At Power Shift, we believe Nigerians deserve leaders who will serve and represent the interest of the communities – leaders who are concerned about the challenges that the community faces and willing to govern in a manner to provide effective solutions for the community. And it’s why developing public and political leadership, especially in the Nigeria, is one of our three key impact areas.
Crucially, this work is about more than winning one campaign at a time. Each election is an opportunity to bring more people into the progressive movement. From candidates and campaign staff to volunteers and organizers, we’re building leadership in our movement that can transform the face of power.
What We’re Doing
Building this kind of leadership has to start at the local level, so we support national- and state-based progressive organizations as they build collaborative leadership pipelines across the country. We help states identify new and emerging activists and leaders, train them to explore and advance their community leadership in a multitude of ways, and engage elected officials who are interested in co-governing with community organizations on the ground.
We believe that local organizations must be at the center of this effort to surface, recruit, and support civic leaders because they have the relationships and strategic perspective on opportunities. Our role is to provide the expert training, tools, and technical assistance that are extremely difficult to develop and resource at the local level.
While we are training and empowering today’s leaders and candidates, we are also building the bench for the future by developing diverse, progressive champions at the local, state and national level. We’re opening doors for those who never thought their leadership was possible, and teaching valuable electoral skills to both candidates and campaign staff.