Written by Pamela - Oke-Ogun Community Development Agenda 2000 Plus (OCDN 2000+) was an organisation, a network, and a real agenda. It was the agenda for the programme that the late Peter Adetunji Oyawale started to implement in Oke-Ogun - a programme that he then hoped to implement elsewhere, once he had demonstrated that it would work.
Essential elements
Its essential elements were Community Digital Information Centres (CDICs), integrated with a radio free college.He wanted all kinds of information to be available, from day to day informaion on the water table (so people knew which wells to try to use) to full length courses from the UK Open Univeristy and such like.
Practical plans
He had very detailed practical plans for how his agenda would be implemented. It would not begin with the CDICs (because local people would not immediately see the point of the CDICs) - instead it would begin with something that local people would value - a football tournament. His plans covered ten local governments, and involved key people whose goodwill would be needed, as well as local activists who would actually do the work. There were trophies for the winning teams in all the local governments and a final tournament of tournaments for a giant cup to be presented by the state governor. There were comptetitions for school children to encourage them to write creative ideas about things. There was a lot planned through OCDN 200+ so the CDICs would not be happening in a vacuum.
Radio receivers
Peter had bought some little radio receivers that could be worn in the ear. He wanted his old friends who had not completed primary school to be able to listen and learn while they wer labouring in the fields. He wanted to "Speak, speak to people in the language they understand".
"good things"
Peter's plan was to raise the profile of OCDN 2000+ in this way, so people would associate it with "good things that peope in the West enjoy" - once people associated OCDN 2000+ with that idea of "good things" then more of them would be ready to take an interest in the CDICs, which he would be building up in the background.
Things in place
At the time of his death in Nigeria things he had in place included:
- committees to organise the foottball tournaments in all ten local governments in Oke-Ogun
- trophies, medals, and other prizes - some in Nigeria, some in the UK in a great ceremonial trunk to be shipped to the state governor
- a van loaded with equipment - computers, photocopiers, printers, and other equipment - which he planned to use to set up a business to financially support the development of the CDICs.
Committee and network
The OCDN 2000+ committee was formed, after his Peter's death, by some of his supporters in Nigeria who wanted to continue his work. The wider network of OCDN 2000+ included distant supporters - such as me (Pamela McLean) in the UK.
We were not able to fufil all of his vision but we did manage to do some of the work he wanted in Ago-Are - his home in Oke-Ogun.