Seminar
Details
The Konrad Adenauer Foundation is supporting the elections in various ways. Amongst other initiatives there will be a series of education events with the topic “Free elections in the democracy - rights and responsibilities of its citizens”. Participants are multipliers in the field of adult education in Cross River State.
Seminar Report
By Dr. Kenneth Achu, Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung, Abuja
The evaluation of the workshop is based on the quality of the organisation and implementation of the programme, the quality of the resource persons, the quality of the participants and the outcome of the workshop.
a) Quality of the organisation and implementation of programme:
The workshop was to about 70% well organised. The 30% failure is largely due to events that were not within the control of the organisers. These matters were sorted out satisfactorily by the organisers.
b) The quality of the resource persons:
There were in all four resource persons and two facilitators. There were two well known lawyers in Calabar, a Commissioner of the Cross River Independent Electoral Commission (CROSIEC) and Mrs. Arikpo as resource persons while Mrs. Agada and Mr. Neoi facilitated the group works and other practical sessions.
The presentations made and the interactions between the resource persons and the participants were of good quality. Even though most of the presentations were still handwritten, all the resource persons promised the organisers to submit their written presentations within two weeks after the workshop.
c) Quality of participants:
The participants were multipliers. Almost all the participants were local/community leaders of political parties and various interest groups. Of the sixty six invited, an impressive fifty-six turned up and about fifteen of them are aspirants to various elective posts in the upcoming elections. The four most visible parties in Cross River State (PDP, NDP, AD, PRP) were represented. The participants are between 35 and forty five years of age with about 35% women and 65% men. The contributions of the participants can be rated as good. Of course there was evidence of the need for more training. More can clearly be done with this target group.
Interactions with individual participants showed that they were quite enthusiastic and grateful for the opportunity to learn. There were indications from some of the participants to collaborate directly with KAF in order to extend the opportunity to their communities.
Even though NOSAD didn’t give out evaluation forms, the reporter was able to gather the critics of participants through individual conversations. Apart from a few who complained about the quality of one meal, they were generally satisfied with the content of the workshop and the quality of the resource persons invited.
NOSAD organised a pre- and a post test to evaluate the impact of the workshop on the participants. The results of these tests will be contained in the report from NOSAD.
d) Outcome of the workshop:
Apart from enlightenment of the participants the workshop had three main outcomes:
(i)Participants put together a catalogue of measures they undertake in order to ensure the emergence of credible candidates
(ii)Participants made a catalogue of criteria to qualify candidates for elective posts
(iii)Participants formed non-partisan coalitions to ensure the participation of only credible candidates during the elections.
While the two catalogues will be used as handy checklists for all the members of the coalition, the coalition is intended to provide a multi-partisan platform for whistle blowing against incredible candidates. The coalitions will be organised at local government levels covering the seven local governments of the southern senatorial district of Cross River State. Participants from each local government voted the coordinator of the coalition in their local government.
A first meeting between the seven coordinators and KAF/NOSAD was held on the 3rd of August 2006 in NOSAD office. The coordinators pledged to expand the coalition to include leaders of all parties and interest groups within the local government. They also pledged to submit a monthly report of their activities to NOSAD.
It can be concluded that the workshop was a success. It can also be said that the ratio of cost to outcome is very good. With a rigorous follow up on the results of the workshop, greater impact of the investment could be achieved.