Big Brother Winner Laycon, Stars Host Music Festival To Mobilize Youths Vote in Abuja

By Sarauniya g Usman, Abuja

Nigerian celebrities including Big Brother Season 5 Winner, Laycon, Soul artist Falana, Big Brother star Anto Lecky, and Jola Ayeye, host of Nigeria’s most popular podcast ISaidWhatIsaid, led several stars and dozens of activists to mobilize young voters ahead of the upcoming Nigerian general elections in 2023 at a music festival and summit themed TheYVoteFest in Abuja.

The YVote Fest took place at the Blake Resort in Abuja with specially invited guests and featured elite performances, panel sessions featuring top activists and new media champions from across the country.
According to the event coordinator, Ijudaye Shettima, a program officer at Anvarie Tech, the YVote Fest is a “non-partisan democracy concert and summit that aims to motivate young people to engage and participate in the upcoming 2023 general elections in Nigeria.”

“With the 2023 Nigerian elections just around the corner, this might be the most crucial year in the lives of young Nigerians and as the decision we make will determine our future growth, and lay the ground for the coming generation.

We are living in really precarious times with Inflation, health pandemics, a broken literacy, economic and political structure, climate change, insecurity and the list goes on. Our individual and collective responsibility to respond to these issues cannot be understated.”

Big Brother’s Anto who gave the keynote speech raised the issues that the country faces today among which include insecurity, poor education systems and many more restrictions.

Jola Ayeye, Doreen Uloma Nwoke, Afolabi Adekaiyoja, and Friday Odeh joined Murtala Abdullahi who moderated the panel titled “securing our democratic freedoms”. The panel discussed the threats to democratic freedoms including the End SARS protest crackdown, the twitter ban and issues that framed the need for young people to vote and secure our democracy.

“If ever there is a time to vote, now is the time”, said David Adeleke, an editor at RestoftheWorld, who moderate the panel on ‘the urgency of voting now’. He was joined by other panelists including Aderinola Odugbesan-Thomas, Kasha Iliya, Khloe Umoh and Nimisire Emitomo.

A key highlight of the event was the joint performance by Big Brother’s Laycon and Falana where they performed their new single, ‘Freedom’ live for the very first time on any stage. The song that embodies the struggles of young nigerians and our collective thirst for change and urging people to vote. Other performers included Zilla Oaks, Isah the Prince, Tomi Obanure, Nvthy and Iyanu Adebiyi.

With young Nigerians making up to 70% of the population, it is critical that they understand the power of their collective voices. Event attendees left with a sense of urgency and committed to making their voices heard.

TheYVoteFest was sponsored by the National Endowment for Democracy Washington DC, USA and supported by other Nigerian organizations and partners including Gatefield, gst, Culture Custodian, and Femme Mag