Why I choose to DISCOVER

In the middle of a conversation about MNIA on Friday, I was asked, “why do you do this, why is this important to you?” I answered his question, but that question has stayed with me since then. I feel like I did not adequately express my WHY.

For those of you that are not familiar with the school system in Nigeria as in many other African countries, you pay for EVERYTHING. From pre-school till the very end of your schooling, essentially, education is a luxury that only the privileged few can afford. When we travel down into the villages and rural parts of Nigeria, in addition to affordability, we are now faced with the issues of accessibility and quality.

It becomes easier to detach ourselves from the reality of situations that our friends and families face back some the longer we remain in the Diaspora and makes lives for ourselves here. We feel like we are unaffected by what the average person unrelated to us has to deal with. Yet, more people are afraid to go home. Dejected by the conditions we return to, sometimes afraid to even go home, however, the reality is that we are all affected in one way or another.

One of my professors once said that “people are punished, and then they commit crimes”. That statement has stayed with me ever since and resonates more with me when I think about most of the social issues we face back home. People are suffering; there is a blatant disregard and disrespect of the citizens by our elected officials. As a society, we are apathetic to our neighbors, we simply do not care about each, and most importantly and sadly, we have failed our children.

I choose to discover because I believe in being my brother’s keeper. I choose to discover because I want my children to share in the pride that I feel to be a Nigerian. They say home is where the heart is. My heart is in Nigeria, I choose to discover because I want to be home. I choose to discover because it is our obligation to leave this place better than it was when we found it. The people who shed blood did just that. It is our turn to pass on that torch, most importantly; we can not and must not pass a dead torch to the next generation. We must re-ignite the torch before we attempt to pass it on. I choose to discover because I am tired of being a part of a society that punishes people unjustly for being born without a silver spoon. I choose to discover because I believe in the promise of a new Nigeria.


Queen Uchekwe
MNIA Team

Candid Questions with Dame Patience Jonathan

As you may know, Nigeria's very own, Dame Patience Jonathan (wife of Nigerian Vice President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan) is being honored on Saturday April 25, 2009 at the African Focus Awards. But with recognition comes responsibility. This is our chance to hold our people accountable!

We have to ask the tough, but necessary questions. We have to ask what they are doing for us and what they are doing for our future. We must question the time and effort they put into ending the disparities between people in Nigeria. We must interrogate the policies they adopt and the many ways they fail to help their people. We must bring our concerns to the forefront and with honesty and candidness ask why it is so difficult to get around the red tape (or should I say the green white and green tape) and provide HELP to my own people. We must ask why the governmental and non-governemental organizations (i.e. Ministry of Education) still exist when they cause more problems then solutions. And we must ALL get involved! Nigeria is not going to change unless WE do something about it and hold ourselves and, especially, our people of distinction to a standard worthy of respect.

What can you do? Ask questions! This is your opportunity to ask Dame Patience Jonathan questions that are relevant to the Nigerian movement, questions that hold her accountable and questions that you have been waiting to ask a person of distinction.

Sample questions:

• When you hear about atrocities and human rights violations committed against your people, what do you do and how do your remedy these situations?
• What are some of your interest and public involvements?
• Where do you see Nigeria in the next 5 years? 10 years? 50 years?
• What would be your contribution to the development of Nigeria in the next 10 years?
• How would you compare yourself to First Lady Michelle Obama?
• What is the wife of a Vice President responsible for? What do you do?
• What do you stand for?
• What will be your legacy?

We will gather all of the questions and present them to Dame Patience Jonathan when we meet her on April 25, 2009. Please submit your questions to me at ronke@missnigeriainamerica.org.

ALL SUBMISSIONS ARE DUE BY WEDNESDAY APRIL 22, 2009!!!

Love,

Ronke A. Oke
Miss Nigeria in America, 2008

Letter of Intent for Project WE - Discover

Tonight,

I believe we have come closer to achieving the first part of our objective and that is securing a girls' institution in Nigeria to assist with our objective of promoting education among women. As we wait for our questions to be answered, I cannot help but smile in my heart knowing how MNIA can help these girls take a step forward to acheiving thier dreams. Once we get all our feedback, I will introduce the name of the school and the reasons why this mission is very important to the reigning Miss Nigeria in America 2008 -Ronke Oke.

Another interesting aspect is that MNIA has booked 2 major meetings with 2 of the best PR in New York and Los Angeles. This will help promote our good deeds so that the rest of the world could join us in this fight for Education for Women in Nigeria.

Rememeber, I promised you all an insight into our journey of preparing for the launch of Project WE - DISCOVER. Keep reading!

Much love

ChiChi Dike
Executive Director
MNIA, Inc.

Progress Report for Project WE

So everyone is asking us, what is Project WE? Below is an excerpt of what Project WE stands for. Okay so I summarized it as follows:

Project Women’s Education (Project WE)
“Education and Literacy among Nigerian women”

Education among Nigerian women is one of the key objectives of MNIA, Inc. This program thus focuses on the advancement (Social, Financial and Sustainability) of the Nigerian woman through education. This project aims to assist women in rural villages and cities with funds to cover education costs. This will empower them through life’s struggles to forge on forward to attain the highest level of education with appropriate assistance. This program will aim at achieving the following:
~~Provision of scholarships for the less fortunate women in Nigeria.
~~Assist in providing school uniforms for deserving primary/secondary school girls.
~~Promotion of Women's teacher training programs.
~~Non formal education programs for adult women.
~~Initiation of a campaign to encourage parents in remote areas to send their daughters to school.

This is the founding program for MNIA and the reason, MNIA Inc. was started. I believe that when you educate a woman, you educate a nation. Wikipedia refers to education any act or experience that has a formative effect on the mind, character, or physical ability of an individual. In its technical sense, education is the process by which society, through schools, colleges, universities, and other institutions, deliberately transmits its cultural heritage--its accumulated knowledge, values, and skills--from one generation to another.

Having read that, can you imagine when the foundation of a nation is not educated? Can you imagine what the world will be like if there were no educated women?

Project WE takes a stand on the reasons why EDUCATION is very important for Nigerian women. It is our FIGHT!! It is our MISSION to continue to fight to ensure that the percentage of Nigerian Women who are educated is increased.

I cannot live in a world today were WOMEN EDUCATION is not a priority!

PROJECT WE will ensure that WOMEN EDUCATION becomes a priority in Nigeria and in the global world.!

By ChiChi Dike
Executive Director
MNIA, Inc.
Beverly Hills, CA

April is the month for Project WE (Women's Education) DISCOVER

There is a song that I really love - "Man in the Mirror" by Michael Jackson. The first verse and the chorus says:

I'm Gonna Make A Change
For Once In My Life
It's Gonna Feel Real Good, I'm Gonna Make A Difference
Gonna Make It Right .
As I, Turn Up The Collar On My Favourite Winter Coat
This Wind Is Blowin' My Mind
I See The Kids In The Street,With Not Enough To Eat
Who Am I, To Be Blind?Pretending Not To See Their Needs
A Summer's Disregard,
A Broken Bottle Top
And A One Man's Soul
They Follow Each Other On The Wind Ya' Know'
Cause They Got NowhereTo Go
That's Why I Want You ToKnow

I'm Starting With The Man In The Mirror
I'm Asking Him To Change His Ways
And No Message Could Have Been Any Clearer
If You Wanna Make The World A Better Place
Take A Look At Yourself, And Then Make A Change

If you read the words of this song, it's telling us that if we want to effect change, we gotta look out ourselves (Man/Woman in the Mirror) and change ourselves, our attitude towards things, our beliefs and our commitment to helping the less fortunate.

This April, we would take you through our journey on planning the implementation of Project Women's Education (WE). We would chronicle our efforts on finding the right approach to helping achieve the objective of the programs and our quest to bring this vision to life.

For more about Project WE and DISCOVER, please log on to http://www.missnigeriainamerica.org/

ChiChi Dike
Executive Director
MNIA, Inc.