By Hajiya Bukola Ojobe
Ahmed Adamu is no doubt, one of the numerous young men who have distinguished themselves and are doing Nigeria proud in the diaspora. He was recently voted the pioneer president of the Commonwealth Youth Council, CYC, an umbrella body for 1.2billion youths around the world.
Adamu, a native of Katsina state bagged a BSc. in Economics from the Bayero University, Kano and an MSc. in Oil and Gas Economics in Dundee University, UK. He is currently a Ph.D. student in Economics at the University of Newcastle, UK.
Activism and politics have always been a part of Adamu’s life and it manifested prominently during his university days in Kano. He was the Financial Secretary of the Student Union Government in his university days. While holding this position, Adamu was able to positively engage the university senate and was very instrumental in the success achieved by the SUG.
After graduation, Adamu formed the League for Democratic Youths, LDY, which is a youth organization involved in educating youths on their civic rights and ensuring they become responsible and law abiding citizens. The organization also organises intellectual discussions between youths.
Adamu also founded the Katsina debate club after his National Youth Service Corps, NYSC, service year, aimed at teaching citizens of the state the art of public presentation and also enhance their research skills.
In 2011, Adamu was a member of the Katsina State Executive Council Committee for Youth Restiveness and Unemployment in 2011 and was also the Secretary of the Constitutional Review Committee, Katsina Central constituency in 2012.
Adamu also moved on to become the Deputy Speaker of the Nigerian Youth Parliament for two consecutive terms. He was also nominated as one of the few parliamentarians the Ministry of Youth Development thought it wise to further empower since they possessed unique potentials that needed to be explored.
The height of Adamu’s steady rise to the top was the rare opportunity to meet the Queen of England, Elizabeth II. He was appointed to represent Nigeria at the 2011 Commonwealth Youth Forum and was selected during the forum to be one of the three youth delegates to meet the Queen of England and present her with the communiqué of the forum.
This was his first engagement with the Commonwealth and it inspired him to follow up the activities of the forum that brought together youths from 53 nations.
The forum was where the idea to form a Youth Council was conceived. This was done in a bid to effectively amplify the voices of the youth in respect to governance and issues that pertain to the commonwealth. During that period, he never envisage becoming the pioneer chairperson of the council as he felt he was merely contributing his own quota to youth development worldwide.
In his bid to become pioneer chairman of the Council, Adamu came up against three candidates from the United Kingdom, Botswana and Cameroun. His campaign message was simple, straight to the point and convincing.
It was made up of a seven point agenda which focused on Education, Entrepreneurship, Agriculture, ICT, Youth leadership , Development and the promotion of the CYC and the Commonwealth values.
The sheer brilliancy he exhibited during the debate with other contestants proved his leadership skills and this was more than enough to win him 55 per cent of the votes cast during the election.
Ahmed Adamu has joined the league of influential Nigerians around the world and would for two years continue to captain the ship of the CYC.
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