Time for Young People to Redefine and Claim Leadership
‘You cannot carry out fundamental change without a certain amount of madness. In this case, it comes from nonconformity, the courage to turn your back on the old formulas, the courage to invent the future. Besides, it took the madmen of yesterday for us to be able to act with extreme clarity today. I want to be one of those madmen.’ Thomas Sankara. Demographics have shown that Africa’s population is fast growing and relatively young with approximately 200 million people falling in the youth bracket ages of between 15 and 35 years (United Nations Population Fund, 2014). Unfortunately, this age group is the most affected on the continent as it bears the brunt of political, social and economic injustice at the hands of misgovernance, corruption, unemployment, HIV/AIDS, autocratic rule, human trafficking, terrorism among other ills. Sadly, this generation’s voice, no matter how amplified it has been, and still is, has never been heard. The participation of young Africans, espe