As the world celebrated the International Youth Day, youths have played a pivotal role in shaping the society and moreso in determining the government of the day. Africa enjoys the vast and big population of the youth. However, the same magnitude has not been given to them, while indeed, African nations can reap big from this big number of youths to solve the gigantic challenges of hunger, poverty amongst others.
It is prudent to tap into the potential of the youth and include them in our systems of governance. Aspiration 6 of Agenda 2063, ‘The Africa We Want’, emphasises an Africa whose development is
people-driven, relying on the potential of young people. The youth are energetic, hardworking and are a breathe of fresh ideas, look at the current innovations and you’ll agree that the youth are problem solvers, all they need is a platform.
It is high time the government works on amplifying the voices of the youth and include them in governance. It is time also that the government starts implementing the African Youth Charter which aims at empowering young people in Africa to contribute
meaningfully to the socio-economic and political development of the continent and the AU’s vision of an integrated, prosperous and peaceful Africa.
Any successful government has no choice but to partner with the youth to build a responsive and sustainable Public Service.
There’s ingenuity and insincerity in including the youth in governance. The government gives one youth appointment and that becomes the hype of the moment. Come on, we want to see, the youth being appointed as ministers, COs, Ambassadors, government boards.
The game doesn’t end there, you don’t appointment a youth and expect them to deliver while using 20th Century models. It is prudent to digitize governance systems and models to abrogate the traditional bureaucratic institutions, co-create the policies and co-produce the solutions that work for our country.