The GoNigeria Initiative, which encourages youth participation in the electoral process, has announced the names of young Nigerians who won the top 3 prizes in the GoNigeria Digital Comedy Challenge. The winners are Olanase Eniola Daniel who emerged as the Star prize winner of the competition with a cash prize of N1,000,000 (One Million Naira), as well as Bassey Stephen Ernest and, Justice Onyema Nwanchukwu who emerged as the first and second runners-up with cash prizes of N600,000 and N400,000 respectively. The Comedy Challenge was organized to further boost the public enlightenment campaign being orchestrated by GoNigeria. The latter is an advocacy group initiated by Anap Foundation and which seeks to sensitize Nigerian youths to register to vote, obtain their PVCs and participate in the electoral processes during the 2023 General Elections.
The online comedy contest which ran from Friday, 22 April, 2022 to Friday, 13 May, 2022, was aimed at engaging Nigerian youths with a strong inclination in comedy to showcase their talents and be part of the ongoing GoNigeria advocacy campaign. Many a true word is said in jest and so numerous entries were funny, but all helped to boost the PVC drive.
The poster boy for the GoNigeria Comedy Challenge was renowned Actor, Content Creator and Activist Debo Adedayo (Mr.Macaroni), who is also a GoAmbassador. The digital competition offered persons between ages 18 to 34, an opportunity to create a 45 seconds comedy video while holding their Permanent Voters’ Cards [PVCs] or registration slip and encouraging other youths to go register and pick up their voters’ cards, whilst playing with the acronym PVC in the video, then posting their video using the hashtag #GoNigeriaComedyChallenge.
The objective was to encourage the youth demographic to register with the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), and collect their PVCs before the expiration of the Commission’s last Continuous Voter’s Registration [CVR] deadline of 30 June, 2022 in preparation for the 2023 General elections.
Mr Macaroni has admonished Nigerian youths to register and pick up their PVCs in several videos produced by him. He is at the forefront of celebrities and activists who are eager to see youths and participate more actively in the nation’s electoral processes, as their direct involvement in the 2023 general elections can be pivotal to reshaping the country’s political destiny.
GoNigeria is an initiative of Anap Foundation, a non-profit organization which is committed to promoting good governance. Via its GoNigeria Initiative, Anap Foundation has been partnering with Advocates and enlightened celebrities (GoAmbassadors), corporate bodies eager to support the Initiative via co-branding (GoPartners) as well as many enthusiastic young volunteers who will help to amplify the messaging to their age mates (GoVolunteers). The overall aim is to encourage Nigerian youths to register and vote en-masse in the 2023 General Elections.
The 18 Initial Advocates of the GoNigeria Movement are drawn from all the 6 geopolitical zones (3 from each zone). They are: Atedo Peterside (Convener), Aisha Yesufu, Nuruddeen Lemu, Dike Chukwumerije, Folarin Falana (Falz), Bishop Matthew Hassan-Kukah, Arunma Oteh, Hamzat Lawal, Tomiwa Aladekomo, Osita Chidoka, Dr. Tony Rapu, ‘Yemi Adamolekun, Muhammad Ali Pate, HH Muhammad Sanusi II, Dr. Salamatu Hussaini Suleiman, Kashim Ibrahim-Imam, Ayisha Osori and Ibrahim Dahiru Waziri.
Ojelabi, the publisher of Freelanews, is an award winning and professionally trained mass communicator and a recipient of the D9112 Superstar Icon Award, who writes ruthlessly about pop culture, religion, politics and entertainment.
