Harness potential of Africa youth now — Kofi Annan
A former Secretary-General of the United Nations (UN), Mr Kofi Annan, has said that the time for the harnessing of the potential of the continent’s youth is now, otherwise Africa faces a bleak future.
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“More than ever, we must harness the potential of our youth. This requires our countries to strengthen the three pillars of healthy democratic societies, which emphasise peace and security, inclusive development, rule of law and respect for human rights,” he said.
He said there could be no long-term peace and security without development, adding that without peace, security and rule of law, no society could prosper.
Mr Annan made the observation when he delivered an address on the topic: “Leadership and Public Service” in Accra on Friday.
The lecture was to commemorate the annual Ebusuapanyin’s Launch of the Mfantsipim Old Boys Association (MOBA).
Dubbed: “An Afternoon with Kofi Annan”, the event was also used to auction some artworks from the personal collection of Mr Annan.
The proceeds will be used to assist in the development of the Mfantsipim School, the alma mater of Mr Annan.
Safeguarding the future of the youth
The former UN Secretary-General said the present generation of the continent’s youth were better educated, more connected and had higher expectation than any previous generation.
He said it was saddening that every year thousands of young people from the continent drowned in the Mediterranean Sea in search of better life because they did not think it was possible to have that life at home.
“It is profoundly disturbing to see so many Ghanaians included in the 2017 count of illegal migrants who attempted to make the dangerous journey across sand and sea to seek a new life in Europe,” he said.
For him, Africa needed courageous, persistent and compassionate leaders who would tap into the continent’s vitality to create better lives for the people.
“We need true democratic leaders who would understand that they are at the service of the people and not the other way round. Leadership is service. Leaders must understand that they hold power in trust for the people but it was unfortunate that Africa had had too few of such leaders,” he observed.
Quoting a Swahili proverb that says “there is no sea without waves,” Mr Annan said the sea of change in Africa had been marked by very momentous economic, political and social events.
The first wave, he said, occurred in the 1960s when the world recognised the growing vitality of the African identity.
That vitality, he said, was tangible and beckoned of a promising future for the continent. However, he said rival super-powers waded in and started deciding on change of regimes and in some cases, prolonging existing conflicts or creating new ones in African countries.
Africa’s chequered history
“Our continent became a battlefield characterised by tyrannical political rule, human rights violations, and economic stagnation,” Mr Annan said.
That status quo, he said, fueled corruption and massive indebtedness due to economic mismanagement and the squander of state resources.
Above all, basic human rights, the rights for which people had struggled against colonialism were trampled upon by most of those regimes.
Thankfully, he said when the Cold War came to an end, it ushered in a new period of hope for Africa.
He said after an initial period of instability, the continent experienced the third wave of change blowing with the advent of democracy where leaders on the continent were democratically elected.
By the end of the millennium, he said, donors had written off much of the debt that had saddled the African countries for decades, adding by and large, governments across the continent improved their economic management capacities by the year 2000.
With the economy working better, he said, private investment started booming and coupled with remittances from the diaspora eclipsed foreign aid.
He said universal goals such as achieving universal education, fighting preventable diseases, and improving safe drinking water combined to create the platform for rapid economic growth of five to six per cent for 15 years across the continent.
“But we cannot rest on our oars. The fourth wave is coming and gathering momentum and that period of fast economic recovery has been threatened by the drastic fall in commodity prices and the realisation that the continent remains over-reliant on the export of raw materials.
“The crisis also reveals that previous economic growth has not been inclusive and has exacerbated the deep inequalities that characterised the continent,” he said.
Democratic development
Alarmingly, he said, the economic picture was mirrored by the political one, noting that in many countries leaders were changing their constitutions in order to remain in power, a development which seemed to have affected democracy on the continent.
“Although governments organise elections, they lack integrity; unscrupulous politicians fund ethnic and religious grievances and prejudices to mobilise voters. These developments are all the more serious given the size and expectations of the continent’s youth population,” he said.
Mr Annan stressed that the projected growth in the population of the continent could become a blessing or a curse depending on the policies that would be adopted by the countries to harness it for development.
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