Dutch cyclists to South Africa arrive Nigeria

The United Nations Information Centre (UNIC) Lagos, in collaboration with the Netherlands Embassy Office in Lagos on Wednesday received two Dutch Cyclists of the Building Bridges project who had embarked on a bicycle journey to Cape Town in South Africa. The Cyclists, Jilt van Schayik, and Teun Meulepas, who are stopping over in Lagos, took off from Amsterdam in the Netherlands in February to connect and encourage young people across two continents of Africa and Europe, habouring 21 countries; a journey of about 17,000km. Schayik and Meulepas arrived Lagos –Nigeria on Tuesday night in the company of the Togolese grassroots initiative for Building Bridges, and were received by their Nigerian counterparts. Recounting the experience, Meulepas, one of the cross-continent bikers said: “So far so good, we had a great trip, we met a lot of inspiring people, we saw a lot of crazy things and we had a lot of fun on the road as well. “But what is important in this is the story of a lot of young people. We saw a lot of young people who are worried about their chances of getting a job. Young people are worried about the systems of education in their countries; young people are worried about corruption.” Meulepas and colleague promised to relate the stories of a lot of young people, who they met in the course of their journey, to the United Nations office in New York when they return. During his welcome address, Director of UNIC in Lagos, Mr. Ronald Kayanja, lamented the poor involvement of young people in policy making recounting that in 2000 eight goals were spelt out by the UN. According to him, “They were supposed to be achieved by 2015, and now we are in 2015 but the results are mixed. Some countries have achieved them, some countries have not and now we are discussing a new set of goals by2030. And we call those the Sustainable Development Goals. They are 17 goals that are being discussed. “In September this year in New York, member states of the United Nations will meet to agree on these goals that we shall use as our target for the coming 15 years. “But what we have realised is that, in all these things, young people are either not interested or are not well informed about what is going on. So their participation is minimal.” He however noted that the essence of accompanying the cyclists as they ride on the streets of Lagos is to create the aware among young people that something is happening. On his part, Drs. Taco Westerhuis, Press Secretary of Embassy of the Netherlands in Lagos commended the bikers for the courage to undertake the journey, urging Nigerian youths to connect with the idea of developmental policies from their immediate neighbourhoods. Drs. Westerhuis, who observed that there are more opportunities in Lagos than there are in the Netherlands, said: “The only thing to do is getting the opportunities to the right people.” He however commended the Nigerian group of cyclists for the team spirit observing that: “We all know biking in Lagos is not easy, I therefore commend those of you who dare to ride your bikes in Lagos.” Building Bridges project is about involving young people in policy making and breeching the gap between young people and policy makers.