Youths Should be the Leaders of Today, Not Tomorrow!

 It has been a common saying that youths are the leaders of tomorrow, but when is tomorrow? Tomorrow never comes and thus, I would like to relate it with this dangerous promise to our young generations. As a writer, I would say that the word tomorrow is ambiguous. Maybe a lawyer would also advise you as a client never to take the word for a promise. Tomorrow can be any day. It is not specific. If I was to write my 2025 goals, I would avoid the word attributing my execution or achievements to tomorrow because it would imply procrastination. For me, it would be necessary that I achieve what I want at the exact moment or set a specific time frame where I cite dates. That way, I will have saved myself from the ambiguity of the word tomorrow. 

Photo Credits: African Leadership magazine

When explained, tomorrow will mean the next day. What if the following day comes? We still have another tomorrow, right? At this point let me use the analogy of lying skilled operatives. If you are living in the continent or still have memories of the experience that I am going to mention here then you are in a better position to join me in debunking the fake promise of a tomorrow leadership. Not all skilled operatives carry that behaviour but some have the tendency of misusing this word known as tomorrow. 

The scam of a tomorrow promise!

There was a time, a little while ago when we were young, just before one December holiday, when this lesson was well learnt by me. As usual, every child at that period was expecting to have new and good-looking clothes for Christmas and New Year. Those at the towns would visit a boutique and buy ready-made and latest fashioned clothes. At the village it was different, we would all queue at the village tailor’s house. That exiting mood of happiness and the anxiety of soon putting on new clothes and shoes would later be replaced by an angry and despaired mood brought by fake promises of the tailor. Many days you would come to pick your clothes which you think are ready but to your surprise you will find the tailor not done. Here, you have to expect a common phrase; “Come tomorrow.” As you come the next day, you will grow angrier to find out that your job is not yet done. More saddening is that you will even find the tailor collecting more tasks, with yours pending remember. Tomorrow now becomes the verse of a song. 

As time goes by, you may even get near to giving up. If you have not mastered the art of emotional intelligence then you might be angered to a fight with the tailor. I remember at one point when I thought that this experience was turning to the worst, I had to report the tailor to my father. This is because the tailor was older and I could not engage in a quarrel with him. With the company of my father, we stormed his work station and my father made him to sew my clothes on the Christmas eve. Without that, I would have been frustrated on the celebration day. 

This is what has been happening with leadership in Africa. Today, I am going to focus mostly on post-colonial Africa. But before we get to that, I have to use the example of pre-colonial Africa to bring this case home. Leadership should be left to the young and bold. The elderly in Africa should serve as advisors. A scene like this has been witnessed in many pre-colonial African kingdoms and chiefdoms. One particular kingdom was the ancient Egyptian empire (Kemet). During the 18th dynasty, there arose a very young king whom scholars say was at his early 20s when he became king. He was named King Tutankhamun or just simply Tut. Tut was the son of Pharaoh Akhenaten and Nefertiti. After the death of his father, it was expected of Tut to become the next Pharaoh. However, at that time Tut was very young to take the leadership of such a powerful empire as Kemet. This meant that someone had to hold that position as a custodian until Tut became of age.  Nefertiti became Queen at this point. When Tutankhamun qualified for the position, he took over. Older leadership passed down the relay stick to a fresh blood in leadership. 

Many youthful leaderships in Egypt are to be praised for the prosperity of the empire. During the tenure of most of them, Egypt was able to not only protect itself from enemies but also widen its boundaries. Great works of architecture were built during the eras of youthful leaderships in Egypt. The contrary happened with old leaderships. A case in example is the leadership of Pharaoh Pepi II. He was a pharaoh of the 6th dynasty. Pharaoh Pepi is said to have ruled Kemet for 90 years. If he was running for election right now in Africa it would mean that he ruled for 18 terms. That is 5 years for 18 times.  

Chancellor Williams in Destruction of Black Civilization says that Pepi’s first years of leadership were of strength and might. That reflected also to the prosperity of Egypt. As time went by, so did his power fade. The last 40 years of his leadership were very weak and thus the downfall of his reign. As he grew older, he became less able to exercise authority over the empire. He could not command a successful army resistance against enemy attacks.  His leadership in old age and the cost that Kemet had to pay shows the effects of lack of a youthful leadership. What if Pepi would have retired after getting old and leave the empire’s leadership to young bloods? What was the benefits of ruling an empire for 90 years? 

Effects of old leadership in Africa today

The scam of a tomorrow leadership is also a problem that face Africa today. This does not mean that all older leaders in Africa are a problem but some cases attribute to so. The call for a youthful leadership is also solidified by the huge population of youths in Africa. Statistics indicate that as late as 2024, over 60% of Africa’s population was made up of people under the age of 25. A country such as Kenya has 75% of its population composed of people under the age of 35. To make matters worse, African governments are still struggling to cater for this population. There are high cases of unemployment among the youths in Africa with the older generation clinging on to power at a later age and for a long time. The effect of this type of leadership is African nations failing to evolve with the changing trends of the world namely, technology and innovation. Sometimes those leaders try to bring youths on board but don’t give them powerful positions. In this case, there is still no real change that is recorded. 

With older people monopolizing leadership, outdated policies run the government. The youths need to be involved especially in leaderships that directly affects them. While an old leadership has some negative effects, the promise of a youth leadership lies in dynamism, newer ideas, and progressive reforms that could sustainably develop Africa. The large population of youths in Africa can be viewed as both an opportunity and challenge. As an opportunity, the population represents a very active workforce that can help in building African nations. When job opportunities are created for them, the youths can engage in more constructive affairs of their country. The contrary of this is destabilization of the country. A good example of what am talking about here has recently been seen in Kenya and Nigeria where the youths have actively been engaged in opposing the government. In Kenya, the protests were made of young people who were famously named Gen-Zs. They were protesting against many things, among them corruption and punitive government policies that were not citizen-friendly.

The youths feel that they have been neglected. There is an African proverb to explain this. It goes, ‘A child that has not been embraced by the village will burn it down to feel its warmth.’ This is exactly what happens when African youths are side-lined from the affairs of the country. Ironically, there are also times where old men and women are appointed to lead youth dockets. This act fuels frustrations that will later influence the youths into non-patriotism. When the youths are not engaged in government programs, anger grows in them and they tend to oppose those programs. Sometimes it also leads to brain drain where many African youths decide to seek opportunities elsewhere. In this you find that the nations lose talented youths that would have made bigger impacts in African countries. The expense of that is other nations advancing in terms of development while Africa is trapped in a cycle of underdevelopment and unaccountable leadership. The lack of accountability comes in a way that the energetic youths who would make the government accountable leaving Africa for other nations.

  

The cases of old leaderships in Africa are numerous but I would like to focus on two outstanding ones. They are cases of Cameroon and Uganda. Before we delve deeper into that, I would like to borrow an example of Western democracies. There are many cases when a government official has a case or concerns from people surrounding the leadership, they always show willingness to resign or even do it immediately to set way for fair and transparent investigations. While a few African leaders have ever expressed this leadership maturity, many still cling on to power even with dissatisfied citizens. Notable leaders that showed this good example are Nelson Mandela and Julius Nyerere who retired from power early so they would allow fresh ideas and newer blood into governance. For Nelson Mandela, people were expecting him to rule south Africa to death as other African founding fathers had decided. He surprised the whole world and showed it that Africa also has a mature leadership and a well-functioning democracy. Mandela only ruled for a single term.

African leaders such as Paul Biya of Cameroon and Yoweri Museveni of Uganda must today follow the example of Nelson Mandela. Currently Paul Biya is aged 91 years old and has been in power since 1982. That is 43 years in leadership. Yoweri Museveni on the other hand has been in power since 1986 when he overthrew the sitting government through a coup. His years in leadership are 39 while he is now aged 79. Museveni has not shown interests in retiring soon, instead, there are speculations that his son is to take the lead after him. The actions of the two leaders have left their countries in some sort of a political and development prison. Professor PLO Lumumba has been quoted saying:

 A good dancer always knows when to leave the stage.

 

This has been his punchline in condemning African leaders that refuse to leave power. Some of them just like Paul Biya and Yoweri Museveni may have been people’s favourite but as events turn out people withdraw their support.

Paul Biya has been accused of running the country from abroad. His people claim that he is never in the country and has lost touch with affairs of the people. While this happens, he has also been accused of massive corruption, and investing the stollen wealth in foreign countries. The results of his leadership have been under development in Cameroon, political stagnation with a majorly older government workforce, and increased frustrations among the youths who feel left out. While trying to maintain its authority and claiming to maintain law and order, the government of Paul Biya has been accused of excesses that have led to suppression of political opposition. The case is not that different from Uganda. It is even the same. Museveni and his government have been accused of many injustices especially to the opposition. A young opposition leader, Bobi Wine, has been one of the leading of Museveni’s government brutality. There are also cases of high level of nepotism. In this, people related to Museveni have secured high ranking government offices. They include his son who is the army general, his wife, and his daughter who also occupy high offices. 

The promise of a youth leadership

Today, Africa stands at crossroads. One road leads to a bright future with more youth inclusive leadership while the other leads to a darker future with a side-lined youthful population. The latter is a very dangerous one and the effects have already been felt by Kenya, Nigeria, Uganda, Cameroon, and many other unmentioned countries. Any African government that is thinking of running by itself, without youth participation is lacking. They youths of any country are an asset just like the minerals and raw materials, they are just waiting to be exploited. From what we witnessed with the famous youths protests in Kenya, the youths are watchdogs of democracy and accountability. Without this important recipe in nation building then the nation is preparing for failure. Seeing that youths are now becoming responsible for their future is a great promise in Africa. It indicates that the future is luminous. This is a future of innovation, inclusivity, and a citizen-centered government.

The promise of a youthful leadership does not only seek to replace the old one but to make the general leadership more effective. It is about changing with seasons. A leadership that involves the youths in decision-making can be marked excellent on accountability, transparency and policies that have the surety of development. Any leadership that needs to position itself as such should prioritize key sectors that cut across the lives of many youths. The government should ensure that there are programs for youth empowerment, opportunities should also be created to employ the youths. The government should also create room for emerging youth entrepreneurs. In order to fully engage the youths, the key areas of focus should be in education, innovation, and technology. African governments should make sure that they transform the large youthful population into an asset rather than a liability.