GV Board Elections 2017: Nwachukwu Egbunike

• Posted March 4, 2017 12:05 GMT
• Written by Nwachukwu Egbunike
• Read this post in Français, Malagasy

I am Nwachukwu Egbunike, a poet, publisher and social media researcher. I live and work in Ibadan, Nigeria.

I was nominated for the Global Voices board elections. I wish to serve as your Volunteers’ Representative in the GV Board.

I joined Global Voices in 2011 and I have written posts for GV, Advox and Rising Voices. Asides my work in GV’s news room, I have also collaborated in many projects in the community. For instance, I mentored a young Nigerian in 2012 through the GV/Action Aid Activista bloggers’ training. In 2012, barely a year in Global Voices, I proposed that GV authors should have a ‘voice’. This suggestion ignited a series of pre- and post-summit discussions (virtual and visual). We later conducted a community wide survey, collated our findings and submitted same to the core team. As group leader, our recommendations later morphed into The Bridge. I was one of the panelists that discussed “Occupy Everywhere” at the Global Voices Citizen Media Summit held in Nairobi, Kenya in June 2012.

In 2014, despite being then, the only GV author in Nigeria, I organized the first GV Meet-Up in Lagos. Working with the director of Rising Voices (Eddie Avila) and former Managing Editor of GV (Solana Larsen), I was able to strike a partnership with a university in Lagos, sold GV to Nigerian bloggers/digital activists and personally funded the event.

I was a member of the defunct Advox Core Group (2013 – 2014). With the arrest of the Ethiopian Zone9 bloggers, I worked closely with the regional editor of SSA and the Advox Director to place their plight on the global front burner. Our main strategy was through a social media campaign that took advantage of our diverse the GV community. I co-hosted the 1st African Global Tweetathon which held on May 14, 2014. This massive tweeting about #FreeZone9Bloggers that trended in various parts of the world was also picked up by mainstream media. This was followed by “They Have Names” series of posts on Advox which humanized the individual members of the Zone9 Bloggers Collective, who are incarcerated in Ethiopia on trumped up terror charges.  They have since been released.

Together with other core team GVers, we drafted and read out the Appeal to Free Citizen Journalists imprisoned across the world at the opening ceremony of our Citizen Media summit in Cebu, Philippines in January 2015.

My first Masters degree was in development communication and the second focused on social media and social movements. I am currently a PhD candidate with research interest in social media, youth political participation and ethnicity. I have published some papers in peer-reviewed journals and book chapters. I have written two books: Dyed Thoughts, a conversation in and from my Country (2012) and a collection of poems entitled, Blazing Moon; which placed second in the 2015 Association of Nigerian Authors Prize for Poetry.

We are Global Voices! – Serving you as Volunteers’ Representative on the Global Voices Board

During the 10th anniversary of Global Voices I wrote that:

What struck me and has remained remarkable till now, is the strong family spirit. It’s so natural that despite the great diversity, GV community was built on a strong respect of each individual’s opinion and also world views.

This essentially remains the basis of my commitment to Global Voices. This is also what I hope to bring to the Board. I hope to, together with others, to deepen the links that makes us a unique community. This in my view remains the foundation of our engagement in today's world. As a community we have to constantly serve as bridges that unite and not walls that divide.

I therefore seek your votes in order to serve you as a volunteers’ representative on the Global Voices Board. I assure you that I will put in the same commitment that has guided all aspects of my engagement within GV since 2011.

We are the Bridge, We are Global Voices!

With stories
We narrate history
With stories
We tell hidden tales

We’re the voice of the mute
We take it personal
We’re the Bridge
We’re Global Voices![1]

 

[1]  Nwachukwu Egbunike, “The Bridge” in Blazing Moon (2015), p 95