Nigeria’s representative at this year’s United Nations Global Festival of Action for Sustainable Development, The Creative Youth Initiative Against Corruption (CYIAC) Corruption Busters, is the winner of the Innovator Category in Bonn, Germany.
The winners of the first UNSDG Action Awards were announced recently by the UN SDG Action Campaign, demonstrating the extraordinary momentum towards achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in various corners of the earth.
Founded by Foluke Michael, CYIAC anti-corruption awareness campaign “CYIAC Corruption Busters (CCB)” is targeted at the public in Nigeria to draw attention to corrupt practices associated with their everyday life and its unimaginable negative impact on individuals and society.
So far, it has reached over one million people through the CCB TV channel, social media engagement and “Corruption Busters goes to School”, a special school programme.
According to UN statement, the awards ceremony was held in tandem with the second edition of the Global Festival of Action for Sustainable Development in Bonn, Germany, and honored initiatives in the categories of communicator, connector, includer, innovator, mobiliser, storyteller, and visualiser.
“These are ‘Action’ Awards because we need more than words: our winners dared to believe and act for change. They are perfect examples of the wonderful work that’s happening around the world led by thousands, if not millions, of people”, said Mitchell Toomey, Global Director of the UN SDG Action Campaign.
The winning initiatives are fighting corruption in Nigeria, mobilising Belgians to implement the SDGs in their lives, empowering children through photography and digital skills in Bangladesh, promoting human rights education in Sri Lanka and much more. Evidencing the multi-sectoral engagement to achieve the SDGs, the winners span over private and public sectors, as well as civil society and grassroots movements.
Over 700 nominations from 125 countries in seven continents were submitted. An expert judging panel evaluated submissions against the degree to which actions were deemed to be transformative, inclusive and impactful.
In addition, an open vote was held on the website of the UN SDG Action Campaign where visitors could rate their favorite among the 38 finalists to win the People’s Choice Award.
“Great solutions for the world’s challenges can come from anywhere. We hope everyone is inspired by these stories and consider submitting their nominations for future Awards. These are the first winners of a community that will continue to grow,’’ said Toomey.
Other winners were Belgium –City of Ghent (Communicator), Ghana (Includer) Youth power accountability advocates/restless development, Morocco (Mobiliser) SDG Youth, Kenya (Visualiser) Global goals for local impact/open institute, United States (Connector) Unreasonable goals, Bangladesh/UK (Story teller) daughters of Bangladesh and Sri Lanka (People’s choice award) Road to rights.
Back home in Lagos, Nobel Laureate Prof Wole Soyinka hosted the winning team at Freedom Park, Broad Street Lagos during which the award was presented before a select audience by leader of the team Foluke Michael.
In her remark, Michael said Nigerians should no longer wait for the fight against corruption because the roadmap is already there and time is now. “Let’s make use of the political will of the administration to make Nigeria work again. And we the young generation have started,” she said.
She disclosed that the initiative is reaching out to all schools in the country for membership drive, noting that federal government has endorsed the campaign with the Minister of Information and Culture Alhaji Lai Mohammed pledged to give all supports.
“We are using musical in carrying out our campaigns. But, we still need the support of the main media in this campaign,” she added.
Sahara Reporters Publisher, Mr. Omoyele Sowore, who is an aspiring presidential candidate for 2019 election, tasked the youths to be politically active saying ‘the young people in Nigeria must rise to take power from the old generation.’
He expressed surprise at the omission of Senator Musiliu Obanikoro and former Abia State Governor Orji Uzor Kalu in the recently-released looters list by the Federal Government. This, he said, is not how to fight corruption.
Present at the reception were US Consular-General Mr. F John Bray and German Consular-General Ingo Albert.
Culled from The Nation
