The 2023 election presents another opportunity in history for Nigerians to elect political leaders that will redirect our country back to the path of wholesome progressive development.
At Civic Hive, we began a number of civic engagement and education initiatives, both online and offline, at the grassroots level to inform voters—particularly women, minorities, and those who are marginalised—about the numerous problems they should take into account when casting their ballots for new leaders.
We are concerned with the polarization in the polity, rather than being issue-based, election discussions have been riddled with ethnicity, religion, tribalism, and other identity factors. Our aim is to build conversations about important issues facing Nigeria at the moment and how we can mainstream this into the consciousness of the citizens.
Our mission is to educate the public on the importance of electing leaders based on competence, character, and significant antecedents that are not influenced by sentimental or ethnic factors. In particular, we want to focus on issues that propel us toward progressive growth.
This was why we hosted a book reading event tagged The Existential Conversation to host non-aligned spaces regarding those problems that endanger our budding democracy, growth, and togetherness as a country.
The Nigerian Economy (The Existential Questions)
On Aug 13, 2022, in partnership with RovingHeights Bookshop, we started the series by bringing thought leaders, economists and analysts to dissect the Nigeria economy and the issue of growth and development, particularly why it matters in the 2023 election. Our panelist includes Joachim MacEbong (Senior Analyst, SBM Intelligence), Odion Aleobua (CEO, Modium Communications), Oluseun Onigbinde (Author, The Existential Questions), Ayo Ladipo (Program Officer, Tracka), and the event was moderated by Temidayo Musa (Program Officer, Civic Hive).
Joachim explained how natural resources are one of the causes of issues in Zamfara and how critical thinking and nonpolitical decision-making may be used to address the issues our economy is currently experiencing.
On economy, Odion explained that “Nigeria has more gas than crude oil “Nigeria should be producing / harvesting gas rather than crude oil.” Odion stressed the importance of the need to get more people involved in governance as that we make more people involved in accountability and governance.