Tuesday 29 October 2013

My official campaign video

My official campaign video (HD copy) is out!
Please do not miss it!
Thank you,
Ahmed Adamu for Chairperson, Commonwealth Youth Council
My official Campaign Video


WHO IS AHMED ADAMU

WHO IS AHMED ADAMU

You have followed all my campaign manifestos, now it is time to know if I have the wheel and the drive to fulfill those missions. My past experiences are key determinants of my ability to lead over 1.2 billion youth in the commonwealth. Please read my profile below:

Name: Ahmed Adamu
Country: Nigeria
Candidate for: Chairperson, Commonwealth Youth Council

EDUCATIONAL EXPERIENCE:
- PhD in Economics, Newcastle University, United Kingdom, 2012 to date.
- MSc Oil and Gas Economics, University of Dundee, United Kingdom, 2011.
- B.A (ED) Economics, Bayero University Kano, Nigeria, 2006.
- Certificate in Computer Appreciation and Application, FCE, Katsina, Nigeria, 2006.
- National Business Certificate, GCC, M/adua, Katsina, Nigeria, 2001.

WORK EXPERIENCE:
- University Lecturer (2011 to date)
- Senior Secondary School Teacher (2008 to 2011)
- National Youth Service Corps, 2007.

YOUTH WORKS/EXPERIENCES:
- Nigerian Delegate at the Commonwealth Youth Forum, Australia, 2011.
- Pioneer Chief Whip, Nigerian Youth Parliament, 2008 to 2011.
- Nigerian Youth Observer at ECOWAS Parliament, 2010
- Founder and Pioneer President, Youth Participation for Progressive Development Initiative, 2007 to 2011
- Member, Katsina State Executive Council Committee on youth restiveness and Unemployment, December, 2011.
- Secretary, Constitutional review Committee, Katsina Central Constituency, 2012.
- Commonwealth Youth Ambassador for MyWorld Campaign, 2013.
- Presented the communiqué of the Commonwealth Youth Forum to Her Majesty, the Queen of England, 2011 (Met and Shook hand with the Queen).
- Founder/President, Oil and Gas Scholars Club 2011 to date.
- Founder/President, Katsina Debate Club, 2011.
- Publicity Secretary, Civil Liberties Organization, Katsina state Branch, 2007
- Secretary, Katsina State Integrity Group, 2009 to 2011.
- Financial Secretary, Students Union Government, BUK, 2004/2005.
- National President, National Association of Katsina State Students, 2005/2006
- Ex-Officio Young Foresters Club B.U.K. 2004
- President, MDG/NYSC CDS Group, 2007
- Volunteer, Public Enlightment project

AWARDS:
- Award of Excellence by League for Democratic Youths, Katsina State, Nigeria, 2009
- Most Influential Politician (Award Presented by NESA), 2006

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCES:
I am a member of six different international and national professional organizations. I published a book titled “Comparative Assessment of Petroleum Sharing Contracts in Nigeria”. I published three international academic papers, I presented three international and two national academic papers, I participated in so many international and national academic conferences. I also supervised many academic research papers.

Contact:
Mobile: +447589710113
Email: ahmadadamu@yahoo.com
a.adamu@newcastle.ac.uk
Skype: ahmadadamu
Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/groups/411366385630182/


7th Priority Agenda: PROMOTION OF CYC IMAGE AND COMMONWEALTH VALUES:

7th Priority Agenda: PROMOTION OF CYC IMAGE AND COMMONWEALTH VALUES:

It has been a very long 8 days, from the day I opened my campaign to this day. I kept my promise, today I am unveiling my 7th Priority agenda as follows: 

PROMOTION OF CYC IMAGE AND COMMONWEALTH VALUES: The restructuring of commonwealth youth leadership is an excellent step toward promoting the image of commonwealth youth leadership in the eyes of the world. We commend the effort of the youth leaders that initiated the process and the Commonwealth Secretariat that supported it. Therefore, there is a daunting task upon us (if emerged) in ensuring that the efforts of our ancestors are not in vain. To do that, we are resolve to creating different platforms that will unite and involve all the youth in our decision makings.

i. LEGITIMACY AND FINANCIAL BASE:
We will facilitate for constitutional recognition of the CYC, and a clear legal frame within which different youth leadership platforms relates with the CYC. We will expand the financial sources of the council for its sustainability. This will be achieved through partnership, sponsorship, fundraising, CYC own business etc

ii. PROFESSIONALISM:
Professionalism and maturity is the major traits that will be adopted by all executive members to inspire and fascinate the world. Our activities and programmes will make the CYC the best international youth organization in the world.

iii. INTERNATIONAL RELATION:
The council under my leadership will track, involve and comment on major international issues that affect the youths in commonwealth countries, this is to project the power of the council and sensitize the general public on the relevance of involving the youth in addressing any national and international issues of concern.
iv. YOUTH ONLINE TV: We will maintain an online youth TV that will be showcasing different youth projects and programmes across the commonwealth countries (Kudos to Rahatul for initiating this project).

v. UNITY:
My leadership will advocate and insist for mutual tolerance, peace and equality among the youths irrespective of gender, ethnicity or religion.

Please feel free to make your contributions! Please see poster attached.

IF THE YOUTH WANT TO DO IT, THEN THEY CAN DO IT.

Thank you

Ahmed Adamu,
Vote Ahmed Adamu as CHAIRPERSON, Commonwealth Youth Council,
email: ahmedadamuforchairpersoncyc@yahoo.co
Phone: +447589710113.
facebook page: Ahmed Adamu for CYC Chairperson:http://www.facebook.com/groups/411366385630182/


6th Priority Agenda: Youth Employment

6th Priority Agenda: Youth Employment

EMPLOYMENT: All the previously mentioned agendas are tailored toward guaranteeing youth employment which upholds youth development and independence. The commonwealth youth development index has reported poor working conditions, under-employments and absolute unemployment among the youth in many commonwealth countries. In order to guarantee quality youth employment and wellbeing, we proposed the following points:

i. PRIVATE-PUBLIC PARTNERSHIP: Since we understood the fact that government alone cannot provide the required employment for our teaming youth, there should be private involvement in providing quality job opportunities. The CYC will make a survey, visit and appeal to multinational private organizations in order to convince them and partner with governments in creating and enhancing working conditions for the youth in the commonwealth.

ii. FREE LABOUR MOVEMENTS: Free movement of labour is critical for ensuring economic prosperity and reducing unemployment. More than 40% of unemployment in the world can be estimated to be a structural unemployment, which is the type of unemployment that occurs because some labour markets have more workers than there are jobs available, and for some reason wages don't decrease to bring the markets into equilibrium. Recommendations will be made to the commonwealth meeting of heads of governments in easing the transfer/hire of labour between commonwealth countries. It was reported that, large number of human labour is concentrated in regions where there is no or little demand for their services, but where there is demand for such services, the labour supply is very low. To tackle the labour market failure, commonwealth countries should lessen their immigration requirements and strictness to enable young people pursue their life goals and ambitions.

iii. JOB INFORMATION: In many commonwealth countries, one of the major causes of unemployment is lack of information. The CYC will agitate and chase for policy enactment through the office of the VICE CHAIR: POLICY AND ADVOCACY to compel all corporate and government organizations to publish their job opportunities and also make it available to job centres. Countries that do not have these job centres should be called to establish them or to create any other medium through which youth can access information about job opportunities that suit their interest and profession. Regional and National Youth leaders would be encouraged to monitor the process of employment in their countries to ensure fairness and transparency.

iv. DATABASE FOR UNEMPLOYED YOUTH: the CYC will make proposal to all commonwealth countries to create a database for unemployed youth. This will contain their background, education and work experiences. This will serve as indicator for the level and type of unemployment persistent in every country. It will also make it easy for employers to promptly have access to their potential employees; it will also reduce the period of stay before a candidate submits his/her information to employers.

Please feel free to make your contributions! Please see poster attached.

IF THE YOUTH WANT TO DO IT, THEN THEY CAN DO IT.

Thank you

Ahmed Adamu,
Vote Ahmed Adamu as CHAIRPERSON, Commonwealth Youth Council,
email: ahmedadamuforchairpersoncyc@yahoo.co
Phone: +447589710113.
facebook page: Ahmed Adamu for CYC Chairperson:http://www.facebook.com/groups/411366385630182/



5th Priority Agenda: Youth Governance/leadership support.

5th Priority Agenda: Youth Governance/leadership support.

Today, I will be revealing to you my 5th priority Agenda which is:

Youth Governance/leadership support.

Commonwealth youth constitute more than half of the commonwealth population, and they represent the future of the commonwealth. There is no doubt youth are leaders of today and tomorrow. Preparing and engaging young people in governance is an investment for future prosperity. Leadership is like a vehicle, you have to be trained before you can drive it. One of the core values of Commonwealth Youth Council is to ensure adequate youth inclusion in leadership, decision making and developmental issues. To ensure better youth participation in progressive development and proper leadership training, I propose to pursue the following agendas:

i. MINIMUM OF 30% YOUTH LEADERSHIP ALLOCATION: My leadership will vigorously appeal and chase for at least 30% allocation of political/leadership positions to youth across the commonwealth’s countries. This will help expose the youth to the leadership challenges and enable them acquire necessary leadership skills required for better governance in the future. This will comprise inclusion in ministerial appointments, international official delegations, appointments as aid to the heads of governments, involvement in political party structures and house of parliament, etc

ii. YOUTH PARLIAMENT: it is good that some commonwealth youth countries have already established Youth Parliaments in their countries. CYC under our leadership, will strengthen the sustainability and improvement of the programme, and ensure establishment of the YP in other countries that have not implemented yet.

iii. DEMOCRACY AT YOUTH LEADERSHIP STRUCTURES: Democracy shall be maintained at all levels of youth leadership, our leadership will ensure absolute democracy, fairness, and transparency at regional, national and local youth leadership structures. This will be done through youth leadership assessment committee that will observe and report on the democratic settings of youth leadership structures in every commonwealth countries.

iv. ADEQUATE FUNDING FOR YOUTH DEVELOPMENT WORKS: our leadership will push for improvement in budgetary allocations for youth development organizations and other related youth development projects. The CYC will ensure fairness and transparency in distributing these funds to the youth led organizations.

Please feel free to make your contributions! Please see poster attached.

IF THE YOUTH WANT TO DO IT, THEN THEY CAN DO IT.

Thank you

Ahmed Adamu,
Vote Ahmed Adamu as CHAIRPERSON, Commonwealth Youth Council,
email: ahmedadamuforchairpersoncyc@yahoo.co
Phone: +447589710113.
facebook page: Ahmed Adamu for CYC Chairperson:http://www.facebook.com/groups/411366385630182/


List of All contestants for the CYC elections

Meet all the contestants for the Commonwealth Youth Council elections, scheduled between 9th and 14th of November, 2013 in Sri Lanka.
http://www.mi-event.info/event/cycelections2013

4th Priority Agenda: ICT

4th Priority Agenda: ICT

My 4th proposed agenda is our commitments toward improving accessibility, reliability and better use of information and communication technology among the commonwealth youth.

ICT: The modern civilization has turned the world to a global village where information and communication can be made prompt. Education and Business are now IT inclined. Therefore, to catch up with the modern world, youth need to be technologically acquainted, and should also learn how to make productive use of these opportunities. Strong and reliable internet accessibility enhances productivity and economic prosperity. If elected, we proposed the following programmes:

i. INTERNET ACCESSIBLITY: in many commonwealth countries, accessibility and quality of internet services has been a serious issue of concern. CYC under our leadership will appeal to governments, telecommunication companies and other service providers to improve the strength, reliability, affordability and sustainability of internet services in these countries. This will be achieved through a youth led dialogue with all the stakeholders in the sector in the affected countries.

ii. ICT TRAINING: many young people are not aware of how to make use of computer system or surf the internet. To carry these young people along, ICT and computer workshops/training will be provided especially in countries that are left behind in the sector.

iii. FREE DISTRIBUTION OF COMPUTER/ COMMUNICATION DEVICES: the CYC will seek for sponsorship and collaborations for provision of free computer sets and modern smart mobile devices to some less privileged and physically challenged young men and women.

Please feel free to make your contributions! Please see poster attached.

IF THE YOUTH WANT TO DO IT, THEN THEY CAN DO IT.

Thank you

Ahmed Adamu,
Vote Ahmed Adamu as CHAIRPERSON, Commonwealth Youth Council,
email: ahmedadamuforchairpersoncyc@yahoo.co
Phone: +447589710113.
facebook page: Ahmed Adamu for CYC Chairperson:http://www.facebook.com/groups/411366385630182/


Third Priority Agenda: Agriculture!

Third Priority Agenda: Agriculture!

Dear All,

Today, I will be revealing my proposed plans for youth in Agriculture. This will be our third proposed point of priority.

1. AGRICULTURE: Agriculture has been a major provider of employments to large number of young people in commonwealth countries, but this sector needs to be modernised in many of these countries so as to make it attractive to young people. Agriculture has lost its prestige in the eyes of so many young people due to its traditional nature. Investing in all value chains of agriculture will create millions of job opportunities to teaming unemployed young people in the commonwealth countries. CYC under our leadership (if elected) proposes the following line of actions in order to support youth in agriculture:

i. BUDGETARY ALLOCATION: The CYC under our leadership will agitate for proper funding to the agricultural sector through the commonwealth heads of governments. This is to help revitalize and modernize the sector by providing contemporary agricultural facilities. The CYC will chase for increase in budgetary allocation for agricultural sector.

ii. AGRICULTURAL SKILLS TRAINING: as the sector is been modernized, new equipment and facilities will be introduced, the CYC will ensure that youth are properly trained on how to make use of these facilities, and they will be sensitized on the potentials of the sector in changing their lives.

iii. CREDIT FACILITIES: the CYC through the regional, national and local youth structures will identify the youth that need support in agriculture. This will include youth that are already into agriculture and those that want to join the sector. Subsequently, relevant business collaborations and sponsorship will be facilitated to empower these young people.

Please feel free to make your contributions! Please see poster attached.

IF THE YOUTH WANT TO DO IT, THEN THEY CAN DO IT.

Thank you
Ahmed Adamu,

Vote Ahmed Adamu as CHAIRPERSON, Commonwealth Youth Council,
email: ahmedadamuforchairpersoncyc@yahoo.co
Phone: +447589710113.
facebook page: Ahmed Adamu for CYC Chairperson:http://www.facebook.com/groups/411366385630182/

MY SECOND POINT OF PRIORITY: ENTREPRENEURSHIP

MY SECOND POINT OF PRIORITY: ENTREPRENEURSHIP

Today I will be sharing with you my proposed line of actions relating to Youth Entrepreneurship. Please see the poster attached for a summary of this agenda.

1. ENTREPRENEURSHIP: it is a common knowledge that youth empowerment does not rally around education alone, as youth with educational experience sometimes turn out to be unemployed due to relatively low number of white-collar job opportunities. However, complementing that with entrepreneurial skills will give those youth an immediate job to do, and will give them an alternative career options in their lives.

i. VOCATIONAL SKILLS TRAINING: the CYC under our leadership will agitate for inclusion of vocational skills training as a compulsory school module or an extra school programme which students must attend, so that they can acquire different professional skills, which they can develop independently after schools. These skills acquisitions should be made opened to all youth freely. It shall also be complemented by supporting and encouraging youth that have already acquired vocational skills to share their talents and experiences with other young people through short term workshops.

ii. INTER-COUNTRY ENTREPRENEURSHIP EXCHANGE: a proposal will be made for exchange of youth talents and skills within commonwealth countries. Youth with unique entrepreneurial skills in one country will be sponsored to travel to another country to train other youth, and share the experiences and challenges they faced in their career. However, the transferred skills have to be found marketable in the receiving country before such inter-country entrepreneurial exchange takes place. This will go a long way in expanding the available skills options for the youth.

iii. YOUTH ENTREPRENEURSHIP COMPETITION: After acquisition of professional skills, youth will need to be empowered to establish their own businesses. As such, youth led committee will be constituted to call, receive and assess business proposals from young people. The selected business proposals will be presented to some of the youth development partners for sponsorship.

iv. COMMONWEALTH ANNUAL ENTREPRENEURSHIP AWARD DINNER:
Every year, the CYC under our leadership will constitute a youth led committee that will coordinate and administer award of excellence to outstanding young people in entrepreneurship. This will help inspire other youth to embrace entrepreneurship.

Please feel free to contribute your inputs.

Thank you

Ahmed Adamu,
for CHAIRPERSON,
Commonwealth Youth Council.

MY FIRST POINT OF PRIORITY:EDUCATION

MY FIRST POINT OF PRIORITY:EDUCATION

My aspiration for the chairperson of the commonwealth youth council was inspired by my enthusiasm for youth development and my experience in the commonwealth youth programmes. It has been my personal ambition to contribute in any way possible toward enhancing effective youth participation in developmental issues. I have personally realised and appreciate the fact that young people are a force for peace, democracy, equality, and good governance; a catalyst for global consensus building; and an essential resource for sustainable development and poverty eradication, as such there is need for an effective youth leadership that will help in anchoring the voice and yearning of the youths especially in the commonwealth countries. Commonwealth youth council is one of the wonderful platforms through which youths can demonstrate their leadership capacities and channel their grievances. It is a platform for enlightening the youth on their roles in the society and supporting them in becoming active participants in making decisions that affect them. These motives cannot be achieved without a competent youth leadership in the commonwealth youth council, which is why I stand for the chairperson of the council to give my maximum contribution toward achieving these objectives and any other relevant youth development objective.

If elected as the chairperson of the commonwealth youth council, I will work closely with commonwealth youth countries’ ministers and their respective national youth leaders in ensuring adequate investment in youth especially in the area of education, entrepreneurship, agriculture, ICT, leadership, employment, and promotion of CYC image and commonwealth values. These will form my leadership’s points of priorities. My leadership will drive its strength and support from the commonwealth secretariat, commonwealth organizations, and other youth development partners, through which we will extend and reinforce meaningful youth development projects in order to strengthen the youth potentials and advance the values and objectives of the Commonwealth. I will make the council an easily accessible platform that will integrates the commonwealth young people and create the opportunity for sharing ideas and experiences, channelling complaints, and inspiring one another. This will be achieved through different modern electronic and social media (including youth TV), as well as annual regional and national youth assemblies/dialogue through which we will hear directly from the youths, and the youth will hear from us. This will shape our commitments toward the real yearning of the youths. Similarly, immediately after our inauguration, we will undertake a youth survey that will hear directly from the youth on what they think are their major issues of concerns and how they think it could be solved. This will serve as the bases for shaping or redefining our points of priorities.

My leadership’s 7 points priorities are discussed below:

1. EDUCATION: education is the bedrock for any meaningful development. It is through education that people’s ranks and positions in society are placed. The initial step of empowering young people is through Education. It is with this on our minds that we will set out the following line of actions to maximally tap the vast intellectual potentials of young people in the commonwealth so that they can be better citizens, employable and contribute to the developmental issues of their communities.

i. Special Educational Scholarships: Through the office of vice chairperson (Policy and Advocacy) the CYC will agitate for the creation of educational scholarships to less privileged, young women and physically challenged young people in every commonwealth member country. The recent Commonwealth Development Index have shown that most of developing countries in Africa and Asia are lagged behind in terms of quantity of young people in education and the level of quality education. Millions of intelligent young people are unwillingly out of school because they lack sponsorship. These young people are the future of the commonwealth, and we cannot afford to have illiterate future. Under our leadership, we will make sure that a transparent and fair educational sponsorship scheme is established or improved in countries where there is an existing similar scheme. The youth should be involve in the scheme, and there should be monitoring and evaluation youth task force for the scheme in every country, who will report to the CYC headquarters any progress, impact and weaknesses of the scheme. The scholarship scheme should cover all levels of education. This will not be taken lightly and serious campaigns, appeals and complains will be staged against any country that refuses to implement a generous scholarship for these special group of young people. I will make sure that a strategic plan for identifying these young people are put in place by the office of vice chairperson inclusion and engagement.

ii. EDUCATIONAL STRUCTURES AND FACILITIES: it was reported that in Kenya for example, 7 out of every 10 rural nursery schools don’t have access to blackboard (by sponsor a child Kenya Initiative). How many engineering schools do we have out there in many commonwealth countries without sufficient laboratory equipments? Talk more about the medical schools, how many people die due to inadequate medical experts who were poorly trained due to lack of teaching facilities. Providing scholarships is not enough without complementary funds allocation to provide these needed and necessary facilities and structures. To this effect, the CYC will make serious campaign and put pressure to the commonwealth countries to ensure better and improved budgetary allocations to improve the standards of educational schools/institutions in every commonwealth countries. For countries that have done well in the sector, a sustainable and improving plans shall be in place to further enhance the standards.

iii. YOUTH EDUCATION COMMITTEE: the CYC under our leadership will constitute education monitoring and evaluation committee in every level of youth leadership structure. The committee will undertake research on the problems and solutions of educations problems peculiar to every region and local community. The committee will be responsible for ensuring proper implementation of the CYC’s educational policy agitations, and reports any success or otherwise.
iv. CAMPAIGN FOR REVIEW OF EDUCATIONAL CURRICULUM: as the world evolves dramatically, new challenges and societal expectations changes, leading to the need to acquire a suitable education that fits the new challenges. Certain youth’s potentials have not yet been accommodated in educational curriculum, which could be relevant to the modern world challenges. Youth research group will be sponsored in every commonwealth country to identify those potential modules that need review, either to scrap or to introduce new ones depending on the peculiar circumstances in the locality.

v. COLLABORATION WITH PARTNERS: in the beginning of our tenure, a youth survey will be conducted to hear more about the youths problems in education and what they think should be the solution. This will be followed with an articulated line of actions toward achieving that, and identifying the relevant partners apart from government that will invest in providing quality education to young men and women in Commonwealth Countries.

I will continue with the second point of priority tomorrow, meanwhile please read and advice me on how you think the quality of education can be improved for the commonwealth youth.
Thank you.
IF THE YOUTH WANT TO DO IT, THEN THEY CAN DO IT.
Vote Ahmed Adamu as CHAIRPERSON, Commonwealth Youth Council,
email: ahmedadamuforchairpersoncyc@yahoo.com
Phone: +447589710113.
facebook page: Ahmed Adamu for CYC Chairperson:http://www.facebook.com/groups/411366385630182/

Declaration of Campaign

It is my pleasure to inform you that my candidature for the Chairperson of theCommonwealth Youth Council has been approved. Today the 18th October is the official opening date for public campaign for the CYC executive positions, may I usethis medium to declare my campaign opened, and to seek for your maximum support to ensure victory at the poll in November. The first Commonwealth Youth Council general assembly is scheduled to hold between 10th and 14th November, 2013 in Hambantota, Sri Lanka. During this assembly, the election into the executive positions of the council will take place. From now until the election day, I will be posting series of my Manifestos, and I will be entertaining questions and advises. Even though, only two delegates from each country in the Commonwealth will be allowed to vote during the voting process, it is imperative for all youths in the 53 Commonwealth countries to recognize the existence of the new official platform that represents the voice of
young people in the Commonwealth. The priority of my leadership (if elected) will be centered around 7 POINTS AGENDAS, which are geared toward empowering young people to become active participants in shaping the developmental trend of their societies. These agendas are strategically mapped out to strengthen the potentials of young men and women in the commonwealth in every aspects of their modern lives. These agendas are categorized into 1. Education 2. Entrepreneurship 3. ICT 4.Agriculture 5. Governance/leadership 6. Employment 7. Promotion of the CYC image and commonwealth values. I will be posting details of each of these agendas serially. My leadership (if elected) will make use of the existing youth structures at regional, national, states and local levels. Our leadership will make use of direct inputs and suggestions from the over 1.2 billion young people in the commonwealth. With the active participation of my three vice chairpersons, regional representatives and representative of special interest group, our coverage and success will be guaranteed. Voting for me is voting for better leadership of the youth, by the youth, and for the youth. I seek for your votes and support, and I look forward to working with every stakeholder, and I will not let you down. IF THE YOUTH WANT TO DO IT, THEN THEY CAN DO IT.
Vote Ahmed Adamu as CHAIRPERSON, Commonwealth Youth Council,
email: ahmedadamuforchairpersoncyc@yahoo.com
Phone: +447589710113.
facebook page: Ahmed Adamu for CYC Chairperson:http://www.facebook.com/groups/411366385630182/