Be seen, be heard… all at once?

August 12th this year will be no exception – international youth day! Interestingly, the UN theme for 2007 in commemorating this day is, “Be seen, be heard – youth participation in international development”. You may not really understand the reason this theme is very interesting to me. It is no doubt symbolic in many ways. In Nigeria, however, young people are obviously very upward and mobile; hence the phrase [of Nigerian origin too!] upwardly-mobile young Nigerians. This theme first reminds me of young people generally in society, and how we most times are always striving to out-do the other in school, talent shows and of course in our little neighbourhoods. It almost seems second nature for young people to be forward sometimes, when you look at that word critically it explains doing things that you are not told, but would certainly want to get credit for or be rewarded for using ‘your initiative’?

In the advocacy angle to it, there are so many NGOs and one is more often than not tempted to applaud the efforts of these youth initiatives and their visionaries. On the flip side, you may also wonder what policy regulates the registration of NGOs in Nigeria???

Recently at a meeting with a few friends for a ‘socially-sensitive’ project we are trying to start, I learnt from my friend Mo, that there are even three types of NGOs. They are: Not-for-profit, non-profit and profit-making. This explained the raison d’etre behind most of such organizations that charge exorbitant rates for services dispensed to the public. I immediately began to wonder where does that trend leave ones like mine? While the NNNGO plans an effective way of coordinating these NGOs for effective societal productivity, the world of advocacy and social entrepreneurship rather than sensitivity will continue.

Back to the 12th of August. In a quest to retain relevance or perhaps just to commemorate the International day for youth, many organizations have staged different events all clustered during this weekend. For people like me who know quite a number of these organizations and/or their visionaries, it has been very hectic keeping up with the venues and times.



Here are just a few: The UNITeS force seemingly started off with the graduation ceremony of their trainees on the 31st of July. Victor Gotevbe and Gbenga Sesan powered through next with the Ajegunle project [www.ajegunle.org] where 4 Korean Internet Volunteers [KIVs] arrived the country for their 3-week stay to train youths in Ajegunle on ICT. The British Council / VSO Global Exchange program [GX] also shook Abuja from the 10th to today. Victor Gotevbe, an interesting friend of mine, was again off to Abuja for a Project Nigeria workshop [www.unesco.co.uk] yesterday. Also yesterday, Linus Okorie led the GOTNI team [www.gotnig.org] to stage the 8th leadership summit where powerful speakers like Amina Oyagbola, John Momoh and Gamaliel Onosode lit up the Agip hall, MUSON centre. Toyosi’s RISE magazine [www.riseonline.org] also held a walk/rally to mark the day. All these events you must note sought very active participation of LOTS of young people with some groups applying strategies to muster more attendance and media attention. Brilliant ideas? All at once?? Effective Impact??? I wonder, any unity of purpose? How do I attend them all, participate fully and still maximize the opportunities??? Must we all be seen and heard to be participating in national development, all at once?

I pray when next I meet or read from Renate Bloem, the outgoing President of Conference of NGOs in consultative relationship with the UN [CONGO], she doesn’t tell me of many NGOs still seeking membership of CONGO without merit or whether the situation has improved. What would I tell her?