Nigerians task on creativity for national development

The BudgIT has urged Nigerians to surmount the present challenges and explore their creativity to better the lots of the citizenry.

BudgIT’s Global Director, Oluseun Onigbinde, made the call at the formal lunch of the maiden edition of the ‘BudgIT Active Citizens Awards’ on Thursday in Abuja.

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According to him, the event scheduled to hold on 10 September, in Lagos, seeks to promote and recognize individuals and organizations doing tremendous humanitarian work in Nigeria.

He said that the award is one of BudgIT’s signature initiatives and efforts to spotlight and recognize personalities, organizations and agencies that are championing causes and initiatives that have positively influenced in the society.

He listed the areas as women’s rights, community service, disability rights and inclusion, political activism, civic engagement and action, journalism, human rights, effective service delivery and other gains of social activism in Nigeria.

“There is nothing more remarkable than recognizing personalities who do exceptional work within the civic ecosystem and are committed to ensuring citizens and government continually uphold the ideals of democracy.

“We believe that the Active Citizens Awards would stir more conversations on the need to entrench a culture of recognizing and celebrating the tremendous contributions of development leaders to effective governance and an active civic space in Nigeria,” Onigbinde said.

Also, Iyanu Fatoba Ag Head; Media, Communications and Creatives of the organisation, said the award will feature 10 categories, including the Oby Ezekwesili Award for Women Advocacy, Award for Community Service, Disability Rights Advocacy or Empowerment Award, Award for Institutional Transparency, and Art for Activism among others.

On nominations the organisation said that there are 10 categories of awards and that of these categories, only five are open to nominations from the public.

She said that a panel of selected judges will carefully select winners for the other five categories after thorough research and deliberations hinged on specific criteria and the selection process.

“The shortlist and winner of each category will only be considered based on the specified criteria including, innovation, impact, milestones, sustainability, diversity and inclusion, organizational structure and leadership quality,” Fatoba said.

On shortlisting and final selection, she said that after the nominations, all the submissions will be reviewed in a three-stage selection process by the selected panel of judges and that once the selection process has been completed, the final shortlist will consist of three individuals with the highest-grade points from each category.

She said that of these three, only one nominee will emerge as the winner in each category and would be announced during the awards event in Lagos.