The Story So Far.
If my life were a book, then an entire chapter would be dedicated to the Lagos Model United Nations and its impact on me.
I first participated in LMUN in 2019. I was a bright-eyed 200-level student who heard about the conference from seniors in the faculty and decided to attend with her friends. It was both exciting and nerve-wracking. For the 3-day duration of that conference, I felt my chest float with the exhilaration of being part of something larger than life, and on the final day, as I stood outside the closing ceremony hall, clutching my position paper award to my chest (because I was too shy to speak in my committee sessions and could only win an award associated with writing), I observed the sheer brilliance of people in motion — dancing, moving to get food, walking and talking and the realization hit me that the feeling I felt was love. I loved LMUN, and I wanted to devote my time to it.
So I did. I participated the next year, 2020, as a delegate in the Food and Agriculture committee. Now more confident, I won a series of awards. In 2021, I applied to be a staff member for the first time and was assigned the role of Vice Chair of the United Nations Institute for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN Women). At the end of the conference, I won the best staff award and was also appointed as the Deputy Secretary General for the 2022 conference year. This marked the start of my journey overseeing the training of the substance staff and delegates.
Unfortunately, ASUU went on strike, and public universities shut down, extending what should have been a > one-year preparation timeline to nearly two years. We were forced to stay home for eight months, and this severely impacted our work. Staff members grew apathetic, and several dropped out. Companies we reached out to for funding questioned our ability to hold the conference due to the uncertainty surrounding resumption. For many members of the Upper Secretariat, who had never held these positions before, including myself, our challenges were very unique and sometimes overwhelmed us.
Thankfully, I was fortunate to have an amazing substance team devoted to the work at hand: Gloria Alonge, Rahmat Suenu, Tunmise Okegbemi and Ayooluwa Adekoje. The synergy and the brilliance of their efforts made the job of overseeing the substance staff, editing the background guides and prep materials, and training staff and delegates easier for me to handle. They deserve all the flowers. Brilliant, brilliant people.
When school activities resumed in late 2022, we kicked off actively planning towards the conference again and scheduled the new date for the 14th-16th of July 2023. There was this sensation of being rushed as we went through exams and the flurry of activities typically associated with the second semester of most public universities. Eventually, the first day of the conference came, the second day, and the third and final day.
I remember sitting in the closing ceremony hall, exhausted, as delegates were called out from each committee to accept their awards. It was a full circle moment for me — seeing the looks on their faces, the sheer excitement of having achieved something worthwhile. At that moment, it was all worth it — the sleepless nights and constant fires we had to put out for the duration of the conference. I went back to 2019, winning my first award, the applause that thundered around me as I walked to the stage and the pride that welled in my belly because I did that. I knew delegates had felt the same way too.
LMUN was the most difficult thing I had to do in July, mostly because of the length of time it took and the level of responsibility it required on my part. I am thankful to everyone that made it a success, most especially the members of the Upper Secretariat, who were present every step of the way and did all they could to ensure that the conference was a success.
The Future
My journey with LMUN is not over yet, as I was appointed Secretary General at the closing ceremony. This means one more year of giving delegates an experience that would stir up their lives the way it did mine. I am excited but also very conscious of the amount of work it would take to provide a great conference experience. There is so much we want to do. So much we want to achieve. Luckily, I have the best people on my team, and I am 100% confident in our ability to spin magic.
It takes more than a village, and we would need A LOT of support, so if you are reading this and would like to assist LMUN financially or with services, feel free to send me an e-mail — treasureokure@gmail.com.
Looking forward to hearing from you!
For more information, visit our website: https://lmun.ng/
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Thank you for reading the third part of this series on the events I organized in the month of July. To read the first part, click here. For the second, click here.
