I suppose you know by now that 'Service My Country' is the title of my book. Perhaps what you do not know is that I feel very strongly that my role in the Nigerian project is critical. During the next week or so, keep your eyes on this page, because I am finally going to break my silence on the political impasse in Nigeria.

 Its time to 'Service My Country.' 

From February 21, 2010, I am starting an exciting discussion series at http://www.dabesaki.com/cgi-bin/blog to elicit discussion around youth and development paradigms. It will be interesting to explore how mainstream development discourses, approaches and theories conceptualise youth development and implications for youth policy and planning. In recent times, ’Youth’ has been conceptualised mainly from the view point of the rights based approach, with participation and access to services, especially reproductive health and educational services at the core.

Within the mainstream discourses, youth have mainly been discussed within the fields of psychology and biology with key concepts on puberty and adolescence at the centre. Although various concepts in age-long, contemporary development discourse include concepts explaining why young people behave in certain ways and laws have been put in place to provide special treatment to young law breakers (under 18), not much effort has been made to theorise youth development as has been done with feminist theories as a means to explain gender inequalities. 

 The few existing efforts that theorise youth development have mainly emanated from the United States- as early as 1904, Stanley Hall launched a scientific study of adolescence. His approach attempted to explain the psychological and physical changes that occur during adolescence and social aspects of these changes. However, his connotation of adolescence as a period of ‘storm and stress’ problematised youth as those ‘at risk’ and ‘problems to be fixed.’ But since the early 1990’s, efforts have started to shift from deficit based, problem-solving modules to positive youth development approaches working with young people as assets rather than liabilities. Given their powerful networks and peer influences, youth are a unique social capital, which can benefit society immensely.

The transition to PYD is a major leap forward. However, despite this progress, there still remains much to be done to evolve mainstream youth development theoretical frameworks, just like the case of the feminist movements, which would eventually lead to integrated strategies drawing from such fields as biology, medicine, psychology, sociology, anthropology and economics to explain youth and their development. Thus, the key questions for discussion are:

· Are there existing modules or models of youth development that need to be taken into account, discussed, expanded and possibly further disseminated?

·    Is the positive youth development model a good one? If so, is it being effectively utilised in programmes beyond the United States and beyond the sphere of youth participation to other aspects of young people’s lives?

·   What synergies are possible from existing policy mechanisms and theoretical frameworks to inform better youth development programming?

·  Are there existing theories within the social and applied sciences that can explain youth behaviours, development challenges and provide insights on how to solve them?

Kindly post your comments below and you are very welcome to post links to any useful websites, papers and journal articles. Any queries can be emailed directly to mail@dabesaki.com. I am looking very much forward to a lively debate in the coming days.

Ps: the discussion on this initial thread will be open until February 27, 2010.

Last weekend I read Winnie Mandela's auto-biography  titled 'part of my soul went with him' published in 1985.  The book revealed a young woman's determination to save her country, but also to preserve the essence of marriage, family and community.

 In the book, Winnie questions religion, addresses the role of religion in the propagation of colonialism and shared her own role in the fight against aparthied. The book was so captivating, I could not put it down until I had finished reading it. Winnie's story is a must read. It  presents one lesson for me, and that of resillience, determination and consistency with one's principles. She, by her stand on white domination demonstrated the 'ubuntu' spirit. I am sure that she could have choosen a different path, like to leave South Africa or accept a negotiated 'release,' but she decided to stay the course.

waterstones.com

 Both the lives of Winne and Nelson Mandela present enormous lessons that this generation of young people can take on board as we navigate the murky waters of African 'liberation' from poverty. This is a real battle that must be won, and it can only happen when African young take their stand and insist that the right things be done by the political elite. In the South African struggle, the line was clear, white minority versus black majority. In most of Africa, it is the case of a black elite versus the black majority poverty stricken population. Hopefully, young Africans will mobilise mass movements everywhere accross the continent and ask for CHANGE! 

This was the main theme of my paper 'for the love of country' to be presented at the meeting of Nigerian students at the University of East Anglia, which I unfortunately missed. Nigeria is in dare need of change! Our president has been away leaving a power vacuum and the political elite seem comfortable in maintaining the status quo; a young Nigerian attempted to blow-up an airliner, and all our image makers and foreign relations heads can focus on is the removal of Nigeria from the list of terror nations (without proactively addressing the possible underlying causes for radicalisation- unemployment, a poor education system, a poor health system and lack of access to almost all things basic). I was to encourage the Nigerian students to start to engage the system through the embassy in London, and through the various government institutions in Abuja. To encourage them to focus inwards and address the issues affecting young people. Nigerian youth wherever they are need to act, demand change and provide alternative solutions to solve our country's problems. The time to act is NOW or NEVER!

The much anticipated 2010 is here at last! This year is an important year for Africa, as over 13 countries will be marking 50 years of independence. It appears that the African Union may lead the process with continental level celebrations. But one question remains constant on many minds, "what's there to celebrate?"

Perhaps the answer to this question should be left to further research. However, as a proactive step to bring some of Africa's development challenges to the fore and find meaningful solutions to them, the International Forum on African Development (IFAD), of which I am presently convener, will organise a conference during the year to discuss African solutions to Africa's problems. Having tried many development models since the 1960s following the implementation of the Marshall plan, perhaps it is time to evolve African solutions to the continent's problems. This should have been done even much earlier. While the development literature is awash with arguments from Latin America on economic growth and development models, there is very little from within Africa itself.

On economic growth and development, there is evidence that the role of the state cannot be diminished. The state while promoting private enterprise must remain in the driver's seat providing incentives for growth and helping to address market failures where they occur (America's response to the recent financial crisis is a crucial example). On democracy and development, recent research have been inconclusive in establishing the linkages between these two. The evidence however shows that development had occurred in spite of democracy, and not as a result of it (Moyo, 2009). The much celebrated Asian economic miracle is a classical example of the non-linkage between democracy and development. Perhaps as a late late developer, Africa as a continent needs to evolve a model of governance that truly works for the continent, while taking strongly into account the principles and practices of democracy (notably citizens participation, the rule of law, and clear separation of powers) and respect for human rights. In my recent book "Service my country" to be released in March 2010, I have proposed a hybrid system between traditional and existing democratic models to be called "Africracy." This subject is crucial to Africa's development owing to the relationship between governance structures, economic growth and development.

2010 is an important year for Africa, and perhaps a defining year for the continent's development. Here is to hope that everyone will join their voices to make the year as rewarding, for the benefit of present and future generations!