''Empowering Africa's Youth''

These were statements delivered early this year to a group of student leaders at an induction ceremony, in a Ugandan University. 

It is hoped they are found agreeable.

THEME: How can the Youth be helped to develop skills, resilience and emotional flexibility to succeed?

Ladies and Gentlemen, it gives me immense pleasure to be with you today here in Makerere University, and especially at this great school of liberal and performing arts.

The subject on which my comments will be based today; Helping the Youth to develop the skills, resilience and emotional flexibility they need to succeed, is a timely and topical one, and couldn’t have been better stated.

This topic is also of particular significance to me, because I fall in the bracket of its attention, being rather youthful myself, and because I am directly addressing enlightened young people.

Because of its sensitivity therefore, it calls for a critical mind to have it addressed. My time with you is limited, and I will therefore attempt to compress a lot of wisdom, I hope, in a few paragraphs. 
Do allow me your considerate attention.

Firstly, I am sorry to have to disappoint your very exam-oriented minds.
I won’t be giving you a ten-point program on succeeding, or a blue-print to success. I will rather try to engage with you based on my understanding of youth roles in society, so that you can develop your own conclusion - I believe this should ultimately be more mentally stimulating and useful.

Secondly, I won’t have done the subject justice if I don't start by identifying to you and examining the key issues involved in this subject:

Today, young people world-over are engaged in an irreversible process of maturity. Their bodies are maturing, and so are their minds. With these growing minds come great expectations; and we both know that the greater the expectations, the greater the likelihood of their not being met.

Young people in the third world, like you and myself, find themselves in a particularly trying situation.
 Comprising more than 70% of Africa’s population are young men and women between 18 and 35 years. That’s about 650,000 youth on the African continent.

More so, these youth find themselves playing central and decisive, though often undue roles in their societies.
For war ravaged Africa, they fight wars of power and politics. 
For disease-stricken Africa, they carry HIV the most by national percentages.
Nonetheless, for stable Africa, they are the doctors and teachers and carpenters. They build Africa, and maintain her glory. We do so.

That brings me to today’s topic. How do we help such a sensitive segment of our population to stay on the competitive edge? How do we keep our heads above the surface in the face of the raging waters of war, disease, unemployment, social strife and unfulfilled expectations? How do we as youth achieve success?

My first proposal is this. Let us define success. Then we can know if it is achievable or not. I therefore pose the question; what, to you, is success?

You know, many of us think success is a thing to be achieved. 
We think success is a trophy waiting to be won. 
By making success the subject of our efforts, we try so hard to achieve a given level of accomplishment. Then if they fail to reach it, we wind up heartbroken and pessimistic.

Some others regard success in matters of material comfort or wealth. They spend their schooling years seeking to get the best job, so they can earn the best salary amongst their colleagues, buy the best car in town, and build the biggest house in the neighborhood. 
If they fail to get these things, then they feel so empty and unsatisfied; eventually resorting to fraudulent means of meeting their ends, thereby perpetuating the culture of corruption, bribery and private or public theft.

Friends, my own definition of success is a concept I shall introduce to you now. It is a notion, and only that. My understanding of success is deeply rooted in the values of my social outlook. So as far as I am concerned, to be successful one needs to have a social outlook. Do you have one?

Now, I strongly believe that no man is self-made. We are all products (or bi-products) of our social systems; our parents, neighborhoods, teachers and peers. They shape us, groom us and make us who we are. They give us a sense of identity and determine our paths in life.

Success, therefore, to me is about how true we can remain to the ideals of our society. 
How committed can you and I be,to being citizens of worth in our family, our district, our nation? It’s not about having the most money, or the highest academic accolades, or driving the best car.

How creative can we be in identifying and tapping the local resources in our communities to create products and services that will revolutionize our work methods and inspire young generations, rather than wait to be employed in doing the same task that’s been done for the past century?

Can we try to supplement our book learning with practical abilities? To insure Africa’s future, her youth must learn to use their hands.
Her young men should be able to make and repair her cars and build her roads and houses.
Her young women should learn to sew her clothes and weave her crafts.

The youth today must be ready to think about themselves, not just as individuals, lost in their personal predicament, but as part of a larger more meaningful social setting.

This is our calling as young people; to fulfill the dreams of our society, and not just our personal ambitions.

To do this, we must live what Martin Luther King called the 3-dimensional life:

One is to reach inward. Concern yourselves with your own well-being and health; to keep healthy - mentally and bodily. If we can’t stay alive, then all else we do is in vain.

Second is to reach outward. Concern yourselves with the welfare of other people. These may be your family, friends or even enemies. Always give a thousand chances to your enemy to become your friend, but never one chance to you friend to become your enemy.

Finally friends, the third dimension to which we must never become oblivious is to reach upward - in a way that is neither utilitarian nor fearful.
A divine being adds color to man’s otherwise grey existence, said one philosopher.
By having God in our lives, we shall always do unto others as we would have them do unto us - for we understand this to be the will of our maker.
Then, after we have harmonized these three co-existent sections of our lives - we may be able to call ourselves successful.

I thank you all for listening to me so patiently.