What is the way forward for an African Youth?

By the end of 2050, over 1/4 of the world's labour force will be Africa and in less than 3 generations, 41% of the world's youth will be African yet youth unemployment increases with education level in Africa as over 1/2 of the world's out-of-school children live in sub-Saharan Africa.

At the just concluded 2012 Mo Ibrahim Foundation’s annual governance forum held in Dakar with the theme African Youth: Fulfilling the potential, it has brought about questions on what African Youth potentials are and how these potentials can be developed in a continent that is faced with unemployment, political instability, low level of education among others. Furthermore, statistics given by the Mo Ibrahim foundation shows that Job readiness is lacking in Nigeria, Kenya and Egypt and that sectors that drive GDP growth do not create the most job.

According to Former President of Nigeria Olusegun Obasanjo in a dialogue with Iman Bermaki (Student, African Leadership Academy) and Mamadou Toure (Founder, African 2.0), "My generation had more opportunities than facilities; your generation has more facilities than it has opportunities" yet most African Youths are liability. He said that African youth should see themselves as asset and develop themselves instead of focusing on the continents problem. Also, James Mwangi of Dalgerb Global Development during the intergenerational dialogue between the youth and Tutu fellows said that, the challenge is on the youth to decide what they want, find the space and strive for excellence. The consensus among the elders was that African youth have to be united to create change and turn what they have to get what they want.

Also, the low quality of education in Africa was pointed out as one of the problems facing youth development. In Ethiopia, Education is not compulsory and the current African Educational levels are lower  than that of China and India. In his opinion, Ibrahim Niang believes that we have to visit our school programmes in Africa as the key problem is not knowing the model of personality we want to build.

In his acceptance speech, recipient  of the Mo Ibrahim Award, Archbishop Desmond Tutu said that Young People are dreamers and they should continue to dream as the future of the continent is in their hands.Moreso, Mo Ibrahim urged the African youth to do something. He told them they have the power to force their government to be transparent. In addition, the Prime Minister of Senegal Abdoul Mbaye said that the future of the continent is tantamount to the future of the youth.

Yet from opinions from the youth delegates under Restless Development, the youth of Africa have dreamt of all those dreams but no where for the dreams to come true.  They believe that to make policies on their behalf, Policy makers must seek their opinion but which is not happening in most countries in the continent.

In all of these, One thing was certainly clear, The leaders are aware of the problems, the youth want the change but the wide gap is still there. So, what is the way forward for an African Youth?