[rpd] A New Dawn

[Dewole Ajao]

Abdulkarim,

A few things you need to understand:

1. PDWG Co-Chairs are not elected to be « judges » in any way or form. Please keep that in mind.

2. That someone supports a candidate of their choice does not mean they have worked « against » you. They thought someone else would be better (they are entitled to their opinions) and they gave them their support. Don’t assume everything is about you; Remove it from your head that you’ve been « wronged ». There is nothing to be forgiven. 

I wish both of you the best as you lead the policy development working group. 

Regards,
Dewole. 






----- Mail d’origine -----
De: ABDULKARIM AYOPO OLOYEDE <oloyede.aa at unilorin.edu.ng>
À: rpd List <rpd at afrinic.net>
Envoyé: Fri, 21 Jun 2019 16:34:34 -0000 (GMT)
Objet: [rpd] A New Dawn

Dear all,

Let me start by saying a *BIG* Thank you to everyone in the community,
including those who voted for me, against me and those who put themselves
forward to serve this great community. The elections have come and gone
however the community remains.  It was a great joy for me to see that a lot
of us wanted to serve this community. It is just unfortunately that only
two of us can emerge as Chairs.  I am willing to work with all others,
including fellow contestants to bring stability to our community (Moses
also told me this). It is our community, and we all must be involved in the
policy process. I have personally spoken to all contestants that were
onsite, and I hope to do same with others in the next few days.

More importantly, I also want to clarify a comment I made during the
session on how to improve our policy development process. It was pointed
out to me that some misunderstood me.  I did not mean anything negative,
but I was only trying to point out that we (Africans) need to take into
consideration the fact that we are communicating in a language that is not
ours and therefore, we need to define things better to avoid a
loss-in-translation. I thank one of my mentors Mr Tijani Ben Jemaa, who
pointed this out to me. Apologies to those who felt offended by my
comment. I would ensure I choose my words better next time.

*Moving on, *

I want to say this again

"I belong to everyone, and at the same time I belong to No one."

As a Co-chair I promise to ensure that we (co-Chairs) are fair, firm and
maintain the rules. I would ensure that we(co-chairs) listen to all sides
and apply the rules as appropriate without fear or favour from any
community. I would also try as much as possible not to allow my personal
opinion(s) to influence any of my judgement. I would ensure that we follow
the code of conduct and enforce it.  Personal attacks would NEVER be
tolerated, and we would take appropriate decisions/actions based on the
rules on whoever attempt to break these rules.

I would also ensure that we (Co-chairs) update the community periodically
as I have spoken to Moses, that we should try to do some few things
differently to build on the gains of the past co-chairs because we live in
a dynamic environment and need to continue to adapt to meet up with the
current realities.

 I would also ensure we operate an open-door policy and build trust from
all stakeholders within the community and we would expect the same from the
community. Please, as we go along remember we (co-chair) are humans, we
would make mistakes, but we would ensure that we learn and improve as we go
along.

I must acknowledge the fact that both of us (Co-chairs) have few years of
AFRINIC PDP experience between us but we would take this as part of our
strengths and hope this would help heal some of the wounds within the
community. Therefore, we would only look at the good history books and
leave out the not too good ones. In this spirit, I would be proposing to
Moses that we do not revisit the issue of an anonymous person sending
emails (on rpd list) to course disunity within the community. I would
propose to him and the community that if the email stops, then the issue
should be forgotten among other issues that have divided this community. I
beg us all in the name of God Almighty, let us reconcile our differences
pick all the proposed policies again and see how we can accommodate each
other. Let us drop the ones that we can drop (if possible) and improve on
the ones that requires improvements.  The sky is wide enough to accommodate
us all. No one would live in this world forever, but our actions and
inactions would be remembered when we are long gone. I would ensure that we
(Co-chairs) seek advice as appropriate and also ensure we carry everyone
along. Please give us a chance and give us time to come up to speed with
things.

  A painful moment for me during the build up to this election is the fact
that I had to look at two "friends" in the face and I told them how unhappy
I was with some of their actions. I wish I could keep to myself what I
discovered cos they have the right to support whoever they wanted too.
“Humans don’t give power or victory, they come only from God”. Sarah and
Caleb, I am willing and ready to work with you both in any capacity I find
myself and I have forgiving whatever wrong I discovered you did to me and I
hope you do same if you feel offended with any of my actions. God is the
only Judge that can never be wrong. I have never and would never wish any
“bad thing” to befall anyone talk-less of someone I see as a friend. I hope
we reevaluate ourselves and make amends.  I decided to say this publicly
because I hope it would help bring about a reconciliation process. I hope
you see it this way and let us move on together. I cannot strive in a
hostile environment and the only reason I decided to run for this position
is because I want to bring about a change to some things and improve our
process while building a resilient system. By the special grace of God, I
have achieved few things in life, I am ‘kind off’ comfortable with where I
am and in my last count, I have travelled to over 40 countries across the
world. Hence, I hope we all understand that I only want to attempt to
rebuildA this community where necessary with little or no personal gains. I
promise to dedicate as much time as I can to this work.



 I would also like to thank Dewole and Sami for doing a fantastic job in a
very difficult situation. I would ensure that we (co-chairs) keep
consulting with them as appropriate from time to time.

In the next few days, we would ensure that we update the community on the
proposal that we have on the table.

Finally, I hope this New dawn leads to a brighter day.

I thank you all and apologies for this long email.

-- 
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