Yesterday i asked myself, how did we manage to communicate with each other in this country before the advent of GSM? I honestly can only remember vaguely how that was possible. I cannot imagine the number of man hours that will be lost in trying to reach someone and deliver a simple message. You have to time the person and say, okay, he is always at home on sunday afternoon, and then when you got to his place, you are told he's just left.

I ask myself a second question: what if GSMs no longer work in Nigeria or the Operators decides to go on strike like ASUU.

The reactions from Nigerians might be violent. Infact, if not well managed can lead into anarchy. Nigerians defy the switch of your phones message in airplanes, they are on the phone until the plane hits the runway and as soon as the plane lands also, almost everyone is talking to a business associate, a driver, a wife somewhere.

In churches, it is funny when phone beeps and people rush out in the midst of sermon to recieve calls, with the excuse that it is very important. I have once rushed out for a call like that before i discovered it was a flash!

I have adopted the idea that it is necessary to switch phones off during church services.

wait a minute: What about the night mobilers. The guys and gals who suddenly have mastered how to chase away sleep because they want to talk to their friends throughout the night, thanks to MTN.

A father once saud that he is happy that his two sons preparing for WAEC now suddenly start to wake up all by themselves to read at 12 midnight and that they dont go to be until 5 am. I simply said, so they have MTN lines, he said yes. I asked him to sieze their phones at nights. After he did that the children started complaining that the prefer to read during the day, the enthusiasm to read at nights have dissapeared with the ceased phones.

We need to learn to use technology with some moderations and use it responsibly.

If GSMs stop working today, life will go on. At least we survived until 2001!

In the last 9 days, i have had one the most interesting trips in my young life.

I remember meeting with dabesaki in ameeting in Abuja in february and we talked about the upcomiong NEEDS 2 consultations. After talking at length, our organisations decided to work together to mobilise young people Nationwide to participate in the NEEDs 2 consultations and also to ensure that the issues and concerns of young people are reflected in the document which will be Nigeria's economic strategy for four years.

with support from the United Natuion Population Fund (UNFPA), we proceeded on a Nation wide consultation process, following the National Planning Commission which has planned the a consultative meeting on NEEDS 2 in all the six geo-political zones in the country.

Starting in Lagos on May 3rd 2007, we moved to Owerri bhy air the next morning for the South East meeting. A day after, we crossed the famous Niger Bridge and moved into Asaba, the Capital of delta State for the south south consultations. I was amazewd by how huge Nigeria his, i heard several Nigerian languages, some i have never heard before.

The next day, we were out of Asaba to Abuja via Owerri. We boarded a chanchangi airline from Owerri airport to Abuja ( i swear not to enter chanchangi again), the landing was too frightening, the plane rocked left and right as if it were doing stunts in a James Bond movie.

We continued our journey by road to Kaduna where we spent the Night at the Government owned Amdala Hotel. Kaduna took me byu surprise, I had expected to find all the women downed in their Hijhabs, but that was not the case, i found a lot of beautiful women in the town and in fact the average Kaduna inidigene is very friendly and courteous.

okada riders went out of their line of duty to assist us in locating our destinations, hotel staffs answered our barrages of questions and we had some fun amidst the stress of travel.

The next day again, we continued our journey by road to bauchi via jos. We stopped briefly in Jos at around 9.00pm, fatigued, we got down to change vehicles and stretch our legs, i had expected jos to be very cold, so i was draped with my blazers, but it turned out that the tempoerature of Jos was not different to that of Kaduna,

We movbed on to Bauchi and arrived at the Awala Hotel at around 10.30pm, the cheapest sets of rooms were booked solid, unless we wanted to spend a fortune on a suite. we were directed to another hotle Obuma Hotel also in bauchi, I refuse to make any comment on the standard, i stay temporarily in Lagos, so maybe my standard is high.

We packed out of the hotle the next day.

After Bauchi, our last and final destination was Makurdi. We returned to Jos and boarded a bus to Markurdi. Inside the same bus some Benue women entertained us wth local folklore songs, i tried to learn but men! I twisted my toungue several times, but a different souns came out of my mouth compared to theirs. I became an object of Laughter.

Here i am in Markudi at the Benue Hotels in a small cafe, preparing for the last in the series of meetings. I have crossed both the River Niger and Benue that i learnt about in my primary school days, nigeria two most important rivers. I had passed throgh 13 states in the last 9 days, i still have to return to Abuja before i make the finaal journey back to Lagos and home sweet home.

This has been an experience i can never forget.

i will give you gists later

Bauchi May 8, 2007: Youth attending the National Planning Commission’s zonal consultation for the northwest geopolitical zone held in Kaduna has called on government to invest in youth friendly reproductive health services. The young people said that while the draft NEEDS 2 has highlighted the need to invest in strengthening Primary health care, there was a need to pay particular attention to reproductive health services that take into consideration critical issues like maternal health, reduction of harmful traditional practices, HIV/AIDS interventions and related services.

In a youth position paper submitted to the honourable Minister of the National Planning Commission, the young people called for investments in the Universal basic education programme, with considerations for special groups of youth like: young people with disabilities, young women, nomadic groups and the almajiris. They also called for special attention to be paid to the National Youth Policy in the development of youth specific interventions as part of NEEDS 2.

Young people in Nigeria are particularly vulnerable to the myriads of challenges that are faced by the country. Youth unemployment rates currently stand at 14 percent and 23.8 percent in the South-south, 60 percent of the 3.5 million people infected with HIV/AIDS are youth, young people suffer the most from the high poverty levels (53.3 percent) in Nigeria, as they are often dependent on their parents and guardians with no means of income. Young people make-up nearly half of the population of Nigeria. As a result an important development strategy like NEEDS 2 should take into account their numerous challenges and development priorities.

Development Partnership International and the Nigerian Youth Network on the Millennium Development Goals with support from the United Nations Population Fund have been working with young people across the six geopolitical zones of Nigeria to gather their inputs into the NEEDS 2 document at the zonal levels and will put all these together into a final National youth position statement which will be officially presented to the National Planning Commission.

Kaduna, May 06, 2007: Young people are asking for the inclusion of critical issues related to their development into the second National Economic Empowerment and Development Strategy (NEEDS 2). As part of the ongoing consultations being carried out by the National Planning Commission, Development Partnership International (DPI) and the Nigerian Youth Network on the Millennium Development Goals (NYNM) with support from the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) have been mobilizing young people to meet in each of the 6 geopolitical zones to identify and highlight priority issues affecting them through youth position papers, in order to ensure that these issues are clearly reflected in the final NEEDS 2 document.

In the Southwest, young people identified the need to: invest massively in information and communication technology (ICT) education, ensure that the education curriculum is market driven, and make the various micro credit schemes across the country youth friendly to enable young entrepreneurs access resources to start-up or expand their businesses. In the Southeast the key issues focused on agriculture, land reforms and the need to provide incentives through a reward system that will encourage young boys to attend and remain in school until tertiary education. In the south-south region, where the core states of the Niger-delta are, the young people called for: a policy system that will guarantee 30 percent of professional and 70 percent of low cadre jobs for communities where oil and gas companies operate, the establishment of a Niger-delta Youth Development Agency and the provision of insecticide treated mosquito nets to young people in boarding schools and hostels at secondary school and tertiary levels respectively, in order to protect them from the scourge of malaria. NEEDS 2 will be Nigeria’s development framework for 2008-2011 and will seek to reduce poverty levels by 30 percent through employment generation and wealth creation. The draft strategy circulated at each meeting has proposed the creation of 13.7 million new jobs by 2011, as well as other critical interventions in fifteen thematic areas in order for these goals to be met.

The draft youth position paper in the North- is calling for the establishment of youth related mechanisms to track progress with the implementation of NEEDS 2 over the next few years. One such mechanism is the establishment of a Nigerian Youth Expert Panel on NEEDS 2 to work with the various state monitoring committees on SEEDS and NEEDS, to ensure that youth specific indicators in the various thematic areas are being implemented.



Contact: Rotimi Olawale rotimi@youthaidscoalition.org 0805 770 4111

Dabesaki Mac-Ikemenjima dabesaki@developmentpartnership.org 0805 518 2526

YOUTH @ THE NEEDS 2 STAKKEHOLDERS FORUM



Dear All,



As part of the process of developing NEEDS 2, the second stage of the National Economic Empowerment and Development Strategy (NEEDS), Development Partnership International and the Nigerian Youth Network on MDGs (NYNM) invites youth experts, youth leaders and youth organizations to a youth consultation process to coincide with the NEEDS 2 consultative forum planned by the National Planning Commission.



The consultative forum which is planned by the NPC will hold in all the geo-political zones of the country, is being convened to allow stakeholders make input into the development of NEEDS 2. The complete draft document can be downloaded from www.nigerianeconomy.com



Details of the events are as follows:



LAGOS



Date: May 3, 2007

Venue: Oranmiyan Hall, Airport Hotel, Ikeja

Time: 10.00am prompt



OWERRI



Date; May 4, 2007

Venue: Sam Mbakwe Hall, Concorde Hotel, Owerri

Time: 10.00am prompt



ASABA



Date: May 5, 2007

Venue: Nnebisi Hall, Grand Hotel, Asaba

Time: 10.00am prompt



KADUNA



Date: May 7, 2007

Venue: New Hall, Amdala Hotel, kaduna

Time: 10.00am prompt



BAUCHI



Date: May 8, 2007

Venue: Maisango Hall, Awaila Hotel

Time: 9.00am prompt

MAKURDI



Date: May 10, 2007

Venue: Banquet hall, Benue Hotels

Time: 9.00am prompt



DPI and NYNM are developing a draft position paper for youth for each of the zones, a consultative meeting to adopt a youth position paper will hold 1 hour before the NPC meetings or a day before.



To participate in the NPC consultations and youth consultations nearest to you, please email or call Rotimi on Rotimi@youthaidscoalition.org 08057704111 OR Dabesaki on Dabesaki@developmentpartnership.org 08055182526