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.

Students doing their dance

Students participating in the projects doing their dance and cultural thing.
It was fun

Watch out for more details and pictures on this blog

Ogaga Maxwell

Nigeria

ARTS knows no culture, gender or religion

The project has been going on and the students are passionate about their ARTs work, we spent this week teaching students how to work with creative Arts materials and produce what is in their mind

And we have opened them up to the dimension of creative arts and how to communicate their minds through arts.

The students are excited and many of them are beginning to value their arts gift, a student of one of the polytechnic who saw the project banner came into the hall and volunteered to also assist us in teaching the students about the art project and how to work with paper.

Pictures we have attached are those of one of the arts class we were teaching and they were asked to do a practical work of the map of Africa and also to write about peace.

We have a little set back on the cultural dance because we now observed that most schools have not been very particular about cultural dances, so we have also as part of the project started carrying out enlighten campaign on the role of culture in peace building.

The beauty of what we are doing now is that, in the schools we also have Muslims and Christian students working together in their various arts project groups, this is aimed at passing a message that we can work together regardless of our differences and that ART truly can bring us together, because paints knows no gender, race or colour that is what we are projecting.

P.E.A.C.E. Project progresses to the next stage

Project Update

The students after going through their rounds of practicals from our peer instructors on Creative Arts, been able to express their thoughts and feelings through simple Arts and also going through the basics of Essay writing, they would this Saturday compete amongst themselves in the area of Creative Arts and also essay writing to know which of them would be able to express the best of what PEACE means to them.
Through the project funding we are making all materials free to them and the students are eager to show case what they have learnt.
The objective of teaching them this is that they can make the best of their emotions through the arts and use them as a tool for peace building and solving inter religious fights. Instead of drawing what will offend people (The case of the cartoon of Mohammed that drew wide spread criticism and almost a global case of violence) we can use arts for peace and also instead of writing stories against people in their classes or schools and other religion that can stir up strife and violence as young people we can turn that tool already.

Through the skills I learnt from the YAC course on Creative writing, I was able to also inform them on basic keys and shared with them the experience we had with the blog and also the importance of headlines and we encourage as many as have access to the internet to start blogging and they were greatly excited about the project.
A lot of school principal that their student could not participate were so angry that they have asked us if we can make it an annual event, increase the number of participating schools and also make room for more participants.

Jonathan using intimidation over Nigeria bombings: rivals

ABUJA (AFP) – Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan's political rivals on Tuesday accused him of intimidation and witchhunting as an aide of a former military ruler was questioned over last week's bomb blasts.

Ibrahim Babangida's campaign chief for the next year's presidential elections, Raymond Dokpesi, was questioned by the state intelligence agents, as Jonathan met with former militants who assured that they had no role in Friday's attacks that killed 12 people.

More than 60 former rebel commanders and fighters from the oil rich Niger Delta went to tell Jonathan they were not involved in twin car bomb attacks in the capital as the west African country hosted 50th independence anniversary celebrations.

The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND), in a statement claimed responsibility for the attacks.

MEND's former leader, Henry Okah was quickly arrested after the attacks in South Africa where he lives.

Four powerful politicians who are vying along with Jonathan for the ruling Peoples Democratic Party's ticket in next year's elections, said authorities' attempts to implicate Babangida's aide is a sign of intimidation.

"This latest attempt to demonise Dr Dokpesi and cast him in the mould of a terrorist is but a small part of an escalating culture of impunity, recklessness, intolerance and arbitrariness," said the politicians.

The statement was signed by Babangida and three other presidential hopefuls.

"We consider this as political witch-hunt," said Kassim Afegbua, Babangida's spokesman told AFP.

Jonathan is facing pressure from the four politicians amidst a row in the ruling party over whether to support him or a candidate from the mainly Muslim north.

The four are all Muslims while Jonathan is a southern Christian.

An unwritten PDP policy has long dictated that the party rotate its candidates between the Muslim north and predominantly Christian south every second term as a way of smoothing over ethnic, religious and social divides in the vast west African country.

Since president Umaru Yar'Adua, a Muslim, died before his first term was up, some argue another northern candidate should be chosen.

Meantime, Okah told the Qatar-based television station Al-Jazeera that he was arrested because he refused to play a part in implicating northern politicians in the bomb blast.

He said one of Jonathan's aide had called him and asked him to persuade MEND to retract its claim of responsibility for the Abuja attacks.

"They wanted to blame the attacks on northerners who are trying to fight against him (Jonathan) to come back as president. I declined to do this and a few hours later I was arrested," he said.

But Jonathan's office refuted Okah's claims as an "outright lie".

"He should face the charges and stop making frivolous claims," said Jonathan's spokesman Ima Niboro.

Jonathan has blamed the attacks on "a small terrorist group that resides outside Nigeria that was paid by some people."

On Tuesday dozens of former rebels visited Jonathan to tell him they played no role in the attacks.

"We are not part of the incident on the 1st of October," Government Ekpemupolo, popularly known as 'Tompolo', told Jonathan at a meeting that was open to journalists.

"MEND is not involved," said Tompolo, claiming to be a leader of MEND, the most prominent of several groups in Nigeria's southern oil-rich swamps.

"I'm happy that you are here as the actors and leaders of MEND, to tell Nigerians and the rest of the world that it is not MEND that did it," he told the former fighters.

P.E.A.C.E. Project commences with excitement

P.E.A.C.E PROJECT
(Peace Education, Arts and Cultural Empowerment).

The project kicked of with four schools participating and it was an awesome time as we had over 40 students in attendance.
One of the highlight of the project was the excitement in the face of the students as they came into the hall for the commencement of the project. One of the objective is to use culture and arts to foster peace and teach the message of peace.
This week the students were taught the basics of creative arts and essay writing. They were taught by Lemuel David-Ogaga a fine art student of University of Benin, Lucky Ogumah the project director of Dare 2 Dream Youth Initiative a creative gifted artist and Ese Erakpotobor a student of College of Education Warri, who taught them the basics of Essay writing. All the teachers are volunteer workers with Dare 2 Dream Youth Initiative and are fully part of the project.
The students next week would have a competition amongst themselves on how they can promote peace through their arts and the best essay writer would also be given an award.



The Cultural troupes of the school would also participate in the competition; this is to encourage the use of culture in our schools and amongst our students
FEEDBACK:
The students were excited about the project as for a long time as opposed to inter school fights they are now seeing positive competition amongst themselves and at the same time, working on their creative arts skills.
Principals of the students that attended were so happy with the project and they want us to make it an annual event, as more schools are interested in participating in the project.
Ogaga E. Maxwell
E.D Dare 2 Dream Youth Initiative
Warri, Delta State, Nigeria

P.E.A.C.E. (Peace Education, Arts and Culture Empowerment)

P.E.A.C.E. (Peace Education, Arts and Culture Empowerment)

Project description:

The project is aimed at reaching at least 200 secondary school students in the Niger delta region of Nigeria, Warri, Delta State specifically. The project seeks to use the tool of arts and culture to create awareness and the need for peaceful interreligious co-existence in the region amongst students who are emerging leaders. The project participants will be selected from seven different schools. They will have classes in Basic easy writing and also Creative arts skills. After classes a competition will be announced among the participants for a prize in the categories of the best peace essay writer and best creative art student. The project will be summarized with a one day summit where the winners will be awarded the prizes in two categories, with a cultural dance troupe competition amongst the seven schools and with three key lectures on Peace building & tolerance skills, Academics & Life building skills, Good governance and basic leadership lectures, including the importance of culture in peace building.

Week One:

The project have commenced and what we did this week was to buy the Arts materials and also contact the schools that will participant.

The schools just resumes, so activities are coming on gradually, but the students are excited about the project.

By next week we would have full details of the project.

FD Participant uses knowledge gained from FD Course to impact peers.

When I got in contact with the Youth Action for Change I knew it was going to be a lifetime experience that will positively impact my life. The introduction of courses during the FD project was of immense benefit, one of the courses we did then was on communications and writing especially on blogging.


Since the course I have been a blogger and an author of three books, August 14th specifically, I passed on the knowledge by organizing a creative writing workshop for young people and over 21 of them came from different locations around my region.
We had three guest lecturers the prominent been a USA best selling fiction author DR Sherri Lewis who was the main resource person and other includes Mr. Alexander Ighoro and Chima Ochemba.


The participants were happy about the course and requested for more of those forum to be created and were willing to sign up for an online course.
Ogaga E. Maxwell

Dare 2 Dream Youth Initiative
Warri, Delta State, Nigeria

FD participant attends The World Bank Global Youth Summit on Anti-Corruption in Brussels.

Background of GYAC engagement’s with Anti Corruption

On May 26th 2010 50 young people from across the globe convened in Brussels for an Anti corruption Convention. The three day convention saw the birth of Global Youth Against Corruption network.(GYAC). The group which comprised of civil society leaders, musicians and journalist sought to launch a fascinating anti corruption campaign initiative.
Throughout the convention the 50 young people without hesitation and doubts agreed on a number of things: ……..
Corruption is a complex social, political and economical phenomenon that affects all countries. How to define corruption is a bedeviling question since essentially there is no single comprehensive and universal accepted definition and secondly it’s difficult to get a definition that is devoid of the moral or normative judgment of the observer.
Corruption imposes substantial and widespread societal costs, impending economic development, limiting the Efficiency of public services and weakening political institutions by undermining trust in the government. Corruption has further ramifications, when corrupts leaders waste aid money, siphon national resources and build up foreign debt development is hindered and common people are deprived of basic services and any economic strategy geared to lifting them from the yokes of poverty lives them in an even worse state.
Far from being a Victimless crime corruption infringes the fundamental human right to fair treatment. All persons are entitled to be treated equally and when one person bribes a public official he acquires a privileges status in relation to others that person denies the others the right to equal treatment. Furthermore Corruption leads to infringement of civil and political Rights this happens when electoral process is interfered with and when leaders are perceived as being corrupt become afraid to involve the people in decision making process thus denying them space to participate in governance.
They also agreed that cannot be tackled in isolation from other issues and this lead to the formation of five thematic scopes:

Thematic Scope and FOCUS of GYAC
Fighting Corruption in Resource-Rich Countries
Promoting Youth Participation in Governance
Monitoring Elections and Protecting Human Rights
Building Ethics and Integrity of the Next Generation
Fighting Corruption in Service Deliveries

And since corruption is a joint problem for the developed and developing counties the Geographical focus of GYAC covers 6 regions:
The Geographical Scope and Focus of GYAC
• Africa
• East Asia
• Asia Pacific
• Middle East
• Latin America
• Europe

Output and outcomes expected from GYAC
• Increased networking and collaboration with other youth groups championing a similar cause
• Extensive use of ICT in anti Corruption campaign
• Coordination of Anti corruption initiative in the 6 geographical areas
• Employment of culture in ant Corruption campaigns

COMMUNIQUÉ YOUTH SUMMIT ON THE 2011 GENERAL ELECTIONS

COMMUNIQUÉ

YOUTH SUMMIT ON THE 2011 GENERAL ELECTIONS

Preamble:

On April 28, 2010; youth organizations from the 36 states of the federation held a one-day summit on the 2011 elections with support from the International Republican Institute (IRI). The summit took place at the Asaa Pyramid Hotel, Kaduna. The event provided an opportunity for us, the Nigerian youth, to acquire knowledge on the rights and privileges we have to responsibly participate in the 2011 elections. The presentations and discussions at the workshop enriched our understanding of the responsibility we have as the future leaders of our country to positively contribute our quota towards achieving peaceful and credible elections in 2011. In addition to this were able to identify a number of things we can do, like civic education, to improve the participation of our peers in the up general elections.

The summit facilitated group discussions which focused on why and how Nigerian youth can get involved with political parties, what we can do about civic education, how we can contribute to peaceful elections in 2011 and how to monitor the entire 2011 electoral process and ensure its credibility. Our discussions were guided by some local, regional and international legal instruments, like the 1999 constitution, the African Youth Charter, the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948), the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (1976), the United Nations World Program of Action Youth to the Year 2000 and beyond.

Observations

Youth at the summit made the following observations:

1. Participants noted, discussed and identified the participatory right of youths in the general elections in Nigeria as provided by enabling laws.

2. Participants also identified, discussed and established the responsibilities of the youths to the state.

3. The participants noted that the leaders of Nigeria have failed to pass on to the youth good legacies, standards, and morals that will serve as a foundations for them to build better leadership; whereas youths are meant to be a vanguard of trust for elections not just in Nigeria but in all the countries of the world.

4. Participants admitted that there has been a great reluctance by the youth to take actions to ensure that they make concrete inputs in the electoral and leadership processes of the country.

5. The summit observed that there is a low appreciation of the need to embrace networking as a means of engineering lasting change in the Nigeria’s political processes.

6. Participants observed that a high percentage of Nigerian youth did not have valid voters cards, and stood the risk of not being able to vote in the 2011 general elections

7. Participating youth at the summit also observed that quite a number youth were not registered members of political parties and could not exploit the platform of any Nigeria’s 57 political parties to contest elections.


8. Summit participants noted that Nigerian youth have so far failed to utilize the knowledge and skills gained at workshops in the development and implementation strategy-based interventions in the electoral process.

9. During the discussions, it was clearly highlighted that there exist an absence of local structures of political relevance in Nigeria.

10. Participants lamented the low publicity and visibility of youth programmes and called on youth organizations to seek the assistance of development agencies like IRI to correct the anomalies

11. The participants observed that contrary to the request of the youth that the age benchmark for qualification to run for elective positions be reduced, the National Assembly passed the opposite by increasing the age benchmark. The youth’s request on this matter was contained in a memorandum they presented at the National Assembly public hearings on constitutional reform.

Recommendations

Having considered our discussions at the summit and stating necessary observations, we the Nigerian youth from the 36 states of the federation and the Federal Capital Territory resolve as follows:

1. There is an immediate need to further sensitize the youths on their rights in the 2011 general elections as provided by the enabling laws.

2. The Nigerian youth must answer the clarion call of dutifully exercising the responsibilities of a citizen to the state.

3. The youth must assume a leading role and serve as the vanguard of trust for every phase of elections in Nigeria

4. The youth should make emphatic inputs into the electoral and leadership processes of the country.

5. Measures should be put in place to ensure that the youth embrace participatory networking

6. That all youths should get registered to vote during elections to be directly involved in the election of their leaders.

7. We resolve also that youths should join political parties i.e. become card-carrying members of the parties to have a stronger influence on the political process.


8. That youth; especially youth leaders should make maximum use of workshops and seminars deploying strategy-based interventions to promote active youth participation in the electoral process.

9. That local structure of political relevance should be put in place in Nigeria by the government and the development agencies.

10. That youth organizations should engage more time and energy to liaise with development agencies and bodies like IRI, NED and NDI e.t.c to promote their activities

11. The youth should mobilize themselves to lobby their representatives in the state Houses of Assembly as well as trying other available options permissible under our law to ensure that the age limit for contestants into elective offices is reduced

Motion for Adoption of Communiqué

Moved by Nentawe Gomiyar of the Youth Advancement Initiative, Nassarawa road, Kaduna

Seconded by Ogaga Maxwell of the Dare 2 Dream Youth Initiative, Warri, Delta state.

Communiqué put to vote and unanimously adopted by 4:30 pm on April 28, 2010.

YOUTH SUMMIT ON THE 2011 ELECTIONS

YOUTH SUMMIT ON THE 2011 ELECTIONS
@ Asaa Pyramid Hotel, Kaduna

Had a great time in Kaduna, connected with some old great friends and the DESPLAY family guys and also made new friends and expanded my network.
The Ancient city of Kaduna is a great city and I really enjoyed my stay.
The summit focused on 2011 elections, had an awesome opening speech by Bola Abimbola- Youngstars Jos. And Dr Mourtada Deme-IRI Country Director
The issue surrounding Youth and Elections was the high point of the one day summit, Dr Sadeeque Abba of the University of Abuja, set fire in our bones.
He said “the Nigerian youth have come to a point of frustration and compromise” but we have the opportunity to take 2011 in our hands. Gowon at 29 became a leader; Murtala Mohammed at 35 became a leader.
There are no elections without youths he said. Societies, nations and organizations are transformed by youths.
The way forward we need to Educate ad Enlighten ourselves as young people and then collaborate to set up platforms for youth engagement, because you would always need a platform.
The last quote was food for thought “There wise will suffer the rules of the fools if they cannot stand” Aristotle.
It is time for Nigerian youths to stand u, we cannot suffer the rules of any one who is not passionate about youth development and sustainable development.
The rights and responsibilities of the youths in 2011 elections was the focal point of discussion, and strategies were developed by various groups.
Nigeria Youths! Arise O Compatriot.


Ogaga E. Maxwell
Delta State Delegate
IRI Youth Summit on 2011 Elections,

FD Pproject chosen for National Exhibition

Hi All,
My Sports Peace for Peace project have been chosen as one of the 70 projects for a National exhibition in Abuja
YOUTH WORK AWARD EXHIBITION ABUJA:

On behalf of the board and management of Youngstars Development Initiative (Youngstars Foundation) Jos, and Federal Ministry of Youth Development Abuja. I write with great delight to notify you that after a careful review of your responses to the “Youth Works Exhibition and Top 12 Award” application exercise, you have been offered a final Invitation to participate in the above mention events schedule to take place at the Conference Hall of Sheraton Hotel Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Abuja from Thursday 12th and Friday 13th November 2009.

As you are aware, the Youth Works Exhibition is designed to showcase young and emerging Nigeria change makers that are very passionate about the development of Nigeria demonstrated through their community impact projects between January 2008 to June During the exhibition, about 70 young people would exhibit their projects from 10am to 1:30pm for a break after which the Top 12 Awards commence in earnest by 2:30pm to be led by the Hon. Minister of Youth Development and other dignitaries.

As one of the selected youths, this is a rare and life time opportunity to showcase your project and demonstrate your ability as a key contributor to the Nigeria nation. A Youth Works Photo Book 2009 is also being published to be distributed locally and internationally. Your selection has also given you a full page in the publication where your picture would be displayed and a short profile of your program and your email contact for those who may desire to reach you. We are as excited about this project as you are also.

Hey I am so glad and kudos to Forgotten Diaries

DLTW CSOG 2009!

The Africa Leadership Forum (ALF) Ota, Nigeria hosted a Democratic Leadership Training Workshop for CSOs, CBOs, and FBOs on October 5th-9th 2009.The Workshop which brought together youth activists working on various areas of ICTs, Peace and Conflict resolution, Education, HIV/AIDS and Governance. The training featured sessions on the following concepts, understanding leadership, liberal democracy, Ethics and Values as well as Leadership tools.

Esther Eshiet represented the FD project at the workshop, she spoke about the project and its activities and encouraged other participants to follow the project on its website and other project tools.

LIP Debriefing Workshop-Ota, Nigeria

From September 28th -29th 2009,the African Leadership Forum (ALF) held the Debriefing workshop for participants of the Legislative Internship Programme(LIP).After the successful completion of their 21-day internship at the various Houses of Assemblies, participants converged at Ota, to share experiences and lessons learnt, review plans for the future and work out ways of sustainability of the network created.

The training session featured topics on Planning a Political career, Understanding Party politics, Volunteerism, Mobilization Strategies and Skills as a politician, Strategies for becoming a Parliamentary support Staff and Understanding Party Politics.
The various state teams presented their reports, Esther Eshiet presented for Cross River State, the event was wrapped up by presentations of certificates and a farewell party.