Former Gambian leader urges African youths to take charge
Former Gambian Vice President Fatoumatta Jallow Tambajang has rallied African youths to take charge of governance in reigniting the spirit of African Renaissance.
The former leader was of the opinion that the concept still remains elusive due to inadequate political participation, low self-esteem and indecisiveness among the youths.
“The impact of African renaissance still remains far-fetched because youths have been locked out of governance, Africa will not move forward if our youths don’t take charge,” observed the former leader on the sidelines of the 6th EAC YouLead Summit 2022, which started on Monday at the MS Training Centre for Development Cooperation (MS TCDC).
Ms Tambajang, who also recounted of how she was married off at young age and went further to defy odds and become Gambia’s VP, further challenged the challenged the youths to rise up, to avail themselves with the right, logical decision-making skills that will enable them become active citizens rather being passive politically.
She said: Bottom-top approach is the way to go if we truly want to see the continent moving forward.
The former leader equally rooted for transformative leadership and a holistic approach when dealing with African problmes.
Ms Tambajang urged African leaders to reset the agenda in ensuring the continent moves forward.
The five-day summit under theme of Digital Access on the Future of Work, seek to serve as a forum for the examination of the state of digital transformation and the future of work for youth and aim at putting forward solution models for a predictable future of decent employment and work opportunities for African youth.
Now Africa’s largest and most diverse forum, YouLead Summit is an annual climax event that brings
together continental, regional and national policy makers together with youth leaders, private sector and NGO stakeholders with the aim of revitalising political ambition, action on most pressing youth development issues to craft responses to the continent’s rapidly growing youth population, their challenges and opportunities.
Earlier on, the Executive Director MS TCDC Makena Mwobobia opined that Digital transformation was inevitable in an era when technology has taken toll on human activities.
“When you look back at the various points in history where contemporary technology has changed the way work is done, you can see that really, it’s a continuous cycle in each generation. We innovate, and we look for ways to use that innovation to make our work more efficient or effective,” she explained.
Ms Mwobobia also implored African leaders to use their spheres of power and influence to address pandemic-related employment and income losses that have especially ravaged youth-owned businesses.
“We know that Africa has seen rapid development in the last decade. However, much is yet to be done to address the economic social and political challenges most of which we inherited from colonialism and the arbitrary, haphazard partitioning of our Continent,” she added.
