Paschal Dike nominated for Junior Chamber International World President

Junior Chamber International (JCI), a non-profit, non-Governmental network of young active citizens, who are between the ages of 18 and 40 years old, was founded in the city of St. Louis Missouri in 1915 but became an international organization in 1946. Since then, it has produced 70 world presidents who have cut across 36 countries but none of which hails from Nigeria despite the existence of the organization in this country since 1957.

The JCI presidency is one that member countries look forward to have its citizen occupy, despite its policy of one year tenure. During that one year, the president offers selfless service but is also an ambassador of his country and a role model to young people as he travels round the world, motivating and challenging members to take actions that not only develops them but contributes to the growth of their communities.

Now, Nigeria has been given a golden opportunity- an opportunity to become the president of JCI as Paschal Dike got nominated for the 2016 presidential elections. The elections which are scheduled to hold in the city of Kanzawa, japan from the 3rd to the 8th of November, 2015, will have over 10,000 delegates from over 100 countries in attendance.

Paschal Dike holds a Masters Degree in Industrial Microbiology. His professional career spans over 10 years and cuts across entertainment, investigation and background checks, training and facilitation, coaching, fire safety and security systems. He is a member of a number of other professional organizations, a better community advocate, public speaker, trainer and coach. However, for the purposes of his nomination, let us look specifically at his career within JCI.

He joined the organization in 1997 as a student and became the president of the university of Uyo chapter under one year. By 1999, he became the Vice Chairman supervising JCI members in tetary institutions that are in the South South and South East of Nigeria. In 2001, he got elected as the Collegiate Chairman of JCI in the country as a whole.

Upon graduation, Paschal joined a professional Chapter in Port Harcourt in 2003 and served as Local President in 2004. In 2005, he was National Vice President and National Executive Vice President in 2006 where he was in charge of all JCI activities in South West Nigeria which included Professionals and student members. He was elected and served as the youngest National President of JCI Nigeria in 2008. Nominated by JCI Nigeria, Paschal was elected 2009 International Vice President of JCI assigned to Seven African countries of Ghana, South Africa, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Namibia, Tanzania and Uganda. The year 2011 saw Paschal take charge of growth of JCI in existing countries and expansion into countries where JCI was yet to take root. Nominated again by JCI Nigeria as candidate during the 2011 JCI World Congress in Brussels, he was elected and served as 2012 International Executive Vice President assigned to Africa and the Middle East. In this capacity, Paschal supervised four Vice Presidents overseeing JCI in 34 African countries and also chaired the 2012 JCI Africa and Middle East Conference in Casablanca, Morocco.

In 2013, he was appointed UN Affairs and External Relations committee and was Chief Executive Assistant to JCI World President in 2014. Currently, Paschal serves as 2015 General Legal Counsel of JCI, the first of such appointment.

As the build up to the 2015 JCI World Congress gathers momentum, this is the time for all well-meaning individuals, Corporate Organizations, Government, NGOs and other civic organization to wish Paschal Dike and JCI Nigeria well and step up to support this Nigerian project.