‘Only youths can save Africa from bad rulers’

Stakeholders from nine African countries, including Nigeria, at the opening ceremony of the sixth Harambee African Leadership Training, have called on youths on the continent to liberate African countries from the shackles of ineptitude leaders.

The Lagos event was attended by stakeholders from Nigeria, South Africa, Kenya, Ghana, among others.

They unanimously concluded that the sustainability of African democracy lies in the hands of the continent’s youths.

The keynote speaker from South African Leadership Group, Eric Mafuna, told The Guardian that there was hope for Nigeria but that the sustainability of democracy in Nigeria, as well as Africa, “is dependent on the ability of the young people to understand that the world’s leadership is in their hands and that they must rise against bad leadership on the continent”.

Mafuna stated that the high unemployment rate in South Africa for over 30 years triggered the crisis that led to the end of Apartheid, which the youth actively participated in.

His words: “Lack of job, poverty, corruption within the ruling class in Nigeria are the right ingredients that will provoke the youth into action that cannot be quelled by any religion, government, police or education until the desired goals are met. Youths have strong forces and good social networks to do what they want”.

“The youth must fight, not with guns”, he stated, “but with quality ideas and uprightness for economic liberation of the continent; protect and sustain the African’s nascent and enthrone true democracy. The Chinese have taken African into another round of imperialism and colonialism. Everywhere in the continent, Chinese have taken the market and the land”.

In a speech titled: “Do Not Despise Your Youth”, Mafuna said in 1976, “the blood of Africans were poured in South Africa and the youth rose against the injustices and fought for positive change. Such could happen in Nigeria. Good leadership that Nelson Mandela gave to the whole world seemed to have been forgotten but its reactivation lies in the youth”.

According to Chief Executive Officer, Gemstone of Visible Impact, Mr. Fela Durotoye, African is a rich continent but populated with bad rulers.

He added: “The land is not the problem but leadership. There is good and evil in every society. So, the land is not the problem but the people. The land of Africa is good”.

Africa constitutes 50 per cent of the world cocoa export, he continued. “We have been bitched with leadership. If Africa does not manage itself and do what it is supposed to do, the continent would be overtaken by the rest of world again”.

Durotoye noted that the poor educational system in Nigeria and Africa is a deliberate act by the leaders to disarm the masses, noting that it is only through knowledge that the masses know and fight for their rights. To eradicate poverty, we talk about wealth creation without values.

Secretary General, Moral Re-Armament (MRA)/Initiative of Change, Nigeria, Abiodun Awoseni, said community thrived when the individuals think of the good of others with mutual reciprocity, stressing that new generation of Africans had lost confidence in the continent.

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BY CHIJIOKE IREMEKA

Source: The Guardian

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