By Oghenekevwe Laba
LAGOS APRIL 27TH (URHOBOTODAY)-“I have been receiving text messages from an organization under the auspices of Network for Good Governance (N4GG) asksing me to check pages of newspaper for information relating to good governance. How they got my telephone number remains a mystery. The good thing about them is that their activities have kept me abreast with the latest issue of governance in Nigeria,” 75 years old Onome Akpokrise, a farmer living in the rural area of Delta state disclosed.
Corroborating Akpokrise’s view, a Lagos lawyer and politician, Alhaji Isa Clark once wondered aloud in midst of his learned colleagues at Lagos State High Court Ikeja when he received an alert from N4GG asking him to read a Nigerian newspaper on activities of good government, Hear him, “The organizers of N4GG are doing a good job with their regular sms alert informing me of daily news activities on governance. Their monitoring activities on good governance will no doubt keep our rulers on their toes. It is a good method of check and balance.”

The two aforementioned statements from the two Nigerians are among millions of Nigerians who received sms alert almost on daily basis from a non-government organization under the aegis of Network for Good Governance (N4GG) whose mission is to monitor good governance and enlighten the masses on effectiveness of governance or otherwise through sms alert, newspapers publication and electronic media.
The effectiveness of the functions of N4GG is mainly based on Global Communication System (GSM) technology alerts which is a rallying point of all the other media in disseminating information to the masses either in rural, urban or Diaspora about the activities of government in fulfilling its electoral promises to the people.
N4GG, a brainchild of Hon. Sunny Onuesoke, former Governorship aspirant under The People’s Democratic Party (PDP) in 2007. It’s objectives are aimed at commending and improving governmental administration by seeking opinions from the masses and relating them to the current administrative system.

Onuesoke adopted the idea from former South African President, Late Nelson Mandela who used it to fight against bad governance and election in South Africa after he was released from prison. To start off, he brought technocrats and academicians both from within and in diaspora together. After brainstorming, they designed a test of reference, the purpose and the vision of the organisation. The idea behind it is purely to monitor good governance as well as to enlighten and equip the masses through the social and electronic media.
The organization is not a Nigerian affair alone. Onuesoke is the Country Director of the organization in Nigeria. The board of Director is headed by a French Activist, while a black American, Michael Egi, a staunch lover of Martin Luther King’s is a key sponsor of the organization in America.
N4GG had offices in the six geopolitical zone of Nigeria with its headquarters located in a strategic position along Udu Road, Warri, Delta State. The office is twin duplex with twelve rooms. The offices are fully equipped with state of the art office equipments which include modern computerization system linked to internet for collation and immediate dissemination of information to the masses. The equipments are manned by well trained specialists made up of seventeen staff placed on salaries, twenty seven volunteers and no fewer than sixty members of National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) who report for work during the weekends.

What attracts a first time visitor to the headquarters is large bill board adorning the pictures of President Goodluck Jonathan and Vice President Namadi Sambo with the inscriptions, “ N4GG Adopts Goodluck Jonathan and Namadi Sambo for 2015”, ”GEJ for 2015” and “N4GG Endorses Jonathan for 2015” among others. Two large bill boards were erected in front of the secretariat, while no fewer than six large advert format with similar inscribed messages posted on the walls of the headquarters. Jonathan and Sambo large formarts were positioned in every nooks and crannies inside the offices.
Responding to question on why the support for President Goodluck Jonathan in 2015, N4GG Country Director, Hon Sunny Onuesoke who said they sent an average ten million sms alert to the masses every day disclosed that they are supporting President Goodluck Jonathan administration because it encourages transparency.
“We encourage government that is transparent. We decided to support President Goodluck Jonathan’s government because of its transparency, because of its transformational agenda, because of its posture of accountability, touching the people with every form of infrastructural projects. President Goodluck Jonathan government is on track with its transformational agenda. I rate his achievement seventy five percent. Saboteurs who do want him to succeed and who are jealous of his antecedent try to destroy all his achievements. When we see government that is transparent we give him our support. Our media support, our moral support, our associate support and our value support.
“It is not only In Nigeria we support good governance. We are doing so to Zuma government in South-Africa. We partner with some American political opinion poll groups like ours.We do it in Ghana. We are in everywhere in Africa. We are trans-national. We are in support of the current leaders because we think what they are doing is real. People think because we have our operational base in Nigeria so all we do is about Nigeria. No, we are in United States. If Obama is doing good thing in America we come up with our support. Like the Obama Medicare project in America. We support that. But a lot of people do not know that. We have our branch in Massachusetts.
Throwing more light on why the organization had become the toast of the masses in term of information collation, dissemination and enlightenment on good governance, Onuesoke stated, “We use our GSM technology method to send GSM alert to get people acquainted because we found out that it is not everybody that could afford a hard copy newspaper or a cable transmitter operation on his own. So what we did was that we decided to breakdown our information spread to the barest minimum so that everyone in the rural areas should be able to be acquainted with GSM test messages about the function of good governance. Even if those in the rural area cannot read and write, they will always pass it over to their children to interpret the content of the test message on their telephone.
“We network for good governance reaching out to the people through all platforms. If you do not have the privilege to have a cable television, you should have the privilege to have a telephone. If you are not able to get the two, you should be able to have a newspaper at the cost of one hundred and fifty Naira per day. The force or the power behind it is a natural phenomenon because we try to acquaint the people about good governance. We taught the best thing to do is to reach out to the people and let the people know what it means.”
In an attempt to get further to the people, they have decided to establish a radio which would go on air soonest. He affirmed that they have paid almost seventy percent of the total cost of the radio station, adding that they are waiting for approval of the license from the Federal Government.
“We want to give people a shocker. We have paid almost seventy percent of our own radio station. We are waiting for approval of the license from the government. It is a modern FM station with latest radio power house station that will cover the nooks and crannies of Nigeria. It will be the first radio station that will travel approximately 2,000 kilometers axis. We have set up a committee headed by an American, Joe Hakins. We prayed that the Federal Government finally approves it. Then everybody could afford getting our information as there is small radio of one thousand Naira or two thousand Naira.
“You see, people need to be acquainted on what the formula of good governance is. The media has a role to play in democratic setting. Without the media, you cannot reach out nor do anything. People keep telling us what is our relationship with CNN and BBC among other global communication outfits? It comes naturally. They travel down to see our secretariat and what we are doing down here. People just come to observe our secretariat. They are both local and foreign journalists,” Onuesoke disclosed, adding that although they are mapping out plans to establish a television station that would run for 24 hours, but their present concentration is base on the radio station.
On the funding of the organization, Onuesoke revealed that although he commit his little money into the project, but quickly added that volunteers whoare funding the project.
Hear him, “The donations keep coming from volunteers and technocrats. We have a lot of guys who volunteer to give us fund to monitor good governance so as to get the people informed. We have got a lot of sponsors from all over the places. We do not know how the funds come. People just come and provide computers, T.shirts, bill boards and other amenities. But the question is that we do not know what make us to be thick and what make us to be great. It is an evolutionary process.”