SESSION I: Elections and New Media, Moving Forward
The First plenary Session was focused on “Nigerian Elections and New Media: Moving Forward”. Four discussants participated in this session with Amara Nwankpa of Enough is Enough as the moderator. The discussants include: Mohammed Kuna (INEC), Nike Adekanbi (IamLagos), Michael Best (Georgia Institute of Technology) and Prof. Attahiru Jega (INEC Chairman).
During the session, discussants expressed their views on how Social Media can be harnssed to create more credible elections in Nigeria. Nike Adekanbi told the participants about the IamLagos initiative and how it can be replicated in other States. The sessions ended with the discussants responding to numerous questions from the audience.
SESSION II: Engaging Government
As the title suggests, this session was aimed at examining “how government and other stakeholders can establish appropriate structures and platforms to take advantage of new media tools in driving transparency, accountability and public service delivery”.
The discussants were Caroline Sage (World Bank), Yemi Kiri (Open Government Pilot Project, Edo State), Tonye Isenah (Bayelsa State House of Assembly) and Paul Lenz (mySociety.org)
Yemi Kiri gave a details explanation on how the Edo State government is harnessing Technology to drive her open governance project. She made it known that nothing was happening technologically in the Edo State government before 2009. So, the goverment employed about 500 graduates to man the ICT projects of the state. She proceeded to show the audience the year 2020 vision of the Open Government Project in Edo State. Other discussants contributed, stressing how the government has and can create platform to provide adequate information to the people.
Governor Kayode Fayemi’s Session:
The Executive Governor of Ekiti State who was scheduled to speak at the dinner later in the evening arrived at the Conference during the second plenary session.
He gave statistics on how Ekiti State Government has been harnessing variuos Social Media tools (Facebook, Twitter and others). He further stressed the plans of Ekiti State in deploying usable technology to the people of Ekiti State. According to him, the government has a plan to lay fiber optic cable, first in the capital city and then to other parts of the states later. With a contagious smile, the Governor stated that their dream for Ekiti State is to make it the Bangalore of Nigeria.
I must state that the Conference is one of its kind. Do watch out for the Day 2 Recap. You can follow the live tweets using the hashtag #NGNewMedia on twitter and the live streaming here.
Photo Credit: Sunday Aghaeze (Chakam Images)
