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My name is Emmanuel Akapo, a young man of about 24, who resides in Lagos, Nigeria. I am the pioneer and executive Director of African Arts Initiatives, an organization whose objective is to bring development to Africa via the Arts.
I would like to make my contributions to how the MDGs can be achieved easily in Africa, using the case study of my country Nigeria. A very large number of Africans still harbor erroneous beliefs about HIV/AIDS. Some call it the “White man’s disease” others say “it’s merely a threat to scare people away from immorality.”
The few HIV/AIDS campaign groups we have in Nigeria are centered in the urban areas and they communicate basically with the official language - English. This leaves a lot of people in the rural areas un-reached - and not even everybody in the urban centres are being reached because of language barriers. We cannot sit back and watch Africans ignorantly getting infected - people are dying daily. It is this challenge that has made me meticulously come up with the following ideas:
1. There is nothing that brings all Africans to common ground, that breaks through all barriers, which communicates to every category of people, other than indigenous Arts Performances. In Nigeria for instance, there are three basic ethnic groups (the Hausas, Yorubas, and Igbos). Let three popular musicians from each tribe come together and produce a very harmonious track that will melodiously tell the people about what HIV/AIDS is, how it spreads and how to combat it.
Let that song be played in all T.V. and radio stations in the country ten minutes every day for a period of one to two years. Let strategic music/drama shows be organized from one community to the other, thoughtfully using them to campaign against the epidemic in a way that will catch everybody’s fancy.
I tell you with all assurance that following these same patterns in all African nations, this disease will be brought under control. As a musician, I have a good number of strategically composed songs to this effect, but I have yet to get funds to bring other musicians into this idea because our leaders here hardly see combating HIV/AIDS as a priority.
2. With evidence, I affirm that over 80% of Africans are completely ignorant of the MDGs. How then can we achieve what the majority know nothing about! It is everybody’s responsibility to be part of the achievement of these goals. Therefore, awareness programmes must be put in place to orientate the masses to the MDGs and their roles in achieving the MDGs.
3. I therefore suggest to let MDGs studies be included in the syllabus of learning in every educational institution for every class of students.
4. I believe with the proper appropriation of the initiatives above, the sky will be the limit for our achievement of the MDGs!
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Writer Profile
Akapo
My name is Emmanuel Akapo, a young man of 24 Living in Lagos Nigeria. A brief commentary on my passions…
My greatest dream in life is to input maximum impact, influence and contributions to the development of my continent Africa. I feel very fulfilled whenever I am involved with any activity that could lead to national rebirth, or better still, a sustainable social development. I am an exceptionally talented musician with the ambition of using the arts in addressing social problems.
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Comments
good Arogundade, Tayo | Sep 12th, 2005
good work
Good Story Eugenia Bivines | Aug 6th, 2007
One way to achieve this is by Education.
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