YIPPEE!!! AM A NESIF FELLOW.
“Dear Micah, On the behalf of North East Regional Initiative (NERI), I am pleased to inform you that you have been chosen to participate in the North East Social Innovation Fellowship (NESIF).” This was the good news that greeted me on a beautiful Monday morning of 19th January 2018. Well, that wasn’t the beginning of the journey, it started over a year ago when I saw the opportunity and submitted my application but wasn’t accepted (this is a story for another day). Shortly after receiving that email, I got a call one Madam Dianaobong who called to confirm if I received the email and instruct me on what I need to do as stated in the email. The correspondence between us continues till date. Few weeks later I got informed of the scheduled inaugural meeting in Yola, well, not just anywhere in Yola but American University of Nigeria (AUN) Hotel. On 4th March 2018, I arrived the venue at around 5pm and was well received by the receptionist who took me to my room and served me water. Later that evening, I came down to the reception where I start networking with other fellows who arrived and other guest at the hotel.
On Monday morning, I woke up very energetic, hopeful and expectant. At 6:30am I had already took my bath, dressed up and came down to the reception to receive direction/information regarding the day’s event. Few minutes later, we were asked to go to the restaurant and take our breakfast, thereafter, we went to the conference hall where we will be meeting through out the week for the induction/inauguration training. On entrance in to the hall where I will register my presence, receive my ID card, backpack containing resource materials I will be using, a lady sitting there, smiled at me and call me by name, I smiled back and greeted her while I write my name, I was wondering if I had met her before or how she managed to identify me by name. Later that morning, I learnt that she is the same Madam Diana that I have been communicating with since the day I got my congratulatory email, well, little did I know that I wasn’t the only who had that experience with her, to describe Madam Diana in a sentence, “She is someone who knows her job and is very good at it”
Few minute later, the event started with Mrs Kusan welcoming us, introduce herself, introduce some of the faculty present and we also had the opportunity to interact with each other and introduce ourselves also. During that session, I sat down quietly as I listen to the other 44 fellows tell us who they are, what they do, they like and what they are passionately working to address in their community. I was very inspired by what they do and achieved and at a point, I was wondering if am qualified to be in that room (LOL). Generally, I felt privileged to be there and also challenged to step up my game.
Mr John Onyeukwu (Deputy Chief of Party, NERI) later took the stage and spoke some wise words to us before introducing the Director, Centre for Social Justice @Censoj, Mr Eze Onyekpere and later Honorable Commissioner for Information, Adamawa State, Alhaji Ahmad Sajoh. They both congratulate us, inspired us and challenged us to make effective use of the opportunity given to us. The commissioner also spoke about the challenges at hand and advised on what we need to do to contribute towards solving them. The session was followed by official photo-shots with the commissioner, signing of the fellowship charter, distribution of the books for our book club meeting, MediaPad to be used during the fellowship and collection of certificate.
On the second day, we had several sessions which include with Madam Grace Danladi who is our book club facilitator where she spoke to us about the book club, why it is an integral part of the fellowship and how it will be facilitated, we also reviewed some of the books we read earlier in groups and make a presentation (in Poetry or Drama form) on what the book is all about and the lesson within. Mr Sheriff Khatib (Chief of Party, NERI) Later spoke to us and motivated us. We also watch a video titled NO GOOD TURN, which spoke about the negative impact of insurgency in our community and the need to forgive.
Guess who I met on the third day? Abang Mercy @abangmercy, you heard me right. Well, if you don’t know her, close down your twitter account (LOL). She came and spoke to us on the effective use of social media platform. She was very resourceful and the session was educative. We ended the day with writing what we think should be done to #CounterViolentExtremism on placard and snapped with them.
My NERI Moment was when we were introduced to Mr Femi Longe who took us on the fourth and fifth day, speaking on Innovation and Social Enterprise. Mr Femi is one of the co-founders of Co-Creation Hub (CC-Hub) I have heard/read a lot about the organization and the impact their work have across the country and beyond, but little did I know I will be trained by him. He took us through several topics which include Innovation, Ideation, Design Thinking, Wicket Problem, social change and several others. To tell you that I learn a lot from his session is an understatement. I never wanted the session to end and I was wondering if we should have started that from the previous day (Wink). Well, I am so excited when we were told he will be coming back to complete his session during our next capacity building training.
Few thing I consciously kept doing during my stay at AUN is building my network, initiating and developing partnership and seek people’s opinion and contribution towards my work and ideas am working on implementing. I leverage on our lunch time to network while evening hours to socialized.
Finally, on Saturday 11th March, we departed to our various destination, well equip, motivated and determined to work in #CounteringViolentExtremism in the North East Nigeria. Am just waiting patiently for our next capacity building training. #NotAnotherNigerian