A new programme to inspire African young leaders.

On Monday this week, President Amani Abeid Karume officially launched the Young African leaders’ conference and Awards programme, which took place here in Dar es Salaam. Staff writer DASSU STEPHEN was there and he provides more details.

Leader of the Revolutionary Government of Zanzibar President Amani Abeid Karume described the newly introduced Young African leaders’ conference and Awards programme, as a precursor and a tool, which provides impetus to promoting potential African Leadership for the present and future generation.

The president, who is also the chairman of the Zanzibar Revolutionary Council, was quoted through the local media as saying, “This attendance is certainly a reflection of the people of Africa accepting the concept of the Young Leaders Award programme. It has to be so because after all the young people constitute about 75 per cent of the entire population of our continent.” President Karume was speaking during the inauguration of the Young African leaders’ conference and Awards programme.

The event was attended by academics, politicians, diplomats, business executives, just to mention a few. He went on to say, “It is however imperative for the present and past leadership to prepare future leaders to face contemporary social, political and economical challenges, and we don’t need to wait for the youth to become middle aged but should start by identifying young people, who have the quality of leadership in various fields of human behavior.”

The Young African Leaders Awards programmer is a concept created by the African Leadership Institute, whose patron is the very Reverend Archbishop Desmond Tutu.
Desmond Tutu (born October 7, 1931) is a South African cleric and activist, who was elected and ordained the first black South African Anglican Archbishop of Cape Town, South Africa and primate of the Church of the Province of Southern Africa (now the Anglican Church of Southern Africa). He rose on the world stage in the 1980s, as an opponent of apartheid.

Experts say the fundamental goal of the Young African Leadership programmer is to recognize and nurture the next generation of African leaders under the age of 40 and facilitate opportunities for vigorous and constructive debate and action on pan-African and global issues that African leaders face now and in the future.

The programmer is being sponsored by the African Leadership Institute, which was established in 2003, and its primary focus is to build the capacity and capability for visionary and strategic leadership across Africa, especially among the promising leaders of the future.

The chairman of the African Leadership Institute Mr Sean Lance says the AfLI is focusing on identifying Africa’s future leaders and offering them a platform for leadership learning and application. “It is our intention to establish a network of future leaders across Africa which is committed to the successful development and transformation of the continent.”

The Institute intends to serve as a vehicle for these leaders to influence change in addition to providing these leaders of tomorrow with the experiences, insights, tools and confidence to become drivers of the renaissance of Africa. A key philosophy of AfLI is the need to seek African solutions and ideas to the demands on African leaders and to provide a neutral platform to stimulate learning and application of leadership in the wider community.

“It is the AfLI’s belief that without good leadership across the various levels and sectors of the continent, all the other excellent initiatives in Africa will be stifled. Investment in good leadership thus has an enormous return in terms of future social, economic, political, technological and environmental benefits,” said the chairman.

The African Leadership Institute with its experience in the field of development of high potential young leaders across Africa and its alumni network of such individuals, will be responsible, in partnership with others locally and internationally, for the design, management, facilitation and coordination of this initiative, said Mr Sean Lance.

The Institute is a virtual one and implements its programmers in collaboration with donors, strategic partners and regional representatives, including established non-governmental organizations, the private sector and educational institutions. The partner institutions at the moment are Oxford University (Templeton), University of Western Cape, Ghana Institute for Management & Public Administration and Makerere University. The physical presence of the Institute across Africa is ensured by the regional representatives.

They conduct regional extension programmes to a wider community, in cooperation with the strategic partner institutions. Many politicians, academics, and business community practitioners believe that the Young Leadership programme could become a success story only if it enjoys an overwhelming support from a substantial number of the grassroots, politicians, experts and other influential figures in the society.

The same sentiment was echoed by president Karume who said, “It is imperative for the past and present leadership in government, business, sport and other faculties to support the initiative of young African leaders programme by inviting dialogue whereby those young people will learn from their experiences and get the opportunity to challenge and bring change,” said president Amani Abeid Karume.

Mr Karume said the continent, which is currently facing unprecedented development challenges such as poverty, prolonged and devastating conflicts, and increasing global inequality, needs a kind of people who are diligent, committed, responsive and willing to effectively and efficiently address such challenges.

President Karume also said the programme must be geared for the interest of the vast majority population and not otherwise, “I caution those executing the programme to avoid the danger of creating cartel of ‘anointed people’ and on contrary, they should strive to promote and nurture the ones with proven leadership qualities at work, studies, society and who are compassionate with initiative and eager to learn on various pressing matters of the day.”

“I think Reverend Archbishop Desmond has done a very good thing to initiate this programme , and what we need to do is just to support it so that it meets its objectives,” said former president Ally Hassan Mwinyi. “We are very optimistic that the programme will play a decisive role to inspire and ultimately promote respectable future leadership in Africa,” said the Minister for Home Affairs Lawrence Masha. As president Karume said at least 75 per cent of the population in Africa are the youth, and it is a matter of fact that the future of this continent will feel secured only if the ones with potentials of leadership are nurtured, inspired and promoted to become good leaders.