Dayo Israel: Africa’s Award-winning Youth Advocate and Social Entrepreneur

He is a Social Entrepreneur, Evangelist-Preacher, Motivational Speaker, Diplomat, Youth Advocate and Representative, T V Personality, Business and High Performance Coach; He has served in various capacities globally including in the Nigerian Government and the United Nations. His name is Temidayo Israel and he affirms the saying that ‘impossible is nothing.’ With a degree in Law and a Masters in International Relations, the young Nigerian has lived a charmed life, or so it would seem.

Dayo Israel spent a great portion of his childhood on the streets; hawking wares to put food in his young belly and supporting his single mother in Lagos state, Nigeria. Born an innovator, Dayo despite his apparent fiscal privation went on to establish the only Child-led NGO in Nigeria– General Action against the Violation of Human and Children’s Rights – an organisation which spearheaded the campaign for the promotion of children’s rights in Nigeria. Consequentially, he was elected into the Nigerian Children’s Parliament at the age of 14 and rose to become the Deputy Senate President of the National Children’s Parliament, a position he held until his retirement [from childhood].

At 16, Dayo was appointed the Chairman of the Presidential Summit of Nigerian Children and led the Nigerian Children’s delegation to the United Nations Special Session on Children in New York where he was featured live on CNN and Nickelodeon and co-launched the UNICEF State of the World Children’s Report in 2003 alongside Carol Bellamy, the then UNICEF Executive Director and Oscar Award Winner – Vanessa Redgrave CBE. In 2004, at the age of 18, Dayo and his team proved their mettle once again when they hosted the Annual Young General Assembly Session in Nigeria with about 200 Young People in attendance from all over the World.

A master at top-ranking International advocacy, Dayo is the Founder and Chief Executive of many profit and not-for-profit organisations in Europe, North America and Africa including the Make Impact International, GLEEHD Foundation for Leadership and International Development, Make Impact Group (MI Intl, MI Enterprise, MI Media, MI Publication, Impact Productions, Impact Investments and more). He also serves as a spokesperson for Young Nigerians and Africans in the Diaspora in his capacity as the Chief Executive of the Africa Diaspora Youth Forum and Coordinator of the Nigerian Youth in Diaspora Organisation.

Asiwaju Dayo is a British Red Cross Humanitarian Citizen Ambassador, a Young General Assembly (YGA) Special Representative to United Nations Meetings, a Youth for Transparency International (YTI) Special Representative to the United Nations and a Language Ambassador for the National Centre for Languages. Aren’t we in awe? Dayo chairs various side events at the United Nations Conferences and is a founding member of the British Council connecting future forum. In all of his busyness, there is yet time in the day for socialising such as the attending a private reception in Buckingham Palace on the invite of Queen Elizabeth II and the duke of Edinburgh…what a life!

The pacesetter is the first African to become a Student Council Chair in London’s Largest University and is a recipient of tons of National and International Awards including the British Red Cross Humanitarian Citizen Award, PEWA (Person Earnestly Working for Africa) Award, GAB Award, Icon Awards, Icon of Hope Award, Young Achievers Award, Inspirational Leadership Award by Inspiration International amongst others.

The producer and presenter of Maximum Impact with Dayo Israel on Dove Vision TV, Dayo lunches with Kings and dines with emperors. Did I mention that he is an evangelist? Indeed! Culled from his Facebook page, Dayo has this to say about 2014: “As you go into 2014 – Remember it is our year to Fight Back… FOR VICTORY. It’s not the year to take nonsense or BS (excuse my tongue) from the Devil… Let me encourage you from the word of God in 1 Sam 30: 8 – Then David asked the LORD, “Should I chase after this band of raiders? Will I catch them?” And the LORD told him, “Yes, go after them. You will surely recover everything that was taken from you!”! Welcome to 2014! Our Year of Recovering ALL – The Violent takes it by force!”

Let’s conclude with a quote from Asiwaju Dayo Israel; “It is good to be uncomfortable; I’ve never met anyone who is terribly creative, gifted or strong In Leadership who was also comfortable. It’s always those people who say “Is there not a cause”, those exceptional people, who are uncomfortable with the times and rise to the challenge because they refuse to allow the chaos around them to undermine the conqueror within them.”

Ponder.