Re: Youths key to Africa’s modernization

If they are healthy, if they are skilled and get into the field of technology, they will innovate and drive the modernisation of our continent. So, it is very important that we invest in them, that is why I said it is not a given. If we don’t invest in them they are likely to […]

If they are healthy, if they are skilled and get into the field of technology, they will innovate and drive the modernisation of our continent. So, it is very important that we invest in them, that is why I said it is not a given. If we don’t invest in them they are likely to rebel and cause instability in the continent. They are not going to sit-by and rot away. Of course some of them will take the perilous journey across the continent, moving through the seas, in the desert and in the process meet their fate, which should not be acceptable to us. But if we invest in them they will be a real asset.”
About two years ago, a report by Mo Ibrahim Foundation, observed that the future of youth in many African countries may be grim unless governments and policy makers take urgent steps to improve good governance, provide quality education, health and create employment for youths to enable them to compete with their counterparts in other regions of the world.
Also talking about the youths in Africa, former Nigeria’s President Olusegun Obasanjo recently had reason to say that “the current rate of youth unemployment is very serious and requires immediate interventions in order to lay a better foundation for sustainable development in Africa.”
However, the fact remains that talking about the youths alone will not change their fortunes. African leaders must key into the vision of the African Union to do what is right for the youths to be able to take over the mantle of leadership tomorrow.
For instance, it is lack of role models that is pushing so many African youths into drugs and other acts of immorality. Our youths will rather become musicians or footballers, than become engineers and doctors. This is so because foreign music and alien culture have dominated our airwaves. The so-called Big Brother Africa programme is doing more damage than good for the continent. Yet our governments are simply doing nothing about it, which is very unfortunate. Africa’s youths can be a source for good or bad, depending on how we utilize them.
Fateema B. Bello. ([email protected])