Dayo Israel: Meet APC Youth Leader Who Rolled With Queen Elizabeth, Obama, Duke Of Edinburgh

Dayo Israel, a 36-year-old Lagos State indigene, emerged as the national youth leader of the All Progressives Congress (APC) at the just concluded national convention of the party.

Israel emerged through a consensus that saw four other co-contestants — Ibrahim Alli-Balogun, Olalekan Smart Edwards, Dada Olusegun, and Rinsola Abiola — stepping down for him.

He became APC’s first national youth leader to be elected from the South West after the position was zoned to the region by the party.

Due to his excellence and several advocacies aimed at spurring development in Nigeria and Africa, Israel has been recognized by Queen Elizabeth II and the Duke of Edinburgh and invited to a private reception held at Buckingham Palace.

The Barack Obama administration had also invited him to the White House President’s Forum for Young African Leaders in Washington DC.

Israel is a recipient of the Mayor of London’s Young PEWA (Person Earnestly Working for Africa) Award.

The new APC national youth leader currently serves as an Executive Permanent Board Member of the Lagos State Universal Basic Education Board, appointed by Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu to oversee quality assurance of all public primary schools in the state.

Based on information on his LinkedIn account, Israel attended the London Metropolitan University where he obtained LLB Law in 2009 and Master of Arts in International Relations in 2010.

He also holds different diploma certificates from the Harvard Business School Executive Education, Cambridge Judge Business School, and the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.

The Most Influential People of African Descent (MIPAD), a global civil society initiative, described him as a “vibrant personality” who has been “an advocate at the tender age of 14 years old” and started attending meetings of the United Nations (UN) at the age of 15.

In an appreciation speech on Sunday, Israel said he had started “collecting the manifestos of most of my co-aspirants and fusing them into our agenda.”

He urged the four others aspirants to join hands with him to move the party forward, saying “We have a lot to offer for the progress of our party, the youth constituency and Nigeria as a whole.

“I have also set up a committee to help coordinate our first series of events and engagements with young stakeholders and I have approached most of my co-aspirants and support groups in Abuja to send a representative to serve on that committee. I would reach out to others to do the same.

“I demonstrated my readiness to work with everyone by personally reaching out to my co-contestants. I held meetings with them. I also began talks of collaboration, to see how we can go into the convention with a united front. This is because I believe that collaboration is key.

“We want our administration to be all-inclusive, from bottom up, and not just reflective of Abuja. After all, it is the office of the National Youth leader, and not Lagos, Oyo, Nasarawa, Kano, or Abuja youth leader.”