Dec 10, 2010
(Please read this carefully especially if you are a nominee)
The organisers of The Future Awards (TFA) have found it necessary over the past weekend to make a public announcement re-detailing the judging process that produces the winners of this award and 
that have made it a coveted and credible process these past years.
TFA prides itself as being one of the more thorough, accountable and transparent award processes in the country, which is why – unlike many others – we publish the names of all of our judges as well as the details of how our winners are decided so that the press, public and nominees can interrogate and investigate the process and judge for themselves.
Over the four-year period, our judges including such distinguished persons as Dr. Reuben Abati, Mrs. Hafsat Abiola, Mrs. Siene Alwell-Brown, Mr. Muhtar Bakare, Mr. Segun Odegbami, Mr. Toni Kan, Mrs. Mo Abudu, Mr. Fela Durotoye, Dr. Yemi Osindero amongst others have ensured a process that is thorough and that can stand the test of time.
Below, again, is the process through which The Future Awards winners are decided:
1. Nominations are launched in October and are collected online over a period of two months. Anybody can nominate anyone they think deserved the awards.
2. The Central Working Committee reviews ALL the nominations, conducts independent research and selects 8 nominees per category; which is the long list.
3. There is a 2-week period when this long list is published online and in the media so that people can formally make complaints about age, false claims, and public policy concerns amongst others.
4. During this period, nominations forms are sent to ALL nominees to get details of their work and achievements. We also the offices of certain nominees, especially in the entrepreneurship categories, to inspect and confirm claims.
5. The Board of Judges, made up of 25 young journalists – drawn from The Guardian, Thisday, Daily Trust, The Punch etc – assesses the profiles and then and prunes down from the long list of 8 to a short list of 5 nominees per category. (Note that when any member of the board of judges is made a nominee, he/she immediately steps down from being a judge).
6. This short list goes to the Independent Audit Committee made up of 30 distinguished Nigerians, some of whom are mentioned above, and chaired by Dr. Reuben Abati, who is the chairman of the editorial board of The Guardian. They look at the profiles, thoroughly vet it from their professional distance, and select 3 nominees per category; those are the finalists.
7. This list goes back to the board of judges one week before the event – because we want young people to be the ones to make the final decision – who then decide the winners for each category.
This is a comprehensive, well thought out process that is time consuming and energy intensive – all for a reason. The reason for this process is to ensure that no one, not even the organisers, can tamper with the process. Checks and balances are available at any level, so that, even if there is an omission and one section of the process misses something out, the other process immediately corrects it.
After three years, we added another level to this, albeit reluctantly. We received numerous emails, phone calls, letters and online messages asking that we open up the award to voting; so that there can be more grassroots and people-power participation. After all, they said, if this was meant to inspire people, let them be a part of choosing their own role models. Whilst the organisers have always been suspicious of voting processes, and wanted to always ensure that no one sees this as a popularity contest, they saw reason with this angle of popular participation and so added a tiny bit of voting to the process.
Therefore, 50% of the FIRST STAGE of judging was opened up to voting. This means that, at the first stage, where the board of judges reduces from 8 nominees to 5, 50% of that process belongs to their decision, and 50% to the votes from the public.
To ensure that young people who are online and other Nigerians who are not online-based can participate, online and sms voting was introduced. The organisers also took a step towards by ensuring that the online vote is open to the public to monitor – to ensure that the values of transparency and accountability are emphasised.
However, because this is not a popularity process, they had to make sure that the voting aspect is balanced out: which is why the 50% judging was left. That means that the decision on who makes it to the next stage depends on THREE THINGS: online voting, sms voting, and the board of judges decision. The votes ALONE will NOT guarantee winning!
Therefore, if there is any nominee or nominee’s admirer who is not comfortable with the process, they can decide to stop voting now; they can decide to stop spending money on the sms-es, because the decision does not depend on that alone. This awards process is not interested in the voting revenue as much as we are interested in maintaining our integrity, credibility and sustainability. Because The Future Project is about contributing to Nigeria’s future.
If we say we want to change Nigeria and stop corruption and other such subversions of process, we must be committed to doing this differently. That is the future.
We thank everyone who has been part of this process so far! And please check the profiles of the nominees on the site this week!
So this is why my IBB nomination did not scale the first stage. This country is moving forward oh! All corrupt people, watch out!
well if TFA is not a popularity contest why not scap the sms because most people will vote themselves with money. i understand that TFA is doing everything posible to make the process credible but if onliine/sms takes 50% of the vote, its enough to give a nominee an upper edge if he/she votes with money.