Discussion presented to Crossing Borders Youth Group International on February 2, 2011 in Nairobi.
As the wise said:
If you’re thinking a year ahead, plant seeds;
If you’re thinking ten years, plant trees. But if you think a hundred years ahead, educate the young, the young.
Therefore, if anyone cares about the future of any country or community, they should pay great attention to the development, education and health of young people and train and prepare them for positions of responsibility and leadership at the first opportunity. Is this the ease in Africa and how does it compare to Europe, Asia and the US? In the past, everything that went wrong, society attributed to God. ‘Today, outside of natural events like the floods in Australia, everything that goes wrong is blamed on leadership.
Who then is a leader??
In school-age children’s fiction, it’s easy: a leader is someone who is six foot, six inches tall, well built, with thick blond hair and sharp, steady eyes. This, however, quickly proves to be an unreliable criterion. Since leadership is relative, it is in the leader’s relationship with his group that we look for signs of leadership.
The leader is a person and leadership is the exercise of the role of leader. The role of leadership is fundamental to all animals, including humans. Leadership is generally defined as the ability to influence a group to achieve set goals or tasks, such as getting to Kenya from Denmark and back. The leader’s thinking is guided by the mission (achievement of goals), the safety and well-being of the team or group members and, lastly, personal interest such as being famous or the ambition of material gain.
Qualities of the successful leader
Why is one able to influence a group of people, small or large? It depends on the source of the influence. It could be raw fear of harm, like a thief’s weapon. It could be individual or group survival need and need to win and achieve group goals. Thus, the leader can evolve and for the sake of the task at hand and the well-being of the group and its unit, the group assigns one of them who is best qualified for the leadership position. Therefore, the qualities of a successful leader are (1) Competence for the task in question. (2): listening skills – social skills (3) personal energy, passion for responsibilities and character – if we can’t lead ourselves, we can’t lead anyone else – we influence people because people see us as if we were on higher ground – “we have been in the mountains before them”.
Greater chances for young people to become leaders at the first opportunity.
In the first place, the young people who obtain leadership positions are based on the family environment, the personal impulse, the social and national environment. These factors can be supportive, encouraging and motivating or inhibiting and even oppressive to the emergence of youth development. The examples are in Asia and Africa where the education of young people; girls in particular are being viciously targeted for unfounded reasons.
Second is the political and social environment. In the African context of Zimbabwe, Egypt (note the revolution there), Libya, Ethiopia, Uganda, unlike the UK, US or even Singapore or India, age and social media are important qualifications for senior positions from the public or private sector. Most African leaders die in office and expect a state funeral! The same is true even in the private sector and universities. It is rare in African universities to find people under the age of 30 holding professorships. These have created “standing water” effects. Social and economic environment: suffocating, bad smell, full of mosquitoes and reptiles. There must be leadership flow, moderate turnover to harness the energy, creativity and passion of our youth. We need the older generation for their wisdom, networks, influence, experience and wealth, but they must help the young to grow so that “Africa does not disappear from the face of the earth or become a swarm of flourishing corruption and decadence.
In order to increase the chances of young people accessing leadership positions at the first opportunity anywhere for the purpose of “active citizens, effective states and a better changed developed world and overcome the limiting barriers in our path, we must observe and practice what following: –
- Personal discipline, care, efficiency – energy – success comes after hard work.
- The discipline to have personal goals and achieve them. The discipline of having the best friends, adhering to a good healthy lifestyle (no drugs and association with criminals). The discipline of being ambitious, caring for parents, God fearing and hard working. The only place where success comes before work is in the English dictionary.
- Taking responsibility for one’s actions
99% of all personal failures come from people who have a habit of making excuses; the weather, teachers, parents and governments. If you want to create the life of your dreams, you will have to take 100% responsibility for your life as you live it. Parents and communities have done their bit by getting young people to school, raising them, and loving them. Therefore, we must have a positive attitude, work hard, dream big, and take responsibility for our lives.
- Belief in oneself Entrepreneurial attitude and passionate desire to excel -own DNA- and signature of success.
The world rewards hard work, not existence. A poet wrote of the man who said to the universe “sir, I exist” “nevertheless,” replied the universe, “the fact has not created in me any sense of obligation.” There is no sense of obligation for the Let others help us like the young As the Americans say, “we must stand up on our own” even if we are barefoot and without boots.
Believe that we can achieve greatness and we sure will. “If others have done it, why not us?” Our attitude and mind must work for us instead of against us. The strong and passionate desire produces the multiplication of effort and hard work. One area that young people should target is the field of entrepreneurship. Today, since 1990 – the fall of the Berlin wall, what is happening is the revolution of entrepreneurship. The young, people between the ages of 20 and 39, are richer than at any time in the world’s history. The founder of Facebook is an example. In Africa, the trend is the same as in China and Russia. Young people living in Europe, like those living in Africa and elsewhere, must seek knowledge, but more than opportunities to undertake. It is the true gateway to financial freedom. Opportunities are common in South Sudan, Ethiopia and Kenya and for sure in Europe, America and Asia and even Australia.
We should establish links between European and American opportunities and African markets. Entrepreneurship helps people rise from survival, struggling to live towards a thriving and prosperous lifestyle. Entrepreneurship and great leadership are the foundation of national development.
Contribution of youth to national development
What is development and the development triangle? Development for the purpose of this discussion is “developing the real income potentialities of all areas of the people and the country by using investments to effect those changes and increasing productive resources that promise to increase real income per person; this it increases people’s standard of living and decisions continuously on the basis of humanity’s law of perpetual optimism: that children will have a better life than their parents.
The Development Triangle as shown below.
Young people must play their role and contribute to good governance, leadership of their respective societies and entrepreneurship as indicated in the diagram above.
Conclusion: Africa’s place of honor
The African continent is a continent of young people where 60% of the population is under 40 years of age. Young people are the future. Therefore, young people must thrive to access leadership and entrepreneurship in order to contribute to their own development and that of their countries and put “poverty in museums” to quote Muhammad Yunus from Bangladesh. Young people must have self-discipline, take 100% of their own responsibilities and have strong self-confidence and overcome contextual barriers.
If we are to elevate our societies, the youth should stand on higher ground. We have to appreciate that the African people are not condemned by the laws of nature to be poor and always marginalized. Finally, Nelson Mandera told a youth meeting in February 2005: “Sometimes it’s up to the generation to be great. You can be that generation.” History admires the wise but elevates the brave. Young people must show courage, delay self-gratification, live a healthy and positive lifestyle, and contribute to their own prosperity and that of their community and country. Paraphrasing Chinua Achebe, when the moons of Africa (the young) shine, even the cripples of the Continent become hungry for walks.
It’s only then; Africa can be sure of a place of honor on the world stage. Begin leadership and self-discipline with yourselves on an individual level and the future of our communities will be assured of prosperity.