Involve the Youth in Policy and Decision Making, Mr. Seth Oteng appealed to African leaders

By Joyceline Natally Cudjoe

Mr.Seth Oteng Addressing the Youth at the Conference

The Executive Director of Youth Bridge Foundation [YBF], Mr. Seth Oteng has appealed to the African leaders to involve the youth in policy and decision making to build the African continent beyond aid.

He said, African youth is endowed with great potentials, skills and creativeness that would drive the developmental agenda of the African continents in the right direction.

Mr. Oteng disclosed this at the official opening of the 10th African Youth and Governance Conference [AYGC] in Accra on Wednesday, dubbed on “Mobilizing Africa’s youth to build a continent beyond aid.”

YBF is a nongovernmental organization that is focused on creating supportive platforms to challenge the creativity of the youth, and to make available critical information and resources needed for total development.

The conference saw resource persons drawn from Cornell, Dalhousie, McMaster Universities and other Ghanaian resource persons.

Mr. Oteng bemoaned that the woes of Africa are linked with the inability of leaders to connect with the youth to know their bothering issues and fully develop their leadership skills.

“African youths are marginalized but if leaders connect with them and fully engage their potentials to develop their skills the youth will contribute to the development of Africa,” he said.

He noted that every youth in Africa is entitled to receive an exciting, engaging and relevant education to spearhead the Africa beyond aid agenda.

“I use the term education in the broadest sense of the word because to me it is not only about academic performance it is also about developing Africa’s youth as an all-round person so that they are confident about getting a job, having a fulfilling career and ultimately building a home as parent and building communities, nations and continent beyond aid,” he noted.

Mrs. Nadia Adongo Musah, the Deputy Director-Diaspora Relations at the office of the President urged governments and citizens in Africa to collectively mobilize resources internally and from Diaspora for the transformation of communities, countries and the continent.

To drive the vision of Ghana beyond aid forward she stated that the government of Ghana is very passionate about the youth thus necessary resources are being mobilized to involve them in activities that will harness their full potentials to build a nation beyond aid.

Mrs. Adongo Musah lauded YBF for such initiative to connect African youth from various continents to come together in building a network, sharing ideas and developing the necessary life skills that is needed for the total development of Africa.

“We thank YBF, the 40 youth delegation from 15 countries and 7 coaches from Canada to be here today to help in empowering the youth of Africa to contribute their quota in nation building,” she said.

The Canadian High Commissioner to Ghana, Ms. Heather Cameron in her remarks advised the youth to reflect on the theme of the conference for they have shared responsibility in building better future of Africa.

To chalk the success of the Africa beyond aid agenda she said the focus should be on building network, exchanging of intercontinental ideas and developing technology as well as promoting democracy across the African globe.

She also emphasised on the need of gender equality as women have a vital role to play in the success of every nation adding that “For Africa to be beyond aid it is effective for leaders to ensure women fully participate in leadership roles and decision making to improve gender balance,” She said.