Since Amaka became our friend a month ago, we always walked home together after lectures and we usually talked about random stories saying them out as we remembered them. Today seemed different as only Aisha and I contributed to the discussion while Amaka contributed her smile which she obviously tried hard to give. I met Aisha’s gaze which passed the information that there was something wrong with Amaka. Anyways, we still kept the story up as Aisha was talking about how her course mate got a tattoo drawn on her eye brow after shaving the hairs there. As she talked I monitored Amaka’s expressions. Whatever must be wrong with her must be a big one I thought. Of the three of us, my house was the closest to the school so we usually went there first before Aisha and Amaka departed to their various homes. Today took a different turn as Amaka wanted to go straight to her house. We asked why, and she said she needed to rest claiming she has a headache the size of Lagos. We let her know fully well we would be at her house once we dropped our bags and lab coats.
As we got to my house, I asked Aisha if she had an idea of what Amaka’s worries were about but she said she was also going to ask me the same before I asked. Apparently we both were ignorant of the worries of our one and only ‘sexy Amaka’ as the boys would call her. As we were getting ready to leave for Amaka’s house, Aisha got a call from her neighbour Demian and I heard her say: latest video spreading fast around campus? No I haven’t seen it. He sounded sarcastic and this made Aisha interested in the video. Tell me about it she said and immediately I saw surprise and terror flash on her face as she said oh my God! She let the phone fall off her palm as she stared at me expressionless. I ran for the phone but I was late. I asked what the problem was and her gaze remained focused on me and she said; it’s Amaka. I sat her down and asked her to tell me about it. Amaka has a sex video spreading fast around campus! I cupped my mouth not knowing what to do or say then I realized her bad mood perfectly fits this bad news. Aisha went on to say the school authority had seen the video and she was going to face the school’s panel the next day.
We hurried to Amaka’s house and found her weeping. I couldn’t stop my tears from rolling out. The three friends cried in silence. Aisha broke the ice by asking Amaka to tell us about it. It took Amaka some minutes to catch her breath as she spoke in between sobs. I met Seun a year back she said, and we used to hangout as friends not until he asked me to be his girlfriend. I didn’t see any reason to say no save for the fact that we just became friends. We liked each other and we got along well. Four months later I found out Seun was a drug addict and I compelled him to stop. At the initial stage he would pretend not to hear me but later he began to warn me about telling him to refrain from drugs. We were sexually active so we usually had a makeup sex after our row but I didn’t know Seun took a video of any. At a point, he would ask to collect some money from me and when I refuse to give him he would beat me up and forcefully take my cash card, this went on for another five months after which I told him I wanted a break from him. This got him mad and he told me if I did he would destroy my future but I didn’t know how he planned to, so I took it as a mere threat. He was obviously scared I was going to expose his drug business but I explained I wouldn’t, even at that he warned me not to go. Three months back I made up my mind and pulled out of the relationship and he swore to deal with me. Recently he called me and told me I went about telling people of his drug business which I told him I didn’t do but he would not listen. Now I see he has given out a video of us and I am doomed! This would definitely make me expose his hidden activity because we are together in this. I wish I had not met Seun she cried, I wished I also abstained!
SEX +DRUGS- What a bad combination!

In April 2011 following the voting exercise which took place in the country, the young promising Nigerian youths in the northern parts decided to show off a portion of their youthful strength. The pockets of violence that trailed the announcement of results of the presidential election escalated as irate youths unleashed mayhem in the northern part of the country. These they said was as a result of what they described to be a slim victory margin of the PDP (people’s Democratic Party) over the CPC (Congress for Progressive Change). Why can’t the candidate who lost fight for himself? We all know these youths are employed to cause violence, the fact that they are out of school already shows the real reason why they take up violence as a career. Of course a graduate cannot be caught in these acts. The question is: Are there no schools for these youths to attend? Or Are there no skill acquisition centres where these youths can get developed? I know the universal basic education program (UBE) operates in the grassroots to enable youths attend schools without payment and also skill acquisition centres where they can learn various handwork of their choice, but they still indulge in violence. If we begin to look at this issue from another dimension we will notice these actions in some cases are been fostered by the leaders whom these youths support. Tell me why a poor youth who doesn’t have much hope for the future wouldn’t accept to do a violent job if it yields income? The idea actually comes from the job providers. If we can tackle those with the ideas behind these violent jobs then there would be reduced opportunities to show violence. Next, some of these poor youths indulge in drug use. Poverty alongside drug use has a high tendency to result in violent acts all with the aim of getting money.
Tomorrow 29th of May marks the inauguration of a new president in the country. Everyone hopes for the best and are optimistic these irate youths do not have something up their sleeves.

I attended a meeting which focused on integrating FP and HIV into RH facilities, during the meeting I remembered an incident that happened to a close neighbour of mine and I thought; why can’t mental and psychological check ups be integrated into YF facilities for young people? I believe some youths who tend to do brutal things as regard their health might have a problem some where be it psychological or mental or in some other cases he/she might be in a perfect state of health. My neighbour is a strong 23 years old young boy, very agile and smart but behaves weird sometimes but since his normal behaviours are more than his weird behaviours we all see it as his way of life. Recently, he began taking marijuana and upgraded to opium and heroine. Whenever he doesn’t take these substances he acts very normal and the only difference I noticed is that whenever he takes any of these he acts sluggish and retires to his room to sleep or do whatever. As a student I see a lot of young boys who indulge in drugs and I decided to take out some time to study their behaviours before and after they take these drugs. Basically I used a young boy who used to live in the same flat with me back in school. He never relates much with girls and I over heard one boy say he never haves sex because he has a low sex drive (libido). Wow! It’s funny how drugs can affect ones sexual reproductive health. My strong neighbour began to deteriorate and soon we were all concerned about his new deteriorating looks. Soon he stopped marijuana. Weeks later I heard he raped a girl. Whatever he began taking improved his sex drive. When he was confronted he said he couldn’t remember doing that. I started noticing his memory loss i.e. short term memory. Too bad he began to forget so much. He began shearing syringes used at the bunk he goes. Only God knows his status. Cases like these have so much bad impact to ones health especially when you can’t remember what you do most times! If we eventually have accessible youth friendly centres this will become easy to tackle.

I was priviledged to attend the workshop organized by the digital peers international (DPI) for youths on the 28th of march 2011. As a youth advocate, I have had my capacity built in information communication technology and I recongnize how supportive ICT has been in regards to what I do as an advocate. DPI is a non-governmental organization which is ICT centred. The theme for the workshop was 10 tactics for turning information into action. Attending this workshop has being of great help to me and I thought 'sharing this knowledge with my peers will be a nice thing to do'. The workshop used the audio-visual method to enlighten its particiants. we were made to understand how we can harness information/communication tools to produce a change. The 10 tactics are as follows:
1. Mobilizing people
This can be done througn the use of new media. The use of videos(videography) and social networks like facebook and twitter goes a long way in bringing a large number of people to support a cause.
2. Witnessing and recording.
This can be done through moblie recording, blogging and various internet services.
3. Visualise your message.
This can be done through the use of pictures(animations) and the use of maps.
4. Amplify personal stories.
Personal stories gets the attention of your audience better than an illustation. personal stories can be done live, in blogs, video documentaries and online stories.
5. Adding humour to stories
This can be done in web posters and karaoke messages.
6. Manage your contacts.
7. Use complex data.
8. Use collective intelligence
Report it live.
9. People ask questions.
10. Investigate and expose.

All these tactics are used in regards to the target audience.
I saw the great importance of ICT in helping to  promote awareness of sexual reproductive health issues especially among young people. The use of videos, blogs, maps, social networks, animations, personal stories and contact management are very important areas that forster advocacy.

The interactive session which took place yesterday in Gwagwalada area council, Abuja Nigeria brought young people together to discuss their problems regarding the electoral processes currently going on in the country. Enough is Enough in collaboration with Education as a vaccine which sponsored the session provided various electoral aspirants to give a five minutes talk on various challenges as aspirants and the reasons why young people should vote. A question and answer session was also provided as the youths present were able to ask whatever questions they had. The theme RSVP which represents REGISTER, SELECT, VOTE and PROTECT was explained in details to the participants so as to ensure every vote counts during the election. The participants linked developmental issues as well as reproductive health issues to the need for voting the right candidates. young people present gave various criterias on which they would vote their candidates some of which are the confidence of the aspirant, what he/she says he would do, the level of education attained, his/her experience and what he/she has done in the past. The need to stay away from electoral violence was emphasized as the need to protect their vote using their phones via calls, social networks for smart fones and the use of pictures was encouraged. The participants promised to be of good conduct during the whole process and pledged their support to register, select, vote and protect their votes.   

I see a time come, when every young girl both in the rural and urban areas will recognize they have a right, and a role to play in Nation building.
I see a time come, when every young girl will have adequate access to health facilities, services and comprehensive sexual reproductive health information including contraceptives.
I see a time come, when young women and girls in the rural areas will strike out early/child marriage from their cultural practice.
I see a time come, when every young girl will have COMPULSORY ACCESS TO BASIC EDUCATION.
I see a time come, when all forms of violence against females will be reduced to the barest minimum.
I see a time come, when unsafe abortion will not be an option for young girls.
I see a time come, when cultural practice like Female Genital Mutilation will no longer be practiced.
I see a time come, when women will be given a 100% opportunity to participate.
I see a time come, when socio-cultural factors which make discrimination and stigmatization against girls for various reason be made punishable to offenders by the law.
I see a time come, when all these will come to pass.
This is my dream for all girls.

It happened on the 2nd day of the Advocacy training for the Youth Advocate Group (YAG) held in Abuja Nigeria. I personally wasn’t interested in the activity we were about to carry out which served as the icebreaker for the day, only because it was compulsory I had to partake in it.
The white papers were pinned to the wall, words written bold in black ink drew my attention to them but they were ten in number making it difficult to read them all at once. All the members of the council were eager but had to wait for instructions on what to do with them. Finally she said it...` the topic for today’s icebreaker is LEDERSHIP’. I swore under my breath and immediately lost interest. She went on... ` go round the ten papers, read each one as you approach it and stand in front of the one which inspires you the most. This is not an activity for me I thought but I had no choice but to join the rest of the YAG. I started reading the one in front of me... `People are more easily led than driven. David Harold’. I moved ahead and read `and when we think we lead we are most led. Lord Bryon’. Amazingly it became interesting! I continued reading until I got to the one which hit me. It read `The only real training for leadership is leadership. Anthony Jay’. I immediately fell in love with it at first sight, I stopped. Curiosity made me read the others I hadn’t read while I jealously guided my new love.

Amazing how leadership can be described in a sentence. I began to reason with Anthony Jay. Everyone is a leader, Leadership trainings are important but I believe experience is the best teacher. Having to be a good leader entails being a leader i.e. you cannot be a good leader when you do not lead.

As a member of my council volunteering to carry out a task meant for the entire council makes me a leader, keeping track of activities in my designation makes me a leader. I mustn’t be appointed a leader before I become one. Exercising these little traits cooks me up to be a good and effective leader. With my new love for leadership I have decided to include my name in my list of Young People with a Passion for Leadership (YPPFL) an acronym I figured.
So many definitions and explanations of leadership given by the other council members designed a new face of leadership in my mind. Lastly am glad I joined the YPPFL. Smiles.

Dowry deaths...
Dowry deaths are responsible for the murder of thousands of women every year, especially in south Asia. This is a typical example of gender inequality and violence against women and girls. UNFPA estimates that 5,000 women worldwide are burnt to death in murder disguised as ‘kitchen accidents’ each year because their dowry was considered insufficient. I wonder why people should do this! In India and Pakistan, thousands of women are victims of dowry deaths. In India alone, there were almost 7,000 dowry deaths in 2005 with the majority of victims aged 15-34. In some areas also if a bride cannot meet the financial demand of her dowry, she is subject to torture, harassment and death by the groom’s family. This is supposed to be a folktale but it is surprising how these happen within our developing societies. Thank God these issues are presently being arrested.
Reference: The facts, advocates for youth 2010.

My visit to Ikom in cross river state, Nigeria showed the way young people in Ikom lack a platform to show their inner content. So many talents are lying idle. Imagine a community where what young girls do is look good for the boys..no wonder a lot of them have babies during their teenage days. I call this self violence. It’s Funny this happens even when a greater part of the young ones in the villages in that state are school goers. Fancy a young girl of about 12-15 getting pregnant, there is a high possibility of VVF at child birth. Not only that, STIs can also be transmitted. The idea of abortion is not left out as an option in this case as this is detrimental to their lives. Interviews with some of these youths showed a number of them suggested a free senior secondary education, because some of these girls do not have enough money to continue their senior secondary education. I hope that solves the case. Hmmmmn..

‘The state of the Nigerian politics is termed immature’ this was said by a young Nigerian youth during a focus group discussion held by the Youth Advocate Group, Nigeria. The discussion checked how much young Nigerians know about the electoral process. A number of them were of the opinion that the idea of registration/voting doesn’t make sense. Only a few recognized it’s their civic right to register and vote if eligible. I wonder how many rights we can recognize as ours as young people. Although the electoral process in Nigeria has not been 100% free and fair, a change can be made.  Young people who form the largest constituent of the Nigerian Nation can make this change happen. During the discussion, young Nigerians showed the fear of violence as one of their major fears of going out to vote as a good number of them have experienced cases of violence during the past electoral processes. Violence as the case may be has a lot of effects on the lives of the young ones especially; think about how many would be raped, injured and killed amongst a number of damages. Other barriers discussed were the cost of transportation to the centres. The assurance given out by the current president of a free and fair election on the basis of one man one vote which implies every vote will count has given a fair number of young people a change of mind about refraining from the electoral process. Although some youths are demanding incentives, the idea of the ineffectiveness of the equipments has become a greater barrier as the speed of the registration process is poor. I really hope this does not lead to the disenfranchisement of young people.