#iSaveNigeria: A Young Nigerian Speaking To Fellow Young Nigerians -- Osaze Isesele

Amidst the present challenges facing the Nation at this time, we launch this social media campaign video that encourages young Nigerians to use their craft in advancing the nation.

Young Nigerians have the most powerful voices. Let’s use it to secure our future and save our fatherland. ‪#‎Jointhemovement ‪#‎Addyourvoice

We have a target of reaching at least 5,000 young Nigerians with this visual material.

Explore Nigeria's New Fashion Capital at The Port Harcourt Fashion Festival, June 4th-5th, 2016

The Port Harcourt Fashion Festival is an experience. It is a colourful mélange of inspiration, clothing, glamour, creativity, glam, people and entertainment. World-class designers, design enthusiasts and a huge fashion community gathering in Port Harcourt, Nigeria’s new fashion capital.

80 Global Shapers & Future African Leaders, Over 30 Countries, 1 Book, 1 Foreword by Ashish Thakkar, 1 Goal: Transformation through Collaboration!

One year ago during the 25th Annual World Economic Forum on Africa Summit in Cape Town South Africa, 80 young Africans were exclusively selected to have a seat at the big table alongside Africa’s Presidents and top business leaders. During this prestigious gathering, these 80 young Africans from the Global Shapers Community came together to co-author a book which symbolizes the transformative ability that collaboration amongst Africans can be achieved. I wrote something about our collective experience last year in, #Africa80—Meet the Shaping Army.

Financing Africa's Agenda 2063 and the SDGS -- Sadiqmabeko Oyinkansola

Credit: Luckystar Miyandazi

A while ago I wrote an article on youths and our wellbeing, you can read here if you missed it. In the article I said enough is enough. We cannot continue to have youths on the streets with no plan for the future.

By stroke of faith I happen to be at this year’s African Development Week being held in Addis, Ababa-Ethiopia from 31 March to 5th April, and good enough Growth and Development of Africa is the main focus. Themed, Towards an Integrated and Coherent Approach to Implementation, Monitoring and Evaluation of Agenda 2063 and the SDGs, we are just again reminded how much poverty and underdevelopment has marred our continent that we have to gather experts to seriously discuss the possible way out.

THE TEACHER IN US

By Tim Nwaobilo

Growing up there was this popular saying: A teacher's reward is in heaven. I wonder who doesn't expect a reward in heaven, at least if one gets there. It's been a while I heard such unfair and unrewarding sentence, but has the rarity of such biased statements proved that teachers now have a better fair? 

Well, that is left to be seen. Have they started gaining their rewards right here on earth like most other professionals? My mother was a teacher while I was a kid and I saw the amount of dedication she put into her job. 

There were some characters she necessarily had to develop/use if she was going to be an effective teacher. Briefly, I'll highlight some fundamental traits I think every good teacher possesses. 

GREEN UP NIGERIA

By ThankGod Okorisha

After carefully making my research about the colour Green, I write this article with conviction that my country Nigeria is blessed. One of the colours of the Nigerian flag is Green, you will agree with me after reading this article that Nigeria as a nation is blessed to have Green as one of its national colours. Listen, Read and Watch as Colour Green takes you into his world and tells you why he is the best colour amongst other colours.

OPINION: Why Should Teachers/Lecturers be Given So Much Authority?

By Sicily 

I'm really bothered about this so I will go straight to the point. 

Ahmed has been all over the news, and #IStandwithAhmed was trending globally because he (Ahmed) decided to share his moment of joy and creativity with his teacher--whom he looks up to--and he was arrested for it. Ahmed designed a home-made clock in a briefcase, and brought it to his teacher for appraisal only to be arrested few minutes after because the teacher, with so much authority, labelled Ahmed as a terrorist and condemned him.

SEEKING REFUGE: Why the Refugee Crisis in Europe Should Bother You.

If a refugee will knock on your door tonight, all tired and hungry, will you let him/her in?

It's all over the media. people, a lot of people, displaced by war and IS are seeking refuge in Europe and the Middle East, and every day more and more people take that life-threatening journey in the search for safety.

SLAVERY IN 5D (For International Day for the Abolition of Slavery)

Guest Writer: Mary Ajayi

(Image Credit: globalmarch

'Slavery' is one word that has transcended time, in words and actions; it is as common today as it was years ago, howbeit in different ways. In time past, we had human trafficking as the most common form of slavery, followed by domestic slavery but in this age and time, we've got different variants, too numerous to mention. societal, mental, emotional, financial etc.are the variants of slavery we now have. However, the focus of this observance breaks it all down and selects issues which are deeply woven into the fabric of humanity- not that the aforementioned are not. It just helps us see things better from five dimensions. I hope with this cases (find below), you'd see slavery with new eyes, and help to eradicate it.

WHAT IF IT'S THE WAY WE LOVE? (For World AIDS Day)

Guest Writer: Senator Ihenyen

(Image Credit: baspta.com)

What if this scourge

This pandemic, this plague

Wiping out our race

Without a face

Was just a thing?

SYMPATHY AND THE PALESTINIAN QUESTION (For International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People)

Guest Writer: Emmanuel Dairo

(Image Credit: UN)

Suffering is a common theme in world history. The European had his share of suffering during the heydays of Greco-Macedonian and then Roman westward campaigns. Mongoloid history is a long tapestry of wars of conquest or subjugation that relieved one group of people of their misery while plunging others into unmentionable anguish. Later Negro history tells of the harrowing fate of helpless African mass-slaughtered and enslaved under repeated waves of European assault. All these were triggered by the desire of one group to achieve dominion over another group and that group’s territory, culminating in the two deadly twentieth century wars where Asian, African and Anglo-American flesh in their millions were heaped up and sacrificed in battle theatres, burnt offerings to man’s heedless ambition to lord it over his fellow men.

Today, we remember a nation of people who have in recent times borne more suffering than any other. No group of people is in direr straits than the beleaguered Palestinians who have suffered long and hard, dispossessed of their homeland by a combination of British complacency and Zionist racism and herded into the confined cubicles they currently call home – Gaza and the West Bank. Current victims of a macabre historical play that has been acted out in the Land of Canaan for the best part of three millennia, the people of Palestine find themselves without much shelter, little water and even less food – and these deplorable living conditions are becoming increasingly worse by the minute as Israel maintains tighter and tighter blockade of the region, fearful of being targeted by vengeful Palestinian insurgency.

TILL RAPE DO US PART (For International Day for Elimination of Violence against Women)

Guest Writer: Elnathan John

In the past three days I have had cause to be scared for Nigerian women. I had long online debates with at least 30 young Nigerian (married and unmarried) men from different professions: lawyers, engineers, civil servants, teachers on the issue of marital rape. It has taken me a while to get over the shock of some of what I heard to write this article debunking the popular myths surrounding marital rape.

One does not need to have experienced rape to understand the seriousness of rape as a crime. Its highly intrusive, sometimes violent nature makes it capable of deep, lasting damage- more so than many other violent crimes. Often, the perpetrator of rape, (some put the frequency at as high as 90% of the time) is known to the victim- a neighbor, friend, uncle, cousin, husband, teacher, pastor, ex-partner. Rape takes on a new dimension when the victim is raped by someone close- then it even becomes harder to report. [Please note that while rape and sexual violence also happens to men, the focus of this article is marital rape as perpetrated by men]

DUSTING THE PATHWAYS OF TIME (For International Day for Elimination of Violence against Women)

Guest Writer: Mary Ajayi

(Image Credit: dreamstime)

He sat before me in the living room, sketching on a piece of paper and humming the nursery rhyme he learnt in school. Starring at him, I can’t help but wonder what my life would have been without him, this child –my anchor and hope. I sit watching his chubby hands sketch the image of a football, face concentrated in a serious attempt at doing it just right so he could show it to me like he had several others he had drawn weeks back.

‘Mummy, have you been keeping my football drawings?’ he asked, still concentrating on the task at hand.

‘Yes dear. I have them all tucked away in our secret place.’

‘Okay. I want to show these sketches when I become a footballer like…er…erm…’ face scrunched in remembrance, he searched long and hard for the name of his role-model.

OF KNEELING AND PRAYING: SOUL STIRRING (For World Philosophy Day)

Guest Writer: Davis Donatus

(Image Credit: cutecaster)

Bowing of the knee in religious circles is a display of piety, submission to God and the god-figure; it is also categorized as a human show of humble descent to aid the divine ascent of prayer for the expected answers that may follow. But, this act is also generally used in certain African societies as punishment for wrongdoing. Men who proved themselves worthy in the English societies knelt to be knighted, whilst others did kneel in the paying of homage and in displaying allegiance to lords, nobles and kings. In essence, kneeling is plainly a human thing.

The physical bowing of the knees has a of psychological effect on the mental positioning of the individual kneeling and the figure to whom his knees are bowed. But, there is nothing spiritual about kneeling. Nothing at all. If one kneels to pray, that prayer would be a short one. How long can the bones that make up the joints in your knee bear the entire weight of your body -from head to thighs- before it begins to ache and is blistered? The timing sure varies per individual, but one would definitely tarry longer in prayer on his feet or some other position desired. Not the knees. To me, kneeling not only ruins prayer, it'd have you feasting on the proverbial half-baked cake; being weary amid your act of piety will be a great instigation to discontinuance.

TRENDING TECHNOLOGY (For World Television Day)

Guest Writer: Oluwafemi Ogunjobi

(Image Credit: healthcareasia)

Growing up, as a first child born into a semi-literate, and an average-income family, I filled my years with activities that rarely make meaning to some. After school hours, at around 3p.m, when I'm done with the house chores and school assignments, I'd vacate the house to watch television at the ''Area's rich man's'' house. Not that we were poor, or we did not have electronic gadgets, I only queue at the Old Man's place to watch some interesting programmes that our own 'local antenna' won't pick. I was fascinated by the coloured-screened digital set, nothing like our 'black and white' gadget, and also enjoy such programmes when there is power outage, programmes I will definitely miss if I don't go to the rich man's residence to see them. My father returns at night to power our gadgets with his car battery while the Area's rich man powers his house with generator when there is power outage. This endeared me to visit his place the more. Luck however shone on my family one day when my father got 'all new' electronic gadgets, including a generator. We all were very happy at the new phase of life. I remember how my mother brought the good news to me at the rich man's house, where I was busy in front of the TV. And that was when I stopped being pests at other people's electronic gadgets. What have I been saying? To me, I agree with Helen Fisher who said: 'Television is like a global campfire, we shield around it and it shapes our mind'.

THE CONVERSATION (For Universal Children's Day)

Guest Writer: Olisakwe Ukamaka Evelyn

(Image Credit:5forum.biz)

Chidinma sat before me, eyes fixed on mine, brows creased in expectation, waiting for when I would begin The Conversation. It is important, this conversation, because:
She is growing faster than I can breathe.
I never had this conversation with my own mother. It would have been easier if I had it with my mother. There are many ways she could get taught wrongly, if I avoid this conversation. She really wants us to talk about this.

CHILD (For Universal Children's day)

Guest Writer: Lekh Raj

(Image Credit: worldfotographyart)

When first approached to contribute something to mark ‘Universal children’s day’, I found myself in a quandary and made use of internet connectivity which has numerous information, virtually at your fingertips. It is there to remind us of the disparity of conditions between children growing up all over the world. Of how no child deserves to be without the necessities of food, shelter, medical care and schooling. You can find out more about this observance by clicking here. (http://www.un.org/en/events/childrenday/)

TO BE A MAN (For International Men's Day)

Guest Writer: Ikhide R. Ikheloa



(Image Credit: justhappyquotes)

For the Men in Our Lives...
 

We are living in fascinating times – on many levels. Relationships are being assessed in the light of civil and human rights and life as we know it in the 21st century. Labels abound; misogyny, misandry, feminism, patriarchy, matriarchy, etc. Depending on which side you are. Most of these labels are pejoratives used to describe crushing dysfunctions. Anyhow you look at it, man, as in the male, seems to be under pressure, if not under attack, to change his ways. The family structure with the man at the top or at the center is now seen as something designed by Early Man, something that should go the way of the dodo. There is good reason for these feelings. Patriarchy in its worst forms is a form of oppression and even in societies with robust laws, structures and processes, women and children often bear the brunt of patriarchy and its attendant misogyny. Change is coming, but it is not coming fast enough.

FLORENTINA (For International Day for Tolerance)

Guest Writer: Dike-Ogu Chukwumerije

Image Credit: wesfaulk

I grew up in the darkness because there was always something wrong with the transformer in our estate, on the boundary between Lagos and Ogun. This was 1992 when Sango-Ota was still a quiet backwater. And the roads in Ojuore were all sand, and crooked. But my brother had a guitar. And at night he would sit, with a lantern at his feet, stroking strings at the edge of the kerosene-scented halo.

Can Science Solve all the Problems in the World? (For World Science Day for Peace and development)

Guest Writer: Richard Oduor

Image Credit: www.kazembassy.hr

In the 21st century, the word ‘science’ means ‘solutions’. The international Observance, World Science Day for Peace and Development, offers us a platform and a chance share our ideas for a better world and reiterate, once more, that science is the solution for all the world’s material problems. Over the centuries, science has transmuted from being a sacred discipline accessible only to a select few to become a way of life. Every single day, individuals, consciously or unconsciously, rely on established scientific principles to make individual, family, community, national, and global decisions. The world would never have achieved the current state of technological advancement without scientific thought. Science is the furnace where ideas are smelt, purified, and modelled into useful tools.