Like in other parts of Nigeria and the World, the 12th of August every year is marked as the International Youth Day. It is usually a day to review exploits, activities and policies that affect young people. This year’s celebration was themed – Youth Civic Engagement.
As part of activities to mark the day, the Nigerian Society for Information, Arts and Culture (NSIAC), Ibadan in partnership with the United States Diplomatic Mission to Nigeria (American Corner) organised an activity. It was headlined by youth focused non-governmental organisations based in Ibadan ― OneLife Initiative and World Changers Development. Others who made presentations at the event were from Change Nigeria Alliance and Centre for Youth Initiative on Self Education, CEYISED. The programme was designed to celebrate youth civic efforts and share experiences.
The event started with Mrs. Adejoke Scott-Emakpor highlighting the event of the day and giving an insight into the operations at the American Corner. The corner is primarily a resource centre and it avails young people the opportunity to access resources of various kinds for a yearly subscription fee. Sharafadeen, of CEYISED took the first experience sharing session. He explained that his passion for impact started in tertiary institution. He acknowledged that the road had been rough but because he did not relent he was able to form CEYISED − an NGO that creates platform for Nigerian youth to speak out and contribute their quota to the development of the nation. Ogunbowale Oladayo of Change Nigeria Alliance also shared insight how the organisation was brought to life from the Nigeria Fuel subsidy crisis of 2012. Predominantly an online platform, CNA is now a hive of youths who discuss issues surrounding governance with facts and speak on area where changes can be made.
‘Sola Fagorusi, Programmes Manager, OneLife initiative discussed Youth Civic Engagement: Strategies. He dwelled on Project #VoteNotFight as a case study of the work his organisation has been involved in. For OneLife, both offline and online campaign approaches were used to reach out to the audience. He mentioned that they leveraged on opportunities and contacts that were almost not available to get the project done. Mr Lapinni of World Changers Development shared tips on how to kick start a development project. He used his own NGO success story to charge youths at the event to embrace civic efforts. He mentioned that goodwill and recommendations are good starting points for development. He rounded off his session by charging the youth to always engage themselves irrespective of their capacities.
Mr. Servio Gbadamosi of Write House; Paul Adepoju, of Ibpulse.com and Ojo Oluwasegun also shared their experiences on issues bordering on youth and how they have engaged their space. Mr. Laolu Ogunniyi, ace playwright and an academic at Lead City University, Ibadan closed the event by thanking the young people present and wishing them a happy #IYD2015.
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