AIESEC is the world’s largest youth-run organization, Present in over 110 countries and territories and with over 60,000 members, AIESEC is the largest student organization focused on providing a platform for youth leadership development, AIESEC offers young people the opportunity to participate in international internships, experience leadership and participate in a global learning environment.

AIESEC in Nigeria, the national chapter of AIESEC International has been involved in providing the Nigerian Youths the opportunity of becoming leaders and positive agents since 1961; leaders who are globally minded, emotional intelligent, socially responsible, active learners and entrepreneurial.  This is done by providing members the platform to explore and develop their leadership potential.

AIESEC International supports the Challenge:Future competition and Nigeria has gone one more step to develop a partnership which was not difficult considering the shared values and vision of both organization. AIESEC in Nigeria currently has a nation-wide network of over 1200 youths in 14 cities and as a network partner, Challenge:Future Nigeria gets to enjoy access to these young people.

With no delay, both are now working on a Youth Leadership Summit to take place January 2012, as well as other projects and competitions that will be of impact to the local community throughout 2012.  Perhaps why the President of the Chapter in person of Nubi Kayode said “This is what we have been waiting for; we can now leave the drawing board and start to effect change in our local community while having fun collaborating”.

The President of AIESEC in Nigeria in person of Femi Adebayo was no less excited as he really wished for the partnership to kick off before the year ran out, and that has just happened. So watch out for Challenge:Future Nigeria as they get to wow the C:F community with their projects and activities (maximizing impact) in collaboration with AIESEC in Nigeria.

LEAP believes young people are leaders of today and not tomorrow, so they support this process by carrying out training programmes for exceptional youth in cities across Nigeria.LEAP recognizes that in order for individuals to acquire leadership skills, they need first hand experiences and long-term support and this is not far fetched from the experiential leadership development process AIESEC offers to her members.

Both organization identified that there is a lot of similarities in the vision of both organization and the way they constantly engage with youths across the country.
AIESEC & LEAP shared information on past and current projects both organizations undertake in increasing and building the capacity of youths and making societal impact across Nigeria and also saw the need to join forces to make this vision a reality.

AIESEC’s 2015 vision is to engage every young person in the world and they see a corperation with LEAP as a possible channel to helping them achieve this BHAG.

AIESEC & LEAP is embarking on initiatives which would result in positive changes in Nigeria’s youth development and creating societal impact.

Over the years a lot of things have been said about this Pride of Africa some of which are constructive while a lot of others, just baseless. For instance in time past, Nigeria use to have so many teething problems in her election processes and militancy pressure in her Niger Delta region however all these has been duly tackled and grinded to a halt. Thus, the recently concluded national election emerged as the freest and fairest in the history of the country and the militancy pressure had since been successfully put to rest. Presently, the on-going over flocked terrorism attack by the Boko Haram group in the north is gradually phasing out and peace is being restored to distressed zones thereby reaffirming the mandate of the federal government to curb all vices. Fascinatingly, despite the challenges that were on then, Nigeria never seized to host visitors who constantly came in from far and near to explore great opportunities all over the country because they understood the Nigerian spirit which guarantees continual development.

Typical to every country in the world, Nigeria has her own frailties and weaknesses and is constantly working towards the betterment of her society. For instance, Nigeria presently has one of the fastest growing telecommunications market in the world, the second largest economy in Africa and has positioned herself as the 12th largest producer of petroleum in the world and the second largest oil exporter among the OPEC nations (an improvement from seventh position last year) thereby transcending into a significant decline of all forms of evil while on the other hand increasing employment opportunities. Nigeria is blessed with enormous mineral resources some of which include natural gas, coal, bauxite, tantalite, gold, tin, iron ore, limestone, niobium, lead and zinc.

Interestingly, what is more special about Nigeria is not just her striving developmental antecedents but her great people. Nigerians are lovely, passionate and determined people. If you have ever met a true Nigerian then you can attest to this obvious fact.  Nigerians have achieved great feats in almost every field of the world today. From Literature where we have Africa’s first Nobel Laureate, to sciences where we have Africa’s greatest scientist of all time, to sports where our male and female teams have recorded great strides, to leadership where we have a good representation across the globe and the success categories goes on and on. Nigerians indeed have an excellent spirit but sadly, the international media has never done any good in portraying these terrific characteristics of ours.

In Nigeria, the biggest student run organization in the world AIESEC is growing rapidly and steadily. So many interns who have participated in our (AIESEC) exchange program have always left words of returning to their new found home – Nigeria. You can check out their recommendations and learn from their experiences following this link http://www.aiesecnigeria.org/experiencenigeria/ and trust me you will marvel. So, as a young person who is determined to achieving good success, we are inviting you to come over to Nigeria and participate in our numerous life changing experience internships and increase your competitiveness. A comprehensive detail of the different projects and work opportunities in our country is available on request. Come experience quality exchanges and classy lifestyle; come experience Nigeria.
Nigeria – Good People, Great Nation.

Blogpost written by Emmanuel Essien

So many questions to ask regarding this, and of course so many views if put in a debate. But one thing is certain and unarguable, For the past 3-4 years in Nigeria the NYSC scheme has shown to be life costing instead of filled with learning and cultural experiences.

We all know that at the moment, almost everyone is upset at the spate of avoidable deaths of youth corps members across the country. From natural disasters, to rape, and to murder, ethno-religious crisis to post-elections violence, these young men and women serving their country find themselves easy targets to be killed.

As a country we have sobered for families who have lost their loved ones as they strove to fulfill the mandate(NYSC) of society upon them but for the families themselves, their lives will never be the same. It will be one full of anger and hatred. A live now filled with no trust for the government and their killer mandate. Families of various victims of this none- insured government for-saken  scheme called NYSC, see the promised compensation of the government as not adequate enough to relieve or condole the pain been induced upon them by the tradegy.

I agree with these families. Their deaths should not be in vain – it should lead a fundamental change in the way that the youth corps scheme is implemented.

The Future Project (which runs The Future Awards), in partnership with the National Youth Council, AIESEC, SleevesUp Nigeria and Friends of Aik and Paradigm Initiative Nigeria, has decided to take up this cause.
We are aware that many initiatives have been undertaken in the past – but we believe it is time to move from anger and protest and to make this a broad-based national campaign. It is also a fine opportunity for us to put our hard won democracy to work – to move from protest and activism to advocacy and productive democratic lobby.

SO, over the next nine-months, we are implementing a solution-oriented approach that involves; 1) Engaging government on a policy level to restructure and reform the NYSC in order to protect corps members in the interim and then to completely overhaul the scheme in the long term so that it is actually useful to the nation. 2) Supporting this Policy Engagement with a wide-ranging public and media campaign to ensure pressure is sustained on the government.

We are activating a #ProtectTheCorpers campaign that will involve both online and offline strategies to engage the authorities, the media and young people.

The strategy is simple –

1)      We are gathering 100, 000 signatures for a petition that is going to the Presidency with a 7-point demand (see demand below) to restructure the scheme and protect the corps members.

2)      Request an urgent meeting with the Minister of Youth and the Director-General of the NYSC to implement immediate action points.

3)      Begin an aggressive lobby at the legislature, especially the Senate and House Committees on Youth, towards include the deletion of the programme from the section of the Constitution and placing it as an Act of Parliament with a revamped structure, as recommended by the Senate Spokesperson, Ike
Ekweremadu.

WHAT CAN YOU DO?

1)      Read the demands below and sign the petition on www.thefuturenigeria.com/protectthecorpers – and get at least 20 of your friends, family and associates to sign the petition.

2)      If you have any direct influence with any legislator who can help with introducing and facilitating this bill, please get in contact with us at info@thefuturenigeria.com.

3)      **Use the #ProtectTheCorpers Hashtag on your Twitter and Facebook Accounts Daily, Use the Avatar/Display Picture on Your Facebook/Twitter/BBM Accounts and Send this Message To All Your Contacts. *

4)      Support this initiative with resources or donation to sustain the publicity and lobbying drive over the next 9 months (our working time-frame.)

5)      Join the ProtectTheCorpers group on Facebook as well as the ProtectTheCorpers group on Yahoo.

6)      Send us an e-mail on info@thefuturenigeria.com or call us on with any suggestions or how you can or want to help.

7)      Visit www.thefuturenigeria.com/protectthecorpers for more information.

Now is the time to act appropriately. Be the change you want to see and the first step to doing that is by being a part of this needed change. No more turning a blind eye to our brothers and sisters, No more turning a blind eye to the needed change in Nigeria, NO MORE TURNING A BLIND EYE TO OUR FUTURE.

It is simple…

Youth2Business is a one day event; a forum that would bring together corporate Nigeria and the youths in Nigeria with the single purpose of coming up with solutions to some of the social challenges in Nigeria. It would also be an avenue for companies to tap into the energy and creativity of youths in solving some of their peculiar challenges.

It goes without saying that there is a lot of potentials in Nigeria’s Youth. In a country with 150million people, youths (people under 30 years old) in Nigeria accounts for 70% of the population and it is estimated that by 2030, Nigeria would be one of the few countries in the world with abundant supply of young workers…

But the question is this: “is Nigeria tapping into the potentials of her youths? do companies in Nigeria recognize the potentials of young people? how are we maximizing the creativity and energy of our youths?”

Presently, challenges abound which limit Youths in various ways. These include a high unemployment rate, dilapidated educational system etc, but still, it is inevitable that in other to spur on the development in Nigeria, Youths need to be empowered.Youths need to be given a platform for development and expression.

So what should be done?

Nigeria must tap all its resources, particularly its young population, effectively and efficiently to develop rapidly — Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala (Managing Director of the World Bank).

This is why AIESEC Nigeria, the most diverse and credible Youth voice in Nigeria, is putting together the event Youth2business forum which seeks to harness the potentials in Youths. Tapping the resources in the Nigerian Youth in other to spur development and innovation.

We believe there are huge potentials within this section of the population. We believe that Youths in Nigeria not only have the creativity to solve challenging problems in Nigeria, but they also possess the energy to be persistence, resilience and stay on the problem until it is solved.

The Youth2business Forum would allow corporate Nigeria: Companies in Nigeria to harness this energy and creativity in youths to proffer solutions to some of the poignant Social issues in Nigeria and peculiar challenges being faced by these companies. From how to leverage technology to increase market share, how to use technology to eradicate poverty and diseases to the best way companies could attract talents; students attending Youth2business would come together and find solutions to challenges like this.

To make Youth2business forum work, conversations would be hosted using the Open Space Model which would allow for rapid ideas generation and flexibility.

At the end of the day, the solutions, ideas, concepts and innovations generated at the forum would be published by a leading media company in Nigeria.

If you believe in the Potentials of Nigeria’s Youths, then this is an event you should not miss. You can attend as a Company or attend as a Student.

As a company you would be helping in fostering the right discussions, workshops and creating the appropriate  stimulating atmosphere needed for the event.

And if you are attending as a student, you would be contributing your passions, creativity and energy to finding solutions to pertinent problems. You would have the opportunity to rub minds with other youths from all across the country. It promises to be a very engaging and interesting experience.

Youth2business would hold in Lagos on May 5th 2011.

To apply as a Student, fill the registration form here

To apply as a Company, fill the registration form here

You can also connect with Youth2business on Facebook

Recruitment agencies have repeatedly stressed the need for every employee to build himself in order to meet up with the high demand for expertise from employers. They even go all the way to accentuate the fact that your Curriculum Vitae is your true identity in the professional world where employers have to go through over a thousand job applications in most cases just to hire only one person who they believe is the best. Remember, in one of my posts titled ‘Get Competitive with AIESEC Nigeria SWAP’ I mentioned that the definition of ‘the best’ has been redefined in this cutthroat world of ours and truly it has.

The question I usually pose to my colleagues whenever we pore over this scenario is: What major ingredients do employers or HR experts look out for in a prospective employee? Unfortunately, the answer has constantly varied from one colleague to the other. Astonishingly, the predominant component every employer I had ever met with subscribes to is the fact that, what interests them about an employee is a blend of the employee’s competence with outstanding values and I agree with them.

True. More government leaders have failed due to poor values than poor policies and more business leaders have sabotaged their careers from lack of values than lack of cash flow.

Let’s tell ourselves the truth, how many of us who are competent have the right values to discharge our duties or how many of us are capable of maintaining momentum when there is little or even no supervision? Few I guess, and I know virtually everyone who can’t have reasons for this gross out.

Believe me, competence alone is not enough because values are the complements that makes up a fecund employee. This is why we place a lot of emphasis on values in AIESEC Nigeria. AIESEC has 6 values: Activating Leadership, Demonstrating Integrity, Living Diversity, Enjoying Participation, Striving for Excellence and Acting Sustainably: Values every member of AIESEC gets to imbibe.

When employers are privileged to meet employees who can drive vision as well as results while maintaining high professional code of ethics and uncompromising values, they give their heart out to such a person. They trust his moves and deeds. They respect his decisions and value his counsels. They build their business empire around him. They shield him from negative influences, use him as reference to other low performing staff’s and help him in building a better future.
These employers ask the employee questions like: What should we do to improve on the company’s standard? How much would you want us to start paying you henceforth? Where would you love to study so as to build more capacity? And the questions go on and on. Employers want to see character, competence, compassion, commitment, contribution, connection, conviction, confidence, consistency and courage in their employees.

If truth be told, it sucks to be a common employee because employers don’t regard them. You can think of how much respect you have earned from your employer and gauge your effectiveness. If you have earned much then, you are on top of your job and on the path to greater heights but if you haven’t earned any or you are shilly-shallying then check your level of competence and values.

Chances are that you are either lacking in one or both of them. Remember, no employer wants to keep a disaster so, regularly appraise yourself and know your stand else you will remain on the same payroll forever or even get replaced anon.

It amuses me when I see youths,who belong to the most energetic age group fail to act and make things happen but rather choose to lay back and let things happen to them, and then push the BLAME on the nearest person or thing. It further fascinates me when I see that this Blame syndrome has eaten so deep into our fabric that it has become cultural,even spiritual!

Our children BLAME their parents/guardian for sending them to public schools, or making them hawk,and then use that as an excuse for not finding time to read or refusing to do so when told to,while some few proactive ones in the same shoes with them come out in flying colours,proceed to higher institutions and go on to become great men with inspiring stories.

Our students BLAME their lecturers for failing them in exams and bribery,or ASUU for going on strike,or lack of electricity,or lack of conducive environment or money; anything at all,as excuses for performing poorly in school. As if those who excelled all have rich parents,or attended classes somewhere else,or were taught by different lecturers,or had generators in their hostels!

Our GRADUATES blame the government for not providing jobs,their parents for not being influential,and even the companies for favoritism and nepotism. And they shy away from self-development,they refuse to acquire needed skills and competences, refuse to show initiative,to take interest and aptitude tests,to study industry,expand knowledge,sharpen their thinking, and even get acquainted with the business process and problems of organizations they are interested in…the worst of which is,we can’t even justify our degrees!!! We render ourselves useless to ourselves, prospective employers and our society,and are quick to sacrifice others for our unemployability.

The employed blame their bosses for lack of results and non-performance,blame colleagues for conspiracy and corruption,and quickly justifies Mr. X’s promotion to be a result of his relationship with the MD.

The dismissed blame their extended family for spiritual curses,or friends for jealousy,some even their mothers for witchcraft!..and run to religious houses,some of whom tell the truth,but most of whom leverage on our cultural psyco-pathology to rip citizens off and feed fat and play to the gallery with baseless theories of spiritual interference!

Companies with bad and greedy management blame government and multiple taxation for their unprofitable state,they blame lack of social amenities,high overhead costs,too many employees,debtors etc etc for their misfortunes while their competitors soar and expand by the day.

Our government blame the nation’s woes on previous bad leadership,an irony as the past leaders are still part of present governments. Past civilian governments blamed the military,the military blamed the founding fathers,and those in turn blamed the colonial masters!

Our society keeps moving round and round in a web of blames and counter-blames…and no one is taking responsibility and initiative for their actions and destiny…the few who do are victimized or accused of being beneficiaries of nepotism. I weep for my country,my heart bleeds for my generation!

This is not to say that all these factors mentioned above do not exist,or do not constitute a serious challenge to socio-personal and economic development,but we must understand that every society has its challenges,and ultimately,your fate lies in your hands.

This is a mindset which AIESEC inculcates in members,which I am a product of…a universal law that works for over 40,000 change agents globally. Despite varying and unique realities of AIESEC Local and Member committees, members have the culture of repressing such realities to the background,and facing challenges as though the realities never existed…an organization that runs on the “taking responsibility” paradigm..where a platform is created for members to explore and develop themselves out of their own will, and not brood over the “don’t haves” of their situation.

There’s only one way to get to the peak in AIESEC, and this way is also the only way to get to the peak in life,regardless of aspirations; …that is to “take responsiblity” for your actions,be pro-active,be a go-getter…a lesson we AIESECers apply out there that makes us stand out.

As Eleanor Roosevelt observed,”No one can hurt you without your consent”…and in the words of Ghandi,”They cannot take away our self respect if we do not give it to them”

And until we can truly accept,as Steven Covey states that “I am what I am today because of the choices I made yesterday…” Then we can’t say ‘I will be tomorrow what and where I choose to be!’

And if we can’t say this,that is,take up what we psychologists call internal locus of control,and expunge these external loci of control,then our youths,and our society will keep falling victim to self-inflicted under-achievement and impoverishment…

So help us God

Visit www.ayobankoleakintujoye.blogspot.com for more of Ayo-Bankole’s writings…

Ok, we all know what procrastination is and we all, at a particular point in time have been guilty of this insidious crime. You know, those times we find ourselves putting till later responsibilities that needs to be attended to. And we do this, not because we do not have the resource necessary to get the job done at that moment, but because we just don’t feel like it.

“In psychology, procrastination refers to the act of replacing high-priority actions or tasks with low-priority actions, and thus putting off important tasks to a later time. Psychologists often cite such behavior as a mechanism for coping with the anxiety associated with starting or completing any task or decision” via wikipedia

Truth is Procrastination reduces performance. It reduces both our efficiency and effectiveness. In fact procrastination can be listed as one of the top reasons why most people do not attain the top performance status.

With procrastination we neglect important activities and instead busy ourselves with trivia ones.
Like someone once put it:

Truth is Procrastinators work as many hours in the day as other people (and often works longer hours) but they invest their time in the wrong tasks. Sometimes this is simply because they don’t understand the difference between urgent tasks and important tasks, and jump straight into getting on with urgent tasks that aren’t actually important.
They may feel that they’re doing the right thing by reacting fast. Or they may not even think about their approach and simply be driven by the person whose demands are loudest. Either way, by doing this, they have little or no time left for the important tasks, despite the unpleasant outcomes this may bring about.

So now that we are clear on the ills of procrastination, guess the next question is how to eliminate it. But before we talk about how to eliminate or reduce procrastination, I think we should talk about some of the things that could lead to procrastination. By identifying the cause, we should be on our way to solving the problem of procrastination:
I once read a nice write up on this issue, and I think It won’t be a bad idea to share some of the insights I glean from the article. According to the article, some of the causes of procrastination include:

• Waiting for the “right” mood or the “right” time to tackle the important task at hand.
• Poor organizational skills.
• Fear of failure (“I don’t have the right skills or resources to do this perfectly now, so I won’t do it at all.”)
• Feeling overwhelmed by the task.

Other causes of procrastination may be identified, but these other causes can be broadly categorized under the aforementioned causes. For example perfectionist tendencies, which could be a reason why some procrastinate, is nothing but fear of failure.

So now that we are done with causes, let’s look at some of the ways procrastination can be eliminated. I would quickly list some simple tips that if followed, would help in abating the habit of procrastination. They are:

• Recognize that you’re Procrastinating.
• Employ ToDo List.
• Avoid saying yes to unimportant task others ask you to do.
• Avoid taking too much responsibility that would overwhelm.
• Find someone else to be accountable to. Someone who would check on you and track your performance.
• If you are confronted which a huge project, instead of being overwhelmed, break down the project into a set of smaller, more manageable tasks.
• Learn to delegate tasks.
• Make an habit of rewarding yourself on task complition.

Always remember that there is no way we can be top performers if we are plagued with procrastination. Understand that procrastination is a limiting factor and take conscious steps, every point in time, and in whatever you do to “Never put off until tomorrow what you can do today”

The decision I made to join this league of proactive people has in all measure affected my life positively. AIESEC brewed me from a core Introvert who sits back and watch things happen to a sparky extrovert who takes an active role in making a positive change.

This process of growth showed me how to really know myself, develop myself and in the long run equip me to be the change and impact I desire around me.

The leadership pool of AIESEC is one that should never be underestimated in terms of performance management, organizational management, result orientation, resilience, entrepreneurship, social responsibility, emotional intelligence just to mention a few.

These qualities are called Competencies and they are developed by everybody who passes through the AIESEC experience. It is what makes AIESEC Members outstanding.

Of this great leaders of the organization I am one of them, I served this organization as Vice President, President, National Support Team Member, Facilitator at numerous conferences at Local, National and International levels, I also served and still serving on the an International team; ‘THE GLOBAL MUSKETEER’. All this responsibilities, experiences and impact across the globe made develop qualities of a true AGENT OF POSITIVE CHANGE.

My experience in AIESEC did not just give me an edge over my friends, but also paved way for me in many areas of my life. It was all an awesome experience for me as my Local Committee which I was president of, strived towards amazing result in exchange realization and in the end my Executive Board team achieved a great deal which brought us the award of the Most Improved Local Committee of the year in 2009, Local Committee with the Best Intern of the Year 2009, and I won the Award of the Best Local Committee President of AIESEC Nigeria in the year 2009.

My engagement in AIESEC Nigeria has also stoked in me the passion for social change and finding ways to solve them. Thanks to AIESEC I was involved in issues that ranged from Entrepreneurship and poverty alleviation to issues around HIV/AIDS. One thing that is for sure, AIESEC Nigeria has the ability to raise social change agents in Nigeria

There is no way i could have developed the competencies i need, passion for responsible leadership in the society and a sense of social responsibility, if not for AIESEC.

I am proud to be an AIESEC member and will forever be.

This post was submitted by EHIHON GAIUS a one time president of AIESEC in Benin. Gaius now resides in New York, United States of America

Typically, Deming Cycle involves 4 steps: Plan, Do, Check and Act. It is a continuous cycle where Plans are made, then they are executed via the DO phase, after which the effect and effectiveness is evaluated in the CHECK phase and finally the knowledge gained would then be used in improving execution in the ACT phase. This procedure has shown to be an effective guideline.

But the beauty of it is that the effectiveness is not only limited to business and organization, but it can also be employed for a more effective and impactful personal living.

So as we step into 2011, a year that promises to be far more impactful than 2010 for AIESEC Nigeria as an organization and its members, it won’t be a bad idea to employ this procedure and utilize it in our personal living.

But for this purpose, do permit me to adjust the Deming Quality Cycle just a little bit. Let us make it:
Check Plan Do Check Act

Check
as we step into this New Year; let us take stock of the previous year. The achievement and all the lessons learnt.

Plan
then let us make our plans for this year plain, concrete and well defined. This is the time to set new goals and new heights to be reached.

Do
A plan is as good as its execution. This year let us ensure that we breathe life to our plans with execution

Check
then you check again, as learning is a continuous process. Do form an habit of continuous evaluation, personal reflection and meta-cognition

Act
Then strive for excellence as you plough back all the knowledge learnt in the check phase. Act and reach for greater heights.

2010 was a remarkable year, marked with a lot of growth and development and increase. 2011 would be much more! Happy New Year! Hey AIESEC!!!!