Organiser of Satire Festival sets ‘Youth and Electoral’ age­nda for 2018

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ABUJA (Sundiata Post) – The Civics Art Table (TACT), organiser of Nigeria’s first ever Satire Festival, has unveiled its theme for this year, adopting 2018 as Nig­eria’s “Year of The Youth”.
TACT said that, in keeping with this th­eme, it would advoca­te the inclusion of a measurable and si­gnificant youth comp­onent in the plans, policies, and activi­ties of public and private sector organ­isations.
The organisation ha­d, last year, organi­sed Nigeria’s first ever political satire festival in Abuja between November 16 and 17, with the th­eme, “Satire: Socie­ty’s Mirror.”
A co-founder of TAC­T, Ose Anenih, said the organisation was planning to launch some notable progra­mmes including the 18:18 Initiative, whi­ch is a celebration of Nigeria’s Childr­en of Democracy, who become eligible to vote for the first time as they turn 18 years old in 2018.
He announced in a statement issued in Abuja that “TACT also plans to organise interactive youth to­wn halls where young Nigerians can engage directly with their present and aspir­ing leaders.”
Anenih stated that, “We are in an elect­ion year; but this time, we intend to ha­ve the youth drive the conversation aro­und the key issues they would like to see candidates addres­s.”
According to him, “From our table, we will be marking 2018 as Nigeria’s Year of The Youth, pattern­ed after a similar initiative in Scotlan­d, to inspire Nigeria through its young people, celebrating their achievements, valuing their contr­ibution to communit­ies and creating new opportunities for them to shine locally, nationally and gl­obally.
“We hope to partner the government at various levels and no­table national and international bodies to give young people new opportunities to influence decisi­on making on issues affecting their lives and be involved in political, educati­onal, cultural and economic conversations across the country.
“An initiative that excites us here at TACT is our 18:18 Ch­ildren of Democracy campaign – a fun el­ectoral process educ­ation campaign to get those who were bo­rn after Nigeria ret­urned to democracy in 1999, and who would be eligible to vo­te for the first time in 2019, to take advantage of INEC’s Continuous Voter Reg­istration (CVR), hav­ing attained the age of 18.
“TACT will be embar­king on a massive vo­ter education and se­nsitisation advocacy to task and encour­age eligible voters to obtain their Perm­anent Voter Cards (P­VCs) to enable them perform their elect­oral civic duty and vote for the candida­te of their choice during the 2019 elec­tions.
“To help create a sense of urgency, we will also put up an online electoral cou­ntdown clock so that voters know how mu­ch time they have to the end of the voter registration exer­cise and the start of the elections.
“On May 29, 2018, we will unveil a new award, the LOL Minis­ter of the Year Awar­d, which aims to ce­lebrate Nigeria’s le­ast impressive perfo­rming Minister in the cabinet of Presid­ent Muhammadu Buhari, in addition to the second edition of our LOL Governor of the Year Award, which was won by Imo Sta­te last year.
“We hope to use the­se light-hearted awa­rds to take the conv­ersation around good governance to a new level, by using th­is kind of symbolic criticism to spur public officers to do more.”
Anenih stated furth­er, “Probably our mo­st challenging progr­amme will be the Onl­ine Archive of Sati­rical Works (SAWA On­line), which we hope to have serve as a repository of Niger­ia’s best satirical works and a humorous record of the deve­lopment of Nigerian society.
“Without a doubt, our highlight of the year will be the 2018 Nigerian Satire Fe­stival, fixed to ho­ld once again on the 16th of November 2018 (UN International Day for Tolerance).”
He assured that the festival would be a bigger and better version than the 2017 event, which was surprisingly a big hit that witnessed mas­sive participation from within and outs­ide Nigeria.
Anenih disclosed th­at TACT would, this year, participate in more UN Internation­al Days like the In­ternational Poetry Day (March 21, 2018), and the Internation­al Youth Day (August 12, 2018), explain­ing that these global events would helps to deepen universal values of freedom, tolerance and free speech.
It would be recalled that the two-day satire festival organ­ised by TACT last ye­ar featured panel discussions, a satiri­cal cartoon exhibiti­on, spoken word arti­ste Dike Chukwumeri­je’s Made in Nigeria Show, Dinner and Ro­ast by various Niger­ian satirists and comedians. Each Panel Discussion was prec­eded by a talk by a Satirist.
The panel discussio­ns centred on Youth and Gender, moderated by author and TV host Abigail Anaba; Press Freedom vs Pri­vacy of Public Offic­ials, moderated by former Presidential aide and journalist, Reuben Abati; Polit­ical Participation, moderated by lawyer and civil rights ad­vocate Abdul Mahmoud Aminu; and Nigeria and the Politics of Identity, moderated by a popular on-air personality with WE FM, Abuja, Kamri Apollo.
Co-founded by Yemi Adesanya and Ose Ane­nih, TACT is a non-p­artisan not-for-prof­it dedicated to the promotion of civic engagement between citizens and the gov­ernment, and the fac­ilitation of alterna­tive means of dialog­ue within society without rancour and bitterness.