiz competition
where each zone will have representative making up the zone and at the end of it
all, two winners are expected to emerge from a zone. Each of them will win two
hundred and fifty thousand naira, one hundred and fifty thousand naira and one
hundred thousand naira respectively from the six geo political zones. Finally,
one winner will emerge from the zones to compete for the grand title of
‘Centenary Genius’ and six of them will compete for the grand title where the
winner will walk away with one million naira plus ipad to complement it while
the next 1st Runner up will win half a million naira and the second
runner up will also mile home with N250.000 and a desktop and other consolation
prizes will also be given out. In addition to that, we will also take care of
their transportation; all the events have started already
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