COMMUNIQUE OF THE 1ST QUARTERLY CONFERENCE OF CRAZY IDEAS

#COCI #COCI_18 #COII_18 #DDHUB

1. Background

Under the auspices of Digital Development Hub, 1st Quarterly Conference of Crazy Idea (COCI) was held on May 12, 2018, in screen 2 film house cinema, Ado Bayero shopping mall Kano. The overarching objective was to identify some non-conventional ideas that will be useful in transform and speeding Nigeria’s and global development approach. The theme for the conference is “Rethinking the Thought”. The 1st Elected President of Commonwealth Youth Council attended. Three experts of development work from various institutions also attended. The Vice-Chancellor, Bayero University Kano, represented by the Deputy Director, Aminu Kano Center for Democratic Research and Training, declared the conference open.

Over the years, using conventional ideas has continued to Africa’s development back. Most especially, Northern Nigeria remains more conservative in approach and thus more backward in development strides in Nigeria. Whereas those conventional ideas and method contributed immensely in failing the people in many areas of national development and progress, a lot of people with marvelous ideas live and die with them without getting an opportunity to make them a reality. This has to change.

To overcome those obstacles, Digital Development Hub — a Tech-based innovation hub that specializes in supporting activities of the creation of ideas and incubation them into economic, social and political impactfulness — organized Conference of Crazy Ideas in collaboration with Aminu Kano Center for Democratic Research and Training and Ilman Nafi’an Education and Development Initiative.

The conference aimed at providing a platform for unleashing smart innovative (crazy) ideas developed by African talents and which will be a more preferred alternative to our conventional way of thinking when trying to solve myriad of life’s problems. Hence, the mission of COCI is to partner with social impact organizations in transforming the most viable ideas evolving into action.

2. Highlight of Presentations

In the course of the presentations, a discussion focused on the following key issues of interest to young Nigerians:

i. Deemphasizing paper qualification to the detriment of skill.

ii. idealizing and Creation of “Digital Tsangaya” with “Digital Almajiri” in Northern 

Nigeria

iii. Adopting “Find Me 360” idea to promote business modal and conflict resolution. Iv. Restricting the chance of voting political leaders in Nigerian electoral process to

avoid voting in power people without ideas. 

v. There is nothing without technology in attempting to carry out public service at

all level. 

The ideas above were presented and discussed by the following speakers in the papers entitled. Thus:

· Professor Yahuza Bello, Vice Chancellor, Bayero University Kano represented by Director, Aminu Kano Center for Democratic Research and Training (Mumbayya House) Kano

· Mansur Isa Buhari, Department of European Languages, Usman Danfodio University Sokoto — “Skills Not Degrees: De-emphasizing Paper Qualification for Nigerian Development”

· Hauwa El-Yakub, United Nation Development Expert — “Thinking Out of the Box” (a Solution to ‘Almajiri’ Syndrome in the North)

· Dr Marzuq Abubakar Ungoggo, Department of Vetnary Medicine, Ahmadu Bello University Zaria — “Self-Discovery: a Journey Inward”

· Dr. Ahmed Adamu, Department of Economics, Umaru Musa Yar’adua University Katsina — “Not Everybody Should Vote

· Abdulganiyu Rufa’I Yakubu, CEO, Digital Development Hub –Welcome address and Closing Remark 

3. Perspectives of Technical Group

After the conference, the conference set up a technical group to identify ways and method to use in furtherance of the issues raised in Q1 COCI for wider public discussion. The group perceived that there should be an emphasis on working out strategies to achieve match-making of some very important investable ideas with impact investors and acceleration programs across the globe.

4. Resolutions:

i. In view of the prevailing circumstances—social, economic and pollical realities of 

Nigeria, the conference recommended Conference of Crazy Idea should continue.

ii. To further strengthen the methodology advocated, the conference resolved that Aminu Kano Center for Democratic Research and Training should carry out Technical Review of the conference ideas.

iii. An attempt should be made to move toward adoption of Innovative (Crazy) Ideas to empower and enable policymakers and development partners to cater for the compelling needs of the modern-day society.

iv. As using conventional ideas continues to fail to get Africa out of the wood, the conference enjoined governments in Africa to align their development plans with innovative ideas.

v. To contribute to current global development plan where ‘no one is left behind’, under SDG, COCI will continue to pursue positive exploration and exploitation of partnerships with International Development partners on Innovative programmes that would further compliment their efforts towards achieving the SDGs 

5. General Issues

In order to realize a smooth shift from using heavily conventional ideas to non-conventional ideas, COCI agreed to continually share information, ideas, and knowledge through its quarterly conferences and other activities by the DDHub and its like-minded partners.