Nigeria’s Abdul Heads African Youth Network Of Red Cross

A 30- year- old Nigerian, Ameen Abdul, has been elected as the new president of the African Youth Network of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies in Africa.

Abdul, who hails from Ilorin, the capital of Kwara State succeeded June Munyogani from Zimbabwe and he is the first Nigerian to lead the prestigious body in Africa.

The election took place during the 10th PAN African Summit in Nairobi Kenya with the theme “Renewing Investment in Africa.”

Abdul emerged winner after a keenly contested election where he represented Nigeria and polled 25 votes against the candidate from Ethiopia who polled 11 votes.

The deputy president, Djamira Zorom, from Burkina Faso also defeated her closest opponent from Zimbabwe by 20 votes to 15.

In his acceptance speech, Abdul promised to prioritise gender and linguistic inclusion.

He promised to embark on both gender and linguistic inclusion initiatives and emphasised the need to ensure the use of English, Arabic, French and Portuguese as their major working languages, saying that these are the languages spoken by the different national societies.

Abdul also spoke about resource mobilisation and capacity development, among other things.