Perspective

“There is no excuse for bad behaviour,” said Affiong Williams of the Nigerian Youth network in Johannesburg, “Yes, things might have been bad for Nigerians that migrated here, but what is wrong is wrong and we must condemn it and begin to project positive values wherever we go.” Ms. Williams was passionately contributing to the discussion by young Nigerians living, schooling and working in South Africa, who were part of The Future Awards Johannesburg Town Hall meeting on the 28^th of November.

The international arm of the awards’ town hall meetings had the aim of interacting with and inspiring young Nigerians living in countries with substantial Nigerian populations.  Not only do the events have inspiring conversations and try and get widespread nominations for the awards, the event also seeks to spread the message for this year’s campaign themed “Representing Nigeria”.

The event, held at the Dio Bacco in Norwood and had in attendance, the MD of Lowe Lintas in Nigeria, Big Brother host IK Osakioduwa (who is a two time winner of the awards) and was held in conjunction with SA company Naijaborn.com.

London Town Hall Meeting

The Future Awards, in conjunction with HITV, which is sponsoring all the town hall meetings, also stormed the United Kingdom. The London Town Hall Meeting held at the University of East London, and was held with support from Oloja.com, MakeImpact led by former nominee Dayo Isreal, Godwin Odusanwho of the Nigerian Students Association and Joseph Britus of the International Students Association.

Held on Wednesday, the 18^th of November, it was an evening of brilliant discussions, music and comedy, and had in attendance the Ogun State Commissioner for Sports, who is an alumni of the school, amongst others.

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Since the beginning of this century, Africans and Africa have become a center of observations and expectations in so many areas of human development. And one facet that a lot of International communities have been showing a lot of interest is in the area of entrenching solid and uninterrupted democracy and good governance in Africa; where rule of law, massive infrastructural development, health care development, human friendly policy etc are prioritize at all level of governance. Yes, as Africa continue to take strides to become the continent of our dream, the issues of governance and leadership still remains one of the vital vehicles for attaining a more prosperous and better Africa. Interestingly, more young people who over the years have remain the bulk of the African population and the emerging leaders are showing more interest in issues of governance, leadership and development in the continent.

If you are one of such young Nigerians and Africans that share this sentiment of better democratization of the African continent, and also believe that you are one of the major stake holders in African development, then apply to participate in DESPLAY Season 5, democracy training program today. Youngstars Development Initiative (Youngstars Foundation) Nigeria, with support from the National Endowment for Democracy, NED USA, is glad to announce the call for application from young people across Africa for its foremost youth democracy and good governance program DESPLAY, beginning in January 2010.  Democracy Series: Participation – Learning and Active Youths (DESPLAY) is a knowledge based and activity oriented youth program that brings together youths from different places to deepen their democracy knowledge and foster active youth participation in good governance processes. Since 2005, DESPLAY has directly trained over 300 youths from Nigeria, Ghana, and Cameroon and over 3000 youths indirectly through her peer education component called Passing-it-On (PiO). Read the rest of this entry »