Interactions with Paul Fagan, IRI’s Regional Director, Africa Division

Yesterday, i got an email from Saratu Abiola inviting me to a meeting today, between Paul Fagan, the International Republican Institute’s Regional Director for the Africa Division and selected youth leaders at the IRI abuja office.

The meeting which held this morning dwelt on experience sharing and interaction between youth leaders who are partners and stakeholders in IRI programming and Paul Fagan. Present at the meeting included, Kingsley Bangwell of the Youngstars Foundation, Lai Labode, President of the People’s Senate, Peter Babayemi representing the National Youth Parliament, Wale Ajani of the National Youth Council, Samson Itodo of the Youth Action Initiative Africa, Cecilia Aransiola of the African Women and Youth Organisation among others.

The meeting dwelt largely around youth involvement in the constitution review process, the Nigerian youth Code of Conduct for Youth organisation, an initiative supported by the IRI and election issues in Nigeria. Youth leaders present at the meeting thanked IRI for its support for youth programming in the past and advocated for futher support from IRI especially in strenghtening capacity of young people in managing IRI programs for youth in Nigeria.

Mr. Fagan, whose had over 14years experience in election observation missions to Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Kenya, Liberia, Nigeria and Ukraine amongst others specifically requested for what young people in Nigeria wanted changed in the constitution review process.

In response, Eche Asuzu of the Alliance for Credible Election called for a recogntion and definition of youth in the Nigerian constitution following the Kenyan model. Also, Samson Itodo, the Coordinator of the Youth Alliance on Constitutional Review shared experience from its recently held twitter conference on the constitutional review process where young people called for the deepening of Nigeria’s Federal system with focus on reforming the Local Government system in Nigeria. I built on strenghtening the local Government system by calling attention to the fact that the legislative arm of many Local Governments in Nigeria is populated by young people and therefore, granting the local government complete autonomy as part of the constitution review process will help to strenghten youth participation in Governance.

The meeting which was facilitated by Bem Aga Bature lasted for one and half hours ended with a commitment from Mr. Fagan for greater consultation with youth stakeholders especially in the design stage of youth programming by IRI starting from the 2013 project cycle.