DARE 2 DREAM YOUTH INITIATIVE

Ashoka Fellow & Young Global Leader Spends the Night mentoring Youths

2011-05-25T16:11:00.000-07:00

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

2011-04-29T13:01:00.000-07:00

Ogaga E. Maxwell the URI Youth Ambassador for 2011 African region and Dare 2 Dream Executive Director 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.

FD Participant and URI Youth Ambassador Key Volunteer in National Election Project

2011-03-25T15:42:00.000-07:00

Ogaga E. Maxwell 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.

Beginning 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 attenda Reception of Under Secretary of State for Democracy and Global Affairs

2011-03-12T13:52:00.000-08:00

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.

Good Governance workshop pictures Aba,Abia State, Nigeria Continued

2011-02-18T15:25:00.001-08:00

Good Governance workshop pictures Aba,Abia State, Nigeria

2011-02-18T15:12:00.001-08:00

D2DYI Team Leader Facilitates Democracy & Good Governance Workshop in Aba, Abia State, Nigeria

2011-02-18T14:57:00.000-08:00

The Team leader of Dare 2 Dream Youth Initiative, Mr. 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.

ARTS knows no culture, gender or religion

2010-10-17T17:36:00.000-07:00

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

2010-10-07T15:10:00.000-07:00

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.

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

2010-08-31T17:44:00.000-07:00

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

In Amman

2008-12-01T15:46:00.001-08:00

At the Generations for Peace camp in Amman,Jordan.

what an experience

INVOLVEMENT OF YOUNG PEOPLE IN THE RURAL AREAS AS DECISION MAKERS

2008-11-15T15:45:00.000-08:00

INVOLVEMENT OF YOUNG PEOPLE IN THE RURAL AREAS AS DECISION MAKERS

Last I year I read a quote by a young Nigerian on the United Nations Millennium Development Goals page that ‘young people are the least consulted in the nation”. One of the secrets of the development and advancement of ancient Greece was the principle of consultation before decision making. No one was an island of himself, regardless of the position he is occupying.

Even the wisest king in all history according to the Holy Scriptures in his writing in proverbs, Solomon made reference to the importance of counselors three times, hear him

“Where there is no wise guidance, the nation falls, But in the multitude of counselors there is victory”. “Where there are no wise suggestions, purposes come to nothing; but by a number of wise guides they are made certain”. “For by wise counsel thou shalt make thy war: and in multitude of counsellors there is safety” end quote.
In national development, we cannot remove the place of wise counsel in decisions that will eventually lead to our success or failure. But the big question is who can give this counsel or suggestions that can aid our national development. Is to be left for the technocrats alone, the educated and the elites? No a thousand times No. I think part of the people who should make positive contribution to the national issues are the down trodden, the minority, the oppressed and most especially those in the rural areas who knows where the shoes of poverty, deprivation and lack of infrastructural facilities is paining them.
Let me paint a picture here that may help us, do you know that the average young student in a rural secondary school may never have set his eyes on a chemistry chemical? Not to talk of a computer? Then you cant imagines he knows what email, blogging, ipod, flash drive is in the 21st century so in essence they are been trained not to be able to function in a modern society. While their counterparts in the cities attend “British model” schools, go for exchange in Europe and America or Abuja and Lagos. The issues is don’t these same secondary school students have the same basic rights to quality education?is it a crime to be born in the rural area of Nigeria?
This article is may not be an intellectual master piece, but just a simple awakening of the voice of reason to see that we progress in our bid to build a new Nigeria.
How can the young people in the rural area participate in decision making?
I feel it has to start with all those who are into developmental work, if we are really into development and not just developing our ‘pockets” and catching fun by attending workshops, summits and conferences, a larger percentage of our projects and porgrammes should be focused on rural young people and in the rural areas. These programmes should be interactive and participatory. With this we can by observation and their input feel their pains and get their voice on major issues then direct to appropriate quarters, by placing them on our websites, blogs e.t.c on their behalf, or a written report to the people concern.
Open forums in the rural areas should be encouraged, where young people are called upon to openly voices their opinions, the recordings of these open forums should not just be in a writing format but video format, this would help to make the voice of rural young people known and thereby participate in decision making. In these open forums, their local government chairmen and councilors should be present, it could even go beyond open forums and also include accountability sessions where the chairmen give account of what they have received and these young people can b part of the monitoring process whether elections or budget.
Our conferences, summits should start taking place also in the rural areas so that rural young people can adequately participate and get abreast of current issues.
The use of local dialect in the production of IEC materials should be encouraged, so that youths in rural areas who cannot read in English can also get informed about current happenings and make contributions in their own language, which can later be translated to English.
When workshops, conferences and summits are being organized special preference should be given to them to encourage there active participation, this will encourage them to have the required self esteem to start contributing to national issues.
These same young people in the rural areas are the people politicians pick as thugs to the city during elections, if they can come and fight in the city during elections, why cant they come an attend summits where they can give positive contributions in the city or have we turned our rural youths to political animals serving the interest of the high class thieves amongst us? Or those of us in development have we turned them to statistic that improves our report for funds and grant to be released to us without us giving them the opportunity for their voice to be heard?
We should not forget that these same young people if given the right environment have the capacity to help turn our nation around, because within them lies innate potentials that need to be awaken.
Lets empower our rural youths, let them be part of the decision makers in the society, if not now? When? If not you who?

Ogaga Maxwell d2dyi@yahoo.com

THE NEW NIGERIA DREAM

2008-11-15T15:41:00.000-08:00

THE NEW NIGERIA DREAM
(Ethics, Values and Morals)

I write this not from a professional sense, but from the point of a passion, but as someone driven by passion to see Nigeria amongst the top twenty countries in the world. This might seem a tall order against the back drop of the dipping of our socio-cultural ethics, virtues and values but I believe that together we can work hard to make Nigeria great. It is a clarion call to the youths of this nation to rise up so that together we can make Nigeria the country of our dream. I share the New Nigerian dream of great and committed minds like Fela Durotoye, Gbenga Sesan, Niyi Adesanya, Sam Adeyemi and host of others

The hosting of the Delta Youth Summit in the state capital provides us the opportunity to come together for developmental networking, but most importantly the coming together of youths gives us a premonition that this is a significant time. unlike what you know as significant time, I would want to use the definitions of Dr Iyayi of significant times during his address at the Benin National Merit Award held at the National Museun Kings Square Benin, Dr Iyayi says “Significant times are when man tales a leap forward, when history is made because a world standing on its head is overturned so it is now standing on its feet. it is that moment when we wake up from that is darkened by sleep an are startled by the brightness of the clouds outside. it is the time in our lives when we have hope because there is honor, justice, truth and integrity in our lives” while he has this to say about insignificant times ‘Insignificant times, however, are when the word and world are standing on their heads and history is being unmade. It is when the lie is painted as black and dressed as the truth. It is when those who seek justice, honor, integrity and truth are perceived s mad men and women who are destined for asylum” (emphasis added mine).This was published in the Vanguard Newspaper, Monday 7, 2008 page 31.
In line with what Dr Iyayi said we the youths of this great nation having been living in insignificant times but NOW is the time of significance, THIS is the place where significance begins.
What is the New Nigeria?
The New Nigeria from my perspective is: A Nigeria where Peace, Justice and Equity will reign A Nigeria where you are not judged by your tribe but by your character and values A Nigeria where her citizenry are committed to the nation and productive individually A Nigeria that will produce role model servant leaders for the world to emulate A Nigeria where the labours of our heroes past shall not be in vain A Nigeria that will be safe and be a peaceful habitation for all.A Nigeria where corruption and violence will be the thing of the past
For the avoidance of doubt, the above is a reflection of our ideal. The description and coloration of what constitutes a great nation may be put differently, the concept and meaning remain basically the same. Permit me therefore, to put some of those reflections on the marble. A GREAT NATION IS MADE NOT BORN I would want to point out that no nation is born great but every great nation is made great, even the Holy Scriptures rightly noted “is a nation born in a day”. The nation is not the land mass but her citizens. Corruption, injustice, tribalism, is not present in the Nigerian landmass but in he people. And this is as a result of our negative value system. Very few African nations are on their journey to the top. An example of this great stride is Ghana. It is instructive to note that what has kept us in this valley is not because of the colour of our skin but because of our character, attitude and orientation. So, if we must make the greatness we anticipate come true then the youths must shift their paradigm because it cannot be business as usual. Dr Festus iyayi said this “the quality of our lives is determined not only by what happens to us but more so by what we make happen. The more the content of our lives has honour, justice, intergrity , truth and meaning by the interaction of what we make happen and what happens to us, then the more significant our lives” THE BALLON STORY…what is inside Nigerians? The story have been said of a man who was selling balloons in the beach and when sales are running dry he would release a coloured balloon, a negro boy was standing very close by. After a while, the boy asked the sales man if a black balloon could also fly, the sales man told him it was not the colour of the balloon that made it to fly but what was inside. Which means a black balloon can also fly... The moral lesson to learn from this story is that we can be great if we care to have the air “virtue and character” in us. We might not be able to change the entire Nigerian populace at once but we can incrementally do this by being responsive to the New Nigeria dream as individuals wherever we find ourselves in service.I want to briefly highlight few of the virtues that we must all imbibe, which will be the compass that will direct our movement towards our New Nigeria dream and change our direction for good. This is not the time to tag along but to move up stream away from the current of injustice, corruption, bribery, tribalism. Violence e.t.c WE MUST VALUE MERIT We must all come to the place where all appointments will be based on merit and not tribalism,e.tc. This will motivate everyone to work hard for the upliftment of our country. We must move away from the era of getting to a particular level because of who one knows instead of one's worth. Cultivating and encouraging the "who you know" attitude to progress breeds laziness and disregard to due process. But putting square pegs in square holes releases the inate energy and innovation in people to continue to work for the greatness of a particular group.
ENVIRONMENTone of marked differences between the developed nations and the third world nations is the environment. The New Nigeria must of necessity value the need for CLEANINESS. It is a common to see people litter their environments. We must begin to discourage the throwing of dirt’s on path, roads and hall ways. We should stop the habit of throwing papers, water sachets, and cigarette butts from buses and cars. We must all begin to take care of our environment. We must all start maintaining a clean environment starting from our homes and offices. The goal should be cleaning the nation from the inside. TRIBAL DIFFERENCES This is going to be a major issue, but if we must advance on the road to the New Nigeria then we must jettison tribalism and begin to see ourselves as NIGERIANS. Our tribal differences were not to create division but to create the needed variety to make Nigeria a habitable place. Although we are from different tribes, our tribes should not come before our nation; our allegiance should be foremost to NIGERIA. This is the path of honour that other great nations have taken to greatness. WEALTH BY HARDWORK It is a known fact that Nigerians celebrate wealth in no small measure. We must change our attitude of eulogizing richness without knowing the sources of such riches. We should put more efforts of tracing the sources of our wealthy citizens. You can hardly hear of the Millionaires and Billionaires in other parts of the globe being involved advanced fee fraud. even at that, they are not worshipped the way we do hear.

INFORMATIONThe growth of any nation is dependent on the information base of her citizens. We must develop the attitude of getting the right information and sincere reading culture. Our libraries must not become museums and monuments. Every one of us must seek the right information in our various fields in other to increase our personal effectiveness. We must all move towards the areas of digitalizing our libraries and move from the manual catalogue system. Government and private companies as part of their social responsibilities should establish ICT resource centers. ATTITUDE TO PUBLIC PROPERTY In primary school we were taught to take care of “government” property. Instead of calling them government properties, we are to should “public property” because they are our properties. While would a Nigeria steal PHCN cables, street lights e.t.c and put other people in darkness, it is not because of poverty but rather because he assumes that the property is not his or ours but that of the government and so to pay government back for so called neglect he has to take what belongs to the government since he cannot readily access government treasury. Our attitude must change towards these properties they are ours and we must protect them. BELIEF IN THE NATION A lot has happened since our independence which has made us to lose our belief in the nation. But if we are to develop we have to start believing in the nation again. This belief must be rooted in the understanding that if we all do what is right Nigeria will definitely be great. “No president, no leader, no king, no emperor...nobody can change a country, except the people!” That is what Lenny Kravitz said "we the people of Nigeria have to stand up and begin to push for a change which must start from a mental note first of all" this is the paradigm shift I referred to earlier.

Three emerging words in the New Nigeria
In the Nigeria of our dream these three words will matter to all and sundry, from those in leadership positions to those been served (lead).these words are virtue, ethics and morals.
Ethics: moral principles that control or influence a person’s behaviour.
Morals: concerned with the principles of right and wrong behaviour.
Values: belief about what is right or wrong and what is most important in life.
I was born a Nigerian, I will live a Nigerian and I will Die a Nigeria

OGAGA E. Maxwell
d2dyi@yahoo.com

About Ogaga E. Maxwell

2008-07-11T01:28:00.000-07:00

About Ogaga E. Maxwell and Dare 2 Dream Youth Initiative, Warri,Delta State,Nigeria
About MeA dynamic young man committed to youth development, capacity building, and conflict resolution. Maxwell holds a B.Sc (ED) Degree in Social Studies Education and a BCC in Leadership from the prestigious Daystar Leadership Academy, Lagos. He leads the Earth Charter Youth Group in Warri, Delta State, Nigeria (www.earthcharter.org) a programme which currently organizes workshops for secondary schoolA UNICEF trained peer educator, and a TIG/CLCWA Trainer (www.takingitglobal.org/clcwa). He also debuts as the Deputy Volunteer Coordinator CLCWA Delta State. In recognition of his thought provoking contributions to youth development and engagement, he was invited to the first process of the Nigeria e-youth forum to Abuja under the auspices of British Council/ Youngstars Foundation in the first quarter of 2008. Also, in recognition of his unfliching contributions to developmental efforts in Delta State, he won an Award at the Delta Youth Summit in January 2008 in Asaba where he chaired a Youth Working Group in Leadership,Good governance and Democracy.Maxwell was invited by the British Council and the Youngstars Foundation to participate in the Nigeria Youth Stakeholders Forum, in Abuja to discuss and recommend practical solutions to financing Youth Development in Nigeria around 2008. He was engaged as the Chair of this forum's Working Group on Niger Delta.He interests transcends through National Development, and he is the conveyner of the "New Nigeria Dream Summit" every August in Warri, Delta State, Nigeria. The first key note speakers were the Ex-president of the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staffs Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN) Dr Brown Ogbeifun (www.brownogbeifun.com) and Gbenga Sessan of Paradigm Initiative Nigeria (PIN) (www.gbengasesan.com).He is married and resides in Warri, where he is the team leader of an NGO Dare 2 Dream Youth Initiative, a programme that builds young people's capacity in the area of leadership, ICT for Development, and value orientation.Maxwell is really interested in getting partners in the area of youth leadership, peace and conflict resolution, environment and good governance initiatives!
DARE 2 DREAM YOUTH INTITAITIVEOrganization ProfileIn the midst of major world challenges, something profound is being reborn – recognition that youths with concern, vision and commitment can make significant contributions to transforming the planet.That is what D2DYI is all about, an organization that brings youths together, youths that believe that according to Mahatma Gandhi they can be the change they want to see, youths that believe in self motivation, value based leadership, the New Nigeria and the positive deployment of our talents and potentials.D2DYI aggress with Margaret Mead that you “never doubt that a small group of thoughtful commitment citizens can change the world. Indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has”Some men see things as they are and say, ‘why?’ we dream of the things that never were and say, ‘why not! We see a new caliber of youths rising to build the New Nigeria of our dreams and we are committed through positive actions in seeing it come to pass.The youths of D2DYI are stepping above the limitations of their environment, we are daring to dream, and knowing that in the dream of a better tomorrow lies the very future we hope for.AIMRaise and Equip young people as leaders and agents of change.OBJECTIVESInspire and motivate youths toward self-realization and actualization.Enhance and strengthen the leadership capacity of young people.Assist youths to take their rightful place as contributors to a new enlightened world through policy engagement in a democratic process.Engage and Empower young people to be truly motivated to work in the contributing to communal, and National development through efficient partnership/collaboration and volunteering.PHILOSOPHYEvery young person if given the right environment, empowered and equipped can be a change agent, because we are all created by God for a specific purpose and assignment.THEMATIC AREASLeadership DevelopmentYouth EntrepreneurshipEnvironments and CulturePeace Building/Conflict Resolution and Governance VALUESExcellenceIntegrityAccountability Ogaga E. MaxwellTeam Leader+2348034810869

21st Century Seminar in Pics

2008-07-01T00:48:00.001-07:00

The 21st Century Relevance Seminar, Was very engaging and interesting, if you didnt attend you missed a lot

21st Century relevance seminar report

2008-07-01T00:38:00.000-07:00

The violent stage in the Niger Delta has become a source of concern to the international communities, in a bid to make young people understand the need for effective relevance in the 21st Century, in a bid to do this, Dare 2 Dram Youth Organization collaborated with IdeaBank Nigeria to conduct a seminar called 21ST CENTURY RELEVANCE seminar. In this seminar Victior Mamora handled Convertible Assets, where he taught young people the assets of time, talent and that the best asset they have is themselves. Olajide taught on Invalid Future, while Ogaga E. Maxwell the Team Leader of D2DYI taught on building your Self Confidence.
Participants where happy they attended the seminar, the skills taught would enhance their relevance in the 21st Century.

Involvement of young people in the rural areas as decision makers

2008-06-17T02:22:00.000-07:00

INVOLVEMENT OF YOUNG PEOPLE IN THE RURAL AREAS AS DECISION MAKERS

Last I year I read a quote by a young Nigerian on the United Nations Millenarian Development Goals page that ‘young people are the least consulted in the nation”. One of the secrets of the development and advancement of ancient Greece was the principle of consultation before decision making. No one was an island of himself, regardless of the position he is occupying.
Even the wisest king in all history according to the Holy Scriptures in his writing in proverbs, Solomon made reference to the importance of counselors three times, hear him
“Where there is no wise guidance, the nation falls, But in the multitude of counselors there is victory”. “Where there are no wise suggestions, purposes come to nothing; but by a number of wise guides they are made certain”. “For by wise counsel thou shalt make thy war: and in multitude of counsellors there is safety” end quote.
In national development, we cannot remove the place of wise counsel in decisions that will eventually lead to our success or failure. But the big question is who can give this counsel or suggestions that can aid our national development. Is to be left for the technocrats alone, the educated and the elites? No a thousand times No. I think part of the people who should make positive contribution to the national issues are the down trodden, the minority, the oppressed and most especially those in the rural areas who knows where the shoes of poverty, deprivation and lack of infrastructural facilities is paining them.
Let me paint a picture here that may help us, do you know that the average young student in a rural secondary school may never have set his eyes on a chemistry chemical? Not to talk of a computer? Then you cant imagines he knows what email, blogging, ipod, flash drive is in the 21st century so in essence they are been trained not to be able to function in a modern society. While their counterparts in the cities attend “British model” schools, go for exchange in Europe and America or Abuja and Lagos . The issues is don’t these same secondary school students have the same basic rights to quality education?is it a crime to be born in the rural area of Nigeria ?
This article is may not be an intellectual master piece, but just a simple awakening of the voice of reason to see that we progress in our bid to build a new Nigeria .
How can the young people in the rural area participate in decision making?
I feel it has to start with all those who are into developmental work, if we are really into development and not just developing our ‘pockets” and catching fun by attending workshops, summits and conferences, a larger percentage of our projects and porgrammes should be focused on rural young people and in the rural areas. These programmes should be interactive and participatory. With this we can by observation and their input feel their pains and get their voice on major issues then direct to appropriate quarters, by placing them on our websites, blogs e.t.c on their behalf, or a written report to the people concern.
Open forums in the rural areas should be encouraged, where young people are called upon to openly voices their opinions, the recordings of these open forums should not just be in a writing format but video format, this would help to make the voice of rural young people known and thereby participate in decision making. In these open forums, their local government chairmen and councilors should be present, it could even go beyond open forums and also include accountability sessions where the chairmen give account of what they have received and these young people can b part of the monitoring process whether elections or budget.
Our conferences, summits should start taking place also in the rural areas so that rural young people can adequately participate and get abreast of current issues.
The use of local dialect in the production of IEC materials should be encouraged, so that youths in rural areas who cannot read in English can also get informed about current happenings and make contributions in their own language, which can later be translated to English.
When workshops, conferences and summits are being organized special preference should be given to them to encourage there active participation, this will encourage them to have the required self esteem to start contributing to national issues.
These same young people in the rural areas are the people politicians pick as thugs to the city during elections, if they can come and fight in the city during elections, why cant they come an attend summits where they can give positive contributions in the city or have we turned our rural youths to political animals serving the interest of the high class thieves amongst us? Or those of us in development have we turned them to statistic that improves our report for funds and grant to be released to us without us giving them the opportunity for their voice to be heard?
We should not forget that these same young people if given the right environment have the capacity to help turn our nation around, because within them lies innate potentials that need to be awaken.
Lets empower our rural youths, let them be part of the decision makers in the society, if not now? When? If not you who?

About Ogaga E. Maxwell and Dare 2 Dream Youth Initiative, Warri,Delta State,Nigeria

2008-06-14T02:57:00.000-07:00

About Me

A dynamic young man committed to youth development, capacity building, and conflict resolution. Maxwell holds a B.Sc (ED) Degree in Social Studies Education and a BCC in Leadership from the prestigious Daystar Leadership Academy, Lagos. He leads the Earth Charter Youth Group in Warri, Delta State, Nigeria (www.earthcharter.org) a programme which currently organizes workshops for secondary school
A UNICEF trained peer educator, and a TIG/CLCWA Trainer (www.takingitglobal.org/clcwa). He also debuts as the Deputy Volunteer Coordinator CLCWA Delta State. In recognition of his thought provoking contributions to youth development and engagement, he was invited to the first process of the Nigeria e-youth forum to Abuja under the auspices of British Council/ Youngstars Foundation in the first quarter of 2008. Also, in recognition of his unfliching contributions to developmental efforts in Delta State, he won an Award at the Delta Youth Summit in January 2008 in Asaba where he chaired a Youth Working Group in Leadership,Good governance and Democracy.Maxwell was invited by the British Council and the Youngstars Foundation to participate in the Nigeria Youth Stakeholders Forum, in Abuja to discuss and recommend practical solutions to financing Youth Development in Nigeria around 2008. He was engaged as the Chair of this forum's Working Group on Niger Delta.He interests transcends through National Development, and he is the conveyner of the "New Nigeria Dream Summit" every August in Warri, Delta State, Nigeria. The first key note speakers were the Ex-president of the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staffs Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN) Dr Brown Ogbeifun (www.brownogbeifun.com) and Gbenga Sessan of Paradigm Initiative Nigeria (PIN) (www.gbengasesan.com).He is married and resides in Warri, where he is the team leader of an NGO Dare 2 Dream Youth Initiative, a programme that builds young people's capacity in the area of leadership, ICT for Development, and value orientation.Maxwell is really interested in getting partners in the area of youth leadership, peace and conflict resolution, environment and good governance initiatives!

DARE 2 DREAM YOUTH INTITAITIVE

Organization Profile
In the midst of major world challenges, something profound is being reborn – recognition that youths with concern, vision and commitment can make significant contributions to transforming the planet.
That is what D2DYI is all about, an organization that brings youths together, youths that believe that according to Mahatma Gandhi they can be the change they want to see, youths that believe in self motivation, value based leadership, the New Nigeria and the positive deployment of our talents and potentials.
D2DYI aggress with Margaret Mead that you “never doubt that a small group of thoughtful commitment citizens can change the world. Indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has”
Some men see things as they are and say, ‘why?’ we dream of the things that never were and say, ‘why not! We see a new caliber of youths rising to build the New Nigeria of our dreams and we are committed through positive actions in seeing it come to pass.
The youths of D2DYI are stepping above the limitations of their environment, we are daring to dream, and knowing that in the dream of a better tomorrow lies the very future we hope for.
AIM
Raise and Equip young people as leaders and agents of change.
OBJECTIVES
Inspire and motivate youths toward self-realization and actualization.
Enhance and strengthen the leadership capacity of young people.
Assist youths to take their rightful place as contributors to a new enlightened world through policy engagement in a democratic process.
Engage and Empower young people to be truly motivated to work in the contributing to communal, and National development through efficient partnership/collaboration and volunteering.
PHILOSOPHY
Every young person if given the right environment, empowered and equipped can be a change agent, because we are all created by God for a specific purpose and assignment.
THEMATIC AREAS
Leadership Development
Youth Entrepreneurship
Environments and Culture
Peace Building/Conflict Resolution and Governance
VALUES
Excellence
Integrity
Accountability

Ogaga E. Maxwell
Team Leader
+2348034810869
d2dyi@yahoo.com