YOUTHS’ PARTICIPATION IN POLITICS MUST NOT START AND END AT VOTING
THE cliche “the youth are the future leaders of tomorrow” was squashed by former South African President Nelson Madela’s revised version which says “the youth of today are the leaders of tomorrow.”
Indeed, the wise words of Nelson Mandela are lucid because the youth who are the majority are the leaders of today as evidenced by their power to change the leadership of this country in the previous election.
The election is behind us.
The dust has settled and the President, Mr. Hakainde Hichilema has unveiled his cabinet. Talking about the new cabinet, the selection is inspiring but I am of the view that the President missed an opportunity to prove to the youth that just like Nelson Mandela said he too believes that they are the leaders of today and that he rates them highly by appointing even just one youth in his cabinet.
I had hoped that the
“Bally” as youths call him would consider them when forming his cabinet as a way of promoting and developing youth leadership because the development of youth leadership is critical to building civic capacity and long-term community and national sustainability, sadly, this wasn't the case but not all hope and time is lost, the President can still fix this.
The excuse many are giving for leaving out the youts in the new dawn Cabinet is that the President had to pick his cabinet ministers from the pool of Members of Parliament he has at his disposal and there are no youths in Parliament but what many are deliberately ignoring is the fact that the President has the powers to nominate eight Members of Parliament.
By and large, the UPND do have a youth in Mr Romeo Kangombe, the Member of Parliament for Sesheke, so the excuse that the President had
Saturday
no youths in his pool does not hold water. Simply put the President overlooked the youth.
It is quite disappointing that even when new ministries like the Ministry of Science and Technology were created it is old politicians like Mr Felix Mutati who were appointed to lead a ministry that largely has youths’ interests at the core.
Time for youths to be political spectators is long gone. Politics and Governance systems ought to be representative and for that to be archived, all parts of society especially the youth must be included.
When young people are disenfranchised or disengaged from Governance, a significant portion of the population has little or no voice or influence in decisions that affect group members’ lives.
It is essential that youths are engaged in formal political processes and governance systems so that they can have a say in formulating today’s and tomorrow’s laws and policies.
Inclusive political and Governance participation is not only a fundamental political and democratic right but also is crucial to building
stable and peaceful societies and developing policies that respond to the specific needs of younger generations.
For young people to be adequately represented in political institutions, processes, and decision-making, and in particular in governance, they must know their rights and be given the necessary knowledge and capacity to participate in a meaningful way at all levels.
There is an argument that youths lack the discipline and experience needed to occupy cabinet portfolios and positions of leadership hence them being overlooked is justifiable. I find this argument feeble and implausible because how else can youths gain the much needed and talked about experience and discipline if not being given the platforms to learn, grow and showcase their skills?
The same experienced and disciplined old politicians who are beinf preferred to the youth when making cabinet appointments were once inexperienced and undisciplined youths but because someone believed in them and gave them a chance
to prove themselves, today we can call them experienced but when will be youths of today be given a chance to become “experienced?”
When lobbying for votes from youths, experienced is never considered as a factor but why should it only be considered when making cabinet appointments?
Our late founding Father
Dr. Kenneth Kaunda gave us an example by appointing the youth in Vernon Mwaanga, Rupiah Banda and others to top positions in his Government and it worked perfectly well, so if KK did it, “HH can also did it.”
I believe that we truly all agree with Nelson Mandela that youths are the leaders of today but why then are we still accepting it as a norm to always have old recycled politicians being appointed in successive Governments?
We are in the new dawn and I expect things to change. The same way youths are the targeted pool for votes during elections is the same way they should be the targeted pool for cabinet and other appointments.