Accountability Lab Nigeria Collaborates with Stakeholders to Train Music Artists on Integrity.
A CSO called Accountability Lab Nigeria has taken a bold step to encourage youth participation in governance by building unlikely networks through a unique project.
The Voice2Rep campaign, currently in its 3rd edition, identifies and supports music artists that are passionate about social change and support greater representation, participation and accountability across Nigeria. In 2021, 10 of these artists were enrolled in a 2-week boot camp in Lagos, where they were trained and mentored in business integrity and human rights, the theme for this years’ campaign.
Accountability Lab Nigeria collaborated with a couple of like-minded organisations to ensure proper guidance for these artists as they set to calibrate their music careers. The Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP), represented by the deputy country director Kolawole Oluwadare, trained these artists on the reality of human rights in Nigeria and the roles of the government, citizens & music artists in promoting it. In recent years, SERAP has been very active in promoting transparency, anti-corruption and legal protection for human rights.
Representative of FIDA Nigeria, Philomena Nneji, also gave the artists an exposition on human rights in the Nigerian context, encouraging them to keep using their music for social good.
Tracy Akpofure of the Oando foundation trained the Voice2Rep artists on Business integrity from the perspective of the development sector. She also elaborated on ways that organizations could maintain business integrity for the benefit of internal productivity and society at large.
Also on hand to mentor these artists on business integrity was the CEO and co-founder of Integrity Organisation, Soji Apampa, who pledged to support the 10 finalists in their journey to create songs addressing the issue.
The Voice2Rep campaign is done in collaboration with TASCK, Don’t Drop The Mic (DDTM) to support these finalists to release songs and music videos promoting business integrity and human rights.
Music Industry veterans that provided mentorship for the project include MI Abaga and Bez Idakula, as well as grammy nominated producer Malcom “Chopstix” Olagundoye.
