Chairmanship Aspirant Dayo Israel seek better deal for Lagos youths during US tour, as he receives French investors support

An aspirant for the office of the Executive Chairman, Lagos Mainland Local Government, Mr Dayo Israel, has sought collaboration with United States politicians and investors for development projects targeted at young people and women in Lagos Mainland during his recent trip to the United States.

Dayo who recently organised a free 3 weeks vocational training program for over 6000 women and youths in his local government met with the State Representative (Legislature) for Cobbs County in the state of Georgia, 29- year-old Ms Erica Thomas to discuss potential partnerships between her constituency and Lagos Mainland youths, and is planning to host a two-way delegation of young professionals from Georgia to Lagos Mainland and vice-versa in the next few months.

“Rep Erica is the 5th youngest state representative (legislature) in the USA and we both have a mutual passion for youth development. I am hoping very soon we can have a 26 years old house of assembly member in Lagos state,” Dayo Israel said.

This comes a few weeks after the Chairman of Institut Choiseul, Dr. Pascal Lorot said to Dayo Israel, “You have the support of France”, while addressing the Aspirant at a meeting with the French – Nigeria Chamber of Commerce at the French Consulate. Lorot was Director of economic studies for the French oil company Total Global, and has held many ministerial cabinet positions. He is a counsellor for the president of the European Bank of Reconstruction and Development (BERD), and a researcher at the French Institute of International Relations (IFRI).

After the Georgia trip, Dayo Israel proceeded to Houston and meet with Texas congressman Jarvis Johnson, with whom he spoke extensively on potential sister cities programme between the city of Houston and Lagos Mainland. The programme will focus on areas of interest such as Youth Development, Health and Wellbeing.

Inspired by his participation during an Agro-Tourism programme at the Henley Family Farm in the US, the young aspirant who is one of the frontline voices championing the #NotTooYoungtorun campaign affirmed that he is a firm believer in the potentials of agriculture to boost the economy, and had meetings with agro tourism professionals to see how innovation in agro-tourism can help raise the revenue base of his prospective local government.

“A vision for a new Africa must begin from the grass root. The best minds of our generation must take over the pillars of government from bottom up.  We must end hunger and famine in Africa-how do we do that, by ending hunger our famine in our communities. My goal is to harness my international development experience and network for the benefit of mainlanders” Dayo Israel submitted.

Israel was named one of Britain’s young bright leaders of 2016 by the Henley Business School in the UK in March.  He was recently nominated for the Presidential Youth Award as one of the 56 young Nigerians doing Nigeria proud. Listed as one of Africa’s 30 most inspirational young people in 2013, he is an alumnus of the US State Department IVLP programme.

During the tour, Israel also spoke at various forum and churches in the US, including a convention featuring gospel singer Sinach in Brooklyn, New York.

While in the US, Dayo Israel also secured the commitment of an investor in Dallas Texas to invest over $3million US dollars in real estate projects in the Lagos Mainland Local Government. He says he intend to build a 10storey glass house learning and resource center on the current site of the mainland Library. According to Dayo, the center will house a 2 floor high tech library, Lagos Mainland Business School, Language Learning Center, a Lagos Mainland Film Academy, a 1000 – 2500 capacity event hall, a Lagos Mainland Digital Academy, which will help increase the Local Government IGR, create jobs and engage over 10, 000 youths.

It will be recalled that Dayo who is in his early 30s, grew up in Oyingbo having lost his father at the age of 11. He rose to become the First Deputy Senate President of the Nigerian Children Parliament and a One Day Commissioner for Information in Lagos State. He has also worked in the UN system for over 15years with his recent job as the Events Manager for the UNICEF Nigeria Violence Against Children Campaign Launch in Lagos. Dayo’s experience in the development sector which began in Lagos mainland in the mid 90s as a child.

Dayo shares his campaign journey to inspire other young people interested in the politics on his instragram and twitter handle @dayoisrael 

More photos below...

This post first appeared on Linda Ikeji's Blog. Read the original story here.