Africa is the world’s second-largest and second-most-populous continent after Asia. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 20% of Earth‘s land area and 6% of its total surface area. With 1.4 billion people as of 2021, it accounts for about 18% of the world’s human population. Africa’s population is the youngest among all the continents; the median age in 2012 was 19.7, while the worldwide median age was 30.4. Despite a wide range of natural resources, Africa is the least wealthy continent per capita and second-least wealthy by total wealth, ahead of Oceania.
Leadership, both as a research area and as a practical skill, encompasses the ability of an individual, group, or organization to “lead“, influence, or guide other individuals, teams, or entire organizations.
Africa is filled with a lot of leaders occupying different offices in government, but still, the underdevelopment in the region is largely attributed to leadership problems, what an irony.
Why does this problem linger, some people are of the school of thought that the problem is strictly the followers who elect the leaders into office, as it is believed that some were ethnocentric in their approach, preferring those from their ethnic group against those indeed competent, but let’s pause for a moment and reflect on this is competence the issue, some of those men elected into office has shown competence in their various field of endeavour, so what is the problem.
In the local palace, it is said that “who nor go, nor know”. Is it a problem of competence or what is obtainable in the system? If I am to give thought to this issue. I think this might be a system problem. Although power is believed to be transit in a democratic system of government, in reality is power indeed transit, I leave that for you to answer.
This brings me to the focal point of this topic, the present versus the future; they have been a clamour all over Africa by the younger generation for power/government to be given to them but is power given or taken? This clamour has brought about the forming of many youth bed pressure groups and some coming together to form political parties, leading g to the passage of the ‘Not Too Young to Run bill’ in some countries. The government of the day has started appointing young people into important office, maybe to make the youth feel carried along.
As the popular saying goes “The youth are the leaders of tomorrow” but when will that tomorrow come? As the clamour continues it caused me to ponder on the current level of leadership and I just cannot stop asking myself if the youth will be better, worse or any different from what is currently obtainable the leadership problem cannot be greatly attributed to age, race, tribe or religion.
What is the drive or motivation of the youth, is it to cause a positive change, to bring about a revolution or to get their part of the national cake, who mentors the youth, who is indeed behind this clamour?
While the current leadership problem cannot be said to be individualistic and if truly the problem is a system problem, I fear that the youth might have also been infested by the current system.
This brings about the question, is the youth ready to take the future they desire and be the long-awaited messiah? If this must be done the youth must first embrace a total mind shift, and submit themselves to unlearn, learn and relearn, there must be a total re-evaluation of their core value, and political parties must be built around certain values that resonant among its members.
The hallmark of the transformation is not restricted to aspiring leaders along with the current leaders, where one’s followers, so the citizens/followers must choose to reorient themselves and believe in the future of their countries and Africa at large.
Indeed for the future to be better than the present, selfless individuals must choose to pay the price. The future we dream of is possible, it will not be an event but a process that we must consciously be part of. The time to start is now, if not now, when, if not here, where, and if not from you, who.
“Change will not come if we wait for some other person or some other time. We are the ones we’ve been waiting for. We are the change that we seek.” –Barack Obama.
God bless Africa.