“Now from the top make it drop that’s a…”

“You want to bamba, you want to chill with the big boys, aa na you dey run kiti kiti…”

“Calm down, calm down, girl this your body e puti my heart for lockdown, oh lockdown…”

“Majo monalisa, majo monalisa…”

I recently fell mildly ill with malaria and as you’d have it, I dashed to the nearest health facility. As I waited in the reception with many fellows who seemed to fit the ‘Gen Z’ description, I couldn’t help but notice all sorts of discernible music calmly playing from the phones around me, each coming in quick succession to the former and lasting a few seconds, occasionally causing muffled giggles from the user. Any uninformed guess points this behavior to the familiar act of ‘watching tiktoks’. Then I looked down at my phone and the contents would surely send any of my neighbors to sleep. It was the current news (insert crying emoji) (or I’ll just insert it)😭. Just doing different things at different times, right? Well, being the deep thinker that I am, I spiraled into a vortex of thoughts and philosophies and eventually decided to make my hospital friends the subject of my article today. I’ll share my thoughts in the following five-minute read.

The fact can be put simply. As the youth of Africa, a continent whose most urgent need is good leadership, we are simply not as interested or informed about politics as we should be. Now I don’t intend to make you my dear reader cringe by inferring that one should substitute tiktok time with the boring subject of politics and I assure you not. Even presidents are on tiktok today (insert Joe Biden) (or I’ll just insert him).

However, I assert that most of my readers have a favorite trend but how many have a well-molded political opinion founded on research and policy analysis rather than political hype and propaganda. More than ever Africa is in dire need of good leadership; leadership that is courageous enough to define our unique role in the global ecosystem and strategic enough to accelerate our current growth trends. However, if we closely observe our current political scene, we’ll realize that Africa is the youngest continent with an average age of around 20, with 200 million people between the ages of 15 and 24, but has the oldest leaders. I can’t help but write with close reference to Uganda which is my country of origin.

President Yoweri Museveni is 77 years old. Muhammadu Buhari is 79 years old. Paul Biya is 89 years old. The list can go on. Their age does not take away from their ability to lead, but in fact, it does. This average age of the supreme decision makers does not reflect the prominence of youth in Africa. One can argue that they are not well-suited to address the problems of the majority of Africans as well as the youth themselves would. Also, time and time again we have seen these leaders fail to address the core issues affecting us and even totally blow them wide open. That is why we see unemployment almost twice as much with youth as compared to with adults. Many old presidents have resigned or been ousted but only to be replaced by nothing different.

Why do the youth present better prospects for the continent?

Simply put, the youth bring fresh ideas, tons of creativity, a new definition of pan-Africanism and solidarity to the table. The youth’s firm foundation in technology is also key for accelerated development. It is very essential that young people are included largely in decision making and given opportunities to lead if the future indeed lies in our hands and indeed we shall be the inhabitants of this land when the old guys are long gone. We need to be major stakeholders in the government as is the case with any majority in any system rather than mere passengers in this unstable ride. So many things are a cause for concern in the current status quo.

The sovereignty of African states is being undermined by way of leaders’ pockets as well as heavy neo-colonialist economic agenda pushed by the West, China and others. This includes heavy foreign direct investment (FDI) as well as debt-crippling of Africa whose debts have increased by over 140% in the past ten years to about 850 billion USD. Corruption also continues to prevail. However, stating all these issues is but stating the obvious.

Does a change in the average age of our leadership guarantee a bright future?

As exciting as the prospect of receiving the mantle to lead ourselves to prosperity may sound, there is no guarantee that it will automatically lead to accelerated growth. There are so many factors that make politics such a twisted game. This includes but is not limited to imperialistic agenda. Nevertheless, we the so-called ‘Gen Z’ have the responsibility to fix the wrongs caused by the leaders who ruined Africa. In almost climactic fashion, I will attempt to define the roles we can play to better ready ourselves to receive the mantle.

The following is not our role

i. Virtue Signalling

Virtue signaling, plainly put is claiming to agree to a certain issue so as to appear likeable to a certain group of people or to show false concern about a certain issue so as to subscribe to a specific trend. How do we conceptualize solidarity in political movements today? We have all seen black out Tuesdays where you have to change your profile picture to a black monogram. However, I generally believe that one ought not to partake in such acts if one cannot affirm that they are indeed doing some actual work on the ground. If we really want to support political movements or take sides in trending arguments, it takes more than posting photos or short messages. Instead, real support of these issues is taking part in the conversations with valid arguments, demonstrating readiness to understand the different sides. We should instead be promoting, volunteering or donating to these causes. Bereft of this, one’s signaling of a virtue carries absolutely no weight. Enjoy the following selection of memes I specifically put together for the people that do this.

ii. Unending complaints

It is easy to get caught up in the cycle of blaming everyone from the government to God to the system to the police. However, no amount of complaining has ever moved a mountain let alone solved a fundamental issue. Complaints are best served with identification of shortcomings and suggestion of solutions. That is why one has to know what one is talking about lest one becomes a meme. This leads me nicely to my next point.

The following should be our role

• Get informed

• Learn the intricacies of politics even if you are a science person

• Keep up with the news

• Practice leadership

• Take part in serious political movements

• Take part in the conversation

• Publish writing, videos, whatever
• Form your own organisation or movement

• Contest for political leadership posts if that’s something you aspire to do

In conclusion, to truly justify that we are the right people to lead Africa to full recovery, we have to demonstrate it now.

The writer signs out with a disclaimer. The writer enjoys himself some quality tiktok time and is in fact subscribed to tiktok premium for the brothers and sisters that know what that is. The writer in fact made a tiktok that got 15k likes and was featured in another with 5k likes. No links will be disclosed for the protection of the writer’s privacy if not already violated.

References

• https://afripoli.org/africas-debt-landscape-scope-for-sustainability
• https://www.un.org/ohrlls/news/young-people%E2%80%99s-potential-key-africa%E2%80%99s-sustainable-development
• https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/africaatlse/2018/03/21/the-resignation-of-old-leaders-does-not-guarantee-a-new-era-of-leadership-in-africa/
• https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2017/08/how-can-young-people-secure-a-better-future-for-africa/
• https://www.google.com/amp/s/make-it-plain.org/2021/01/29/the-worlds-youngest-continent-has-the-oldest-leaders-heres-what-the-diaspora-can-do-about-it/amp/