UN International EC, Mrs. Charlotte Osei, has linked the extreme poverty Africa continues lingering to the failure of previous generations to take bold decisions to salvage the situation.
She believes African ancestors did little to secure the present and future generation from the untold hardship alienated on the continent.
“Africa has 19% of the global youth population. That’s huge. And these are 2015 stats. 60% of Africa’s population is below 25 years that should give us a cause to pause and think and that makes 226 million people. Every year 11 million young Africans join the labour market and every year produces 3.67 million formal jobs, so, that’s a gap we create every year it keeps growing and accumulating all these stats are projected to increase by 42% by 2030,” she argued on Metro TV Wednesday.
Clearly, the former chairperson of the Electoral Commission of Ghana indicated that African governments and the people of Africa have a lot of work to do, “depending on how we look at it and if we don’t manage the youth population carefully we’re either looking at a big crisis in a very short term or a huge opportunity. But it all depends on the decisions we take today and what we choose to do concerning the youth of Africa. In thinking through this topic I really thought that the race to development is a global race. It is a race in many senses and it’s like really a race and a lot really depends on what has happened before and what’s going to happen after. And if you look at it very well, African youth are right there in the centre.”
“How far they ahead depend on the actions that have happened with the generations before them and to be very frank, I don’t think we have done a very brilliant job. I think my generation and the generation before, we have failed the generation of youth today and the ones that are coming,” said Charlotte Osei at the 2021 Ishmael Yamson & Associates Business Roundtable.
The private legal practitioner said the onus lies with Africa’s youthful population to tackle the problems facing the continent and offer amicable solutions.
Madam Charlotte Osei, therefore, challenged the youth to make a conscious effort towards Africa becoming a better place to be.
“From what I know old people in Africa don’t hand over the baton very easily, so, I’m speaking to the youth and I want to tell them that they are the solution that we seek and I truly believe that, yes [the] government has a role to play but the power of the future lies in the business sector. It going to lay with African entrepreneurs and there’s a myriad of challenges that they have which we need to address. And again, I do not think the older generation has the capacity, energy, or the mindset to effectively address these challenges even if they have the capacity they may not have the energy and when they have the energy and the power I don’t see them they have the right mindset, so, it going to fall back on the youth.”
By: Bernard Ralph Adams | Metrotvonline.com | Ghana
