Islamist Group Claims Responsibility for Nigeria Bombing

Militant Islamist group Boko Haram is claiming responsibility for a suicide bombing outside a police headquarters in Nigeria's capital, Abuja, Thursday. At least two people were killed and several others wounded in the blast.

Nigerian police spokesman Olusola Amore says the explosion struck the parking lot of a police headquarters Thursday morning, killing the suspected suicide bomber and a police traffic warden, and destroying at least 30 cars.

Amore said the explosion occurred when the traffic warden climbed into the bomber's vehicle to direct it to the parking lot to be searched.

"The criminal elements behind this dastardly act will be fished out as the government, the police and other security agencies will not succumb to the demands of any criminal group or individuals," said Amore.

The police spokesman said an investigation is underway, adding that police suspect the radical Nigerian group Boko Haram was behind the attack.

A spokesman for Boko Haram claimed responsibility for the explosion in an interview Thursday with VOA.

Spokesman Usman Alzawahiri says yes, the blast is their handiwork. We are behind it, he says, and we are going to attack the entire north and other parts of the country, including the capital, Abuja. He says Boko Haram personnel just returned from Somalia five days ago and have been scattered around northern parts of the country. He says they are advising everyone to be wary.

Earlier this week, the group had laid out its conditions for a ceasefire and government-proposed peace talks.

However, Alzawahiri told VOA that for the moment, those efforts at reconciliation had collapsed and security agencies should prepare for intensified attacks.

Boko Haram claimed responsibility earlier this month for a series of bombings that killed 16 people after President Goodluck Jonathan's inauguration.

The group is also blamed for the killings of Muslim and Christian religious leaders and at least three bomb attacks this month in Borno State.

The group's name in the Hausa language means "Western education in a sin." It seeks to undermine state authority and calls for the stricter application of sharia, or Islamic law, in Nigeria.

Ashoka Fellow & Young Global Leader Spends the Night mentoring Youths

In the days were a lot of people are so occupied enjoying their “success” and busy granting interviews all over. Kingsley N.T Bangwell stands out as one Nigerian youth leader who is passionate about raising other young people like himself, who can stand the test of time in the development world and who share the dream of a better Nigeria.
KNTB or Pastor K as he is popularly known in the DESPLAY community is the Executive Director of one the strongly emerging youth lead NGO’s on the African continent Youngstars Foundation, Jos, Nigeria (www.youngstars-foundation.org).. In 2007, he was elected as the first Nigerian youth to attend the prestigious Stanford Fellowship on Democracy and Development, and in 2008 he was selected into the prestigious ASHOKA Fellowship. Also, he was the only youth from Nigeria to be invited as a resource person and speaker during the 13th International Anti Corruption Conference in Greece organized by Transparency International. Recently, he was selected as the only Nigerian into the prestigious Young Global Leaders forum ‘09. The Young Global Leader award (YGL) is an honour bestowed by the World Economic Forum each year to recognize the 200 most distinguished young leaders below the age of 40 from around the world.

With such achievement he should be spending his night “studying” or preparing for his next trip or project, but not so, in the recent DESPLAY program Season 6 here at Grace Court Hotel, Abakaliki when he saw the need of young people and their desire in knowing how to build strong organizations for effective and sustainable work, he asked us to write questions regarding our various organizations and spent time after sessions in the night sharing with us his experiences ( mistakes & success ) when he started Youngstars Foundation I the early days.

We stayed deep into the night desiring to learn more as he shared with us the secret of his success. Some of the tips he shared with us were simple but profound:

The need to start small and not be ashamed.

Even if we are turned back let us not get discouraged.

Try to get registered even if it is with the state, make sure you have a legal backing

Develop a system, so when you are not around someone can get the job done.

Amongst other things, Youths from over 20 states in Nigeria and 2 Africa countries were represented. It was a night with the King. ( King Kingsley Nigeria most loved Youth development leader in my opinion). This goes once again to fulfill his heart desire to strengthen youth organizations.

Thank you Kingsley for a wonderful mentorship session.

Ogaga E. Maxwell
DESPLAY Africa President 09
URI Youth Ambassador for Africa 2011

FD Participant and URI Youth Ambassador attends Global Youth Summit in Nairobi, Kenya

Ogaga E. Maxwell the URI Youth Ambassador for 2011 African region and FD participant was one of the two Nigerian delegates to The 2nd Voices Against Corruption Forum, A global Youth Anti- Corruption event in Nairobi, Kenya that held at the Sakarasi Dome from April 27th – 29, 2011.

This forum was organized by The World Bank Institute and brought together close to one hundred young leaders from around the world, including civil society, musicians, journalist and ICT specialist to share knowledge, exchange ideas, and develop action plans to counter corruption and promote good governance in our individual countries.
The forum was highly productive as we had speakers from The UNDP, UNICEF, Transparency International and other resources person.

We were able to learn innovative ways to combat corruption and also I shared on the group that handled ‘Network strengthening and Structure” where one of our numerous task was to develop a Vision, mission and objectives for the GYAC Network, the hallmark was the successful installation of the GCB (Global Council Board) and the adoption of the GYAC objectives.

The forum also allowed us to learn from our peers as there were case studies presented by the team from the Asia Pacific region, Bulgaria and Sierra Leone not to talk of the various group sessions and brainstorming task that inspired us to new levels of intellectual engagements.

The forum was focused on us engaging with current ICT tools to improve the performance of our Anti-Corruption activities locally and also towards building a global synergy for young leaders fighting corruption and promoting good governance in their various nations.

The artistes treated us to Anti- Corruption songs and I am not in a hurry to forget the Kenya experience.

D2DYI Executtive Director Participates as Key Volunteer in National Election Project.

Ogaga E. Maxwell Dare 2 Dream Executive Director ,FD participant and URI Youth Ambassador Africa for 2011 was selected as part of the core volunteer team member of Youngstars Foundation, Jos in the national democratic project currently making waves in the nation “U Cant Swag My Vote” Naija Youth Power Concerts is a citizens and non partisan youth led initiative by Youngstars Foundation and funded by the International Republican Institute with support from USAID. It is primarily a get the vote out campaign towards a credible 2011 general elections in Nigeria, using Nigeria best music artist as the point of engagement with the Nigerian youth. The concert features Tuface Idibia, M.I, Banky W, Waje, J Martins, 2shots and Julius Agwu who are music stars who have not endorsed any candidate or political party.

The objective is to use music in mobilizing and building the confidence of youths and first time voters in the 2011 general elections so as to increase young people’s participation in the voting exercise, and to use the concert to share useful information and circulation of voters’ education materials as well as sensitize youth on the use of technology/social media to monitor and report election experiences, as well as campaign against election violence, thuggery and malpractices being perpetuated by youths during elections.

Begining from Sunday the 27th of March 2011, “U Cant Swag My Vote” Naija Youth Power Concerts will hold in 3 major cities with one message, which is get out and vote and vote well! The 3 cities are Lagos 27th, Benue 29th and Portharcourt 31st March 2011. Each concert is free of charge, starting at about 4pm to 8pm. Even though entrance is free, participants must sign I Pledge to Vote card to enter and those with voters card shall get free gift items among others.

Beyond just organizing the 3 concerts, we hope to send out bulk sms on each of the election day to those who attended the concerts to remind them of their pledge and to also ask them to report their experiences during the election through 2 phone lines using sms and pictures which we hope to stream live on each election days.

FD participant attends Reception of Under Secretary of State for Democracy and Global Affairs

Ogaga E. Maxwell FD participant and United Religious Initiative 2011 Youth Ambassador representing Africa in was part of the youth leaders invited by the The United States Ambassador to Nigeria Mr. Terence. P. McCulley to a Reception with The Honorable Ms. Maria Otero Under Secretary of State for Democracy and Global Affairs On Thursday March 3, 2011 at the residence of The U.S Ambassador.

The event which was aimed at creating a forum for young leaders to interact with the Under Secretary and also for her to meet with young youth leaders in Nigeria, as Nigeria prepares for her elections in April.

The Ambassador in his opening remarks stated what honour we had to host the Under Secretary and also that she was on a visit to strengthen democratic activities in nations such as Nigeria
She hinted the fact that it was time for young people to embrace positive change in terms of voting for the right candidate during the elections and also maintained that she was encouraged by the number of young people she saw doing positive things in the nation.
There was time for question and answer and it was a fulfilling time having such a wonderful interaction with both guests. The key issue raised during the interactive forum was the preparedness of Nigeria for the upcoming elections and also the active role youths have to play in making sure we make the needed change in the nation.
The issues of voter’s education, protection of our votes after elections and also citing the case of Egypt, Tunisia and other nations the role and power of Social Media in birthing change. The Under Secretary stressed that technology and social media has changed the face of politics and young people can take advantage of it for good, especially in the areas of election monitoring etc.

We also had some fun viewing the video “My Vote fit change Niaja” a video produced by Youngstars Foundation and Julius Agwu Foundation for Youths, which is aimed at educating voters on the need to vote for change. The Under Secretary was really pleased with youth activities in Nigeria
It was also time for social networking and also sharing with some few young people the values and principles of URI on a personal one on one level.

Youth Governance & Democratic Workshop in Aba, Abia State, Nigeria

Ogaga E. Maxwell an FD participant and a two – time FD grant recipient recently participated and served as the lead facilitator in a good governance and democracy training workshop in Aba, State, Niger Delta region of Nigeria.

The project Democracy Series: Participation-Learning and Active Youths (DESPLAY).DESPLAY is knowledge based and an activity oriented youth program that brings together youths from different African countries to deepen their democracy knowledge and foster active youth participation in good governance processes, since date their have been participant from Liberia, Ghana, Cameroon, South Africa and Nigeria. Since its inception in 2005, DESPLAY has directly trained over 300 youths across Africa. Uniquely, DESPLAY has a peer education transfer component that allows participants to train over 25 youths in their communities who did not have the opportunity to be part of DESPLAY training. This project is called pass it on (Pio)

The Aba state pass-it-on (PIO) was a 1-day workshop on “Engaging youths in the democratic process and understanding the role of Nigerian youths in sustained democracy and good governance” organized by Promise Ozuzu.

Ogaga E. Maxwell the lead resource person took on the subject “When governance works”, the workshop was held at the NMA Hall of the Abia State University Teaching Hospital and in attendance were 40 Medical students, nurses and clinical students of the institution,

The aim was to encourage young people in the filed of medicine to participate in the areas of good governance and contribute their quote to democratization, good governance in Nigeria.

After the presentations, their was a break out session, where they were asked to suggest practical and pragmatic ways in which young people can be involved in governance and contribute positively, it was an interesting time as they brain stormed and came out with practical ways in which young people can contribute to good governance.

There was experience sharing and an interactive session for questions and answer.

Participants were also referred to several websites that could help them in their course for further growth in the areas of youth participation this includes: Youth Action for Change, Youngstars Foundation, World Movement for Democracy, United Religions Initiative and Voices against corruption.

The project had the support of AFRIGROWTH Foundation, Youths for Good Governance, All Nigerian United Nations, Student, and Youth Association (ANUNSA-ABSUTH) and the URI Youth Ambassador project of Ogaga E. Maxwell as URI Youth Ambassador for 2011 representing Africa, where he briefly talked about United Religions Initiative, upcoming projects, and the goal of URI as it affects good governance.

Earlier on in the year precisely in January, Ogaga E. Maxwell has also served as one of the co-facilitator of the main DESPLAY programme in Minna , Niger State that saw 35 participant present from every state of Nigeria and from Ghana, Cameroon and South Africa as international delegate. This was a step down of the main programme in Minna, by one of the attending participant Promise Ozuzu.