I am privileged to say a few words here relating to what the youth can
do to silence guns in Africa.
To begin with, we all know that the youth in Africa contribute the
majority of those who engage in armed conflict for various reasons. In
fact, if there are ten (10) gun shots being fired right now, you can
be certain that 8 of those shots are from a gun being fired by an
African youth.
That is not to say that the African youth is entirely responsible for
the ‘gun culture’ that has bedeviled the continent for several decades
since African countries gained independence, because in most cases,
they are used or forced by circumstances to bleed their motherland -
Africa by selfish politicians and poverty. But if the African youth
form the bulk of those engaged in gun trotting, then, they can indeed
play a major role in silencing the guns in Africa!
So, are the African youths a bunch of trigger – happy psychos on a
rampage excited to kill whoever crosses their path? Certainly not! It
is important therefore to understand and delve in to why the gun has
reigned supreme in Africa for a long time yet the same cannot be said
to be happening where the gun originated from.
Some of the issues that explain armed conflict in Africa include but
are not limited to bad politics manifested in; corruption, lack of
government accountability, vote rigging, poor service delivery, and
civil wars among many others. I have deliberately not mentioned
poverty because all the above mentioned ills significantly contribute
to it.
Poverty among the youth in Africa is by design and not default. Our
leaders exactly know what can be done to help transform the lives of
their people, but they conveniently choose the ‘short cuts’ of giving
handouts to the youths and make promises during election campaigns
that they consciously do not intend to deliver on. But because
handouts are not sustainable in the long run, disgruntled and
similarly opportunistic leaders emerge and sway the youths to their
side with the promise to change the fortunes should they help in
regime change which in most cases is in armed form. The youth should
therefore be smart enough and shun politicians who have mastered the
art of rhetoric to lure them in to senseless wars with the promise of
handouts.
The youths should also interest themselves in the political affairs of
their country. The youths should desist from passively participating
when issues relating to how they should be governed are being
discussed. The youth are not actually leaders of tomorrow, but of
today because the decisions they causally take in electing their
leaders directly affect them in most cases adversely. They should act
and ask questions. They should demand accountability and ensure that
leaders are accountable on their promises. Most youths in Africa today
will demand a good road from their Member of Parliament, forgetting
that the parliamentarians, cardinal role is actually making laws and
the local government leaders who actually receive public funds to
provide public goods and services go Scot free.
The youths should also appoint themselves anti-graft crusaders.
Corruption explains one of the reasons the youths are lured in to
armed conflict, yet some youth ignorantly glorify those who steal
public funds and give them pocket change in return for their support.
It is not unusual to hear an educated youth telling his or her
colleagues to support a given political candidate so that the said
candidate can also go and ‘eat’. The mentality that what belongs to
many belongs to none should be revised so that we understand that
every public fund stolen is either a kilometer of road lost or medicine
stolen from the hospital.
The youths especially the elite should encourage their illiterate
colleagues to pick interest in rejoining school. This is because only
then can they be interested in getting abreast with issues that can
inform their decision making. The significance of literacy in any
prospectively developing nation cannot be underestimated. You will
realize that most youths who engage in armed conflicts are the
illiterate lot who do not ask questions, but are hoodwinked by selfish
individuals who play on their emotions and lure them in to deadly
armed conflicts and conscript their future in to indefinite servitude
if they are lucky to survive the jungles of forests. If the elite
youth ignore this call, they cannot expect the life of a comfort zone
because when war erupts, there is no winner and loser.
I will give an example of my country Kenya. If you look at the numbers of those who rioted, looted and caused unrest were mainly the youth.
Examples of Central Africa Republic, Egypt, Democratic Republic of
Congo, Somalia and the Africa’s newest nation – The Republic of South
Sudan are all examples we can reflect on.
I thank you all – And we can bring an end to this self inflicting ‘gun culture’
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