Africa-Press – Liberia. The Secretary-General of the Mano River Union (MRU), Ambassador Medina Wesseh has called on governments, the civil society, the private sector, and faith-based institutions to support youths to take on major leadership roles now, and not allow them to wait for an elusive future.
Addressing NAYMOTE’s Young Political Leadership School (YPLS) Africa’s first regional summit in the Sierra Leonean Capitol, Freetown, Ambassador Wesseh called on the older generation to stop referring to youths as the future leaders, but train them to be good leaders for a better tomorrow.
“… We must put meat to bones and avoid the well-known cliché of referring to youths as the future leaders. Leadership should not be considered as a factor of age. We should find time to discuss generational change,” she said.
She continued: “Providing appropriate governance contexts and as a stable social, political government would likely enable young people to grow into leadership. In other words, they need to be treated as leaders today without postponing it to an elusive future, where it is in governance, in socio-economic development in general or peacebuilding programs, the future is now- act today to determine and better shape tomorrow.”
The MRU countries are made up of Liberia, Sierra Leone, Guinea and the Ivory Coast. Out of the region’s 50.1 million people, the youths constitute 60 percent of the population.
Despite this huge youthful population, AMb. Wesseh said productive and skills development capacity of these strata of the population is low as compared to other regions of Africa and the world. To tackle this, she said the MRU Secretariat has placed a strong commitment in advancing educated, skilled, semi-skilled, and socially conscious youth political and peacebuilding anchored on several international instruments, including the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the African Union Agenda 2063- “The Africa We Want”, and the 15th Protocol of the Mano River Union on Peace Security and Defense signed on June 12, 2012, by the Heads of States.
Speaking further, she commended the YPLS Africa for its role in training and teaching young leaders that politics is not a violent game but a theatre for cross-pollination of ideas, dialogue on development as well as peacebuilding and social networking.
She said: “The MRU is willing to work with along with the Young Political Leadership School-Africa to widening the perspective and political agencies of youth in a more positive and peaceful-oriented manner, especially in our post conflict region that is still very fragile. The educated and, skilled and semi-skilled youth are the bridges we need to build to help us cross over from fragility to stability and economic development.”
The event, held under the theme, “Advancing Electoral Integrity for Political Accountability and Leadership in the Mano River Union region”. It is being attended by over 75 young leaders in politics and civil society from Liberia, Guinea, Sierra Leone, and the Gambia.
Giving the overview of the summit, the Executive Director of NAYMOTE, Eddie Jarwolo said during the course of the three days, the youth leaders will learn, share knowledge and experiences, grow their networks, and dialogue on mitigating electoral violence, fostering electoral integrity and political accountability for national development, peace, and security across the region.
He thanked the Sierra Leonean Government through President Maada Bio and his Vice President for the support. He also lauded the Open Society Initiative for West Africa (OSIWA) for sponsoring the event.
Meanwhile, the opening event was attended by top officials and the diplomatic community including representatives of the Embassies of the United States and the Republic of Ireland respectively.
Giving the overview of the program earlier, the Executive Director of NAYMOTE Partners for Democratic Development, Eddie Jarwolo
said the summit will strengthen delegates’ leadership, management, Communication, and Networking Skills among others.
The Open Society Initiative for West Africa sponsored Summit is being held under the theme: Advancing Election Integrity for Political Accountability and Leadership in the Minor River Union Region.
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