IYP PRESIDENT MEDIA PRESS RELEASE..
My New Year Message To the African Youth
Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, 31 December, 2020:
My dear fellow young Africans,
As 2020 comes to an end and 2021 beckons, on behalf of my family, IYP Governing Board Members and the Entire IYP Excutives and members of the International Youth parliament globally, complement of the season and a very happy prosperious New Year.
In 2020, challenges of youth in governance is the most pressing matters due to various factors including the demographic fact that the continent is mostly inhibited by young people, 60 percent of the African population is below the age of 25. Yet the youth in Africa are alienated and marginalized and they are not involved in policy formulation and less consulted in the decision making process, I am convinced that in 2021, through IYP entrepreneurship programs and youth empowerment activities which will kick start from April 2021; African will become the world headquarters for hope and extreme devotion to the cause of lifting our people out of poverty.
2021 is as yet a blank page. As young leaders, we must not settle for whatever it brings. Rather, we must take Reformation and collective action, through our Leadership choices, in making it a year where we revive African hope, with performance policy that sees our economy and institutions working again as they did in our golden era.
IYP will chart a new course and open a new chapter that sees every young Africans living in peace and prosperity with their neighbours. It will be the year when our youths finally get stable financially Instead of being unfairly tagged as conflict and voilence perpetuators, it will also be the year when youth will take the lead in decision making with energized youth taken over governance in our great continent which will usher in a golden age of establishment for all IYP member states.
But it will not just happen by itself. We have to make changes from the top of all the African heads of goverment to the bottom. We already have the vision, the vision of a continent that is beacon of hope for the African communities Race and the world at large, what we lack and what 2021 can provide, is IYP leadership that has the capacity to translate that vision into reality.
In 2021, African need a leadership that is 100% for 100% of Africans, 100% of the time. We have seen where old leaders and dictatorship has led our continent to. Now let us try young people with economic plan and true patriotism. Therefore, the issue of youth participation and youth representation will be scale up with speed during our forthcoming African Youth summit in 2021. But the key responsibility rest with young people to get organized and tap into the wide resources that will be provided by IYP, also to face up to the adversity and the frustration that will eventually come when moving from protest to participation.
Don’t lose heart and hope. Youth are no stranger to overcoming difficulties. In fact, we have an uncanny ability to perform our best when the worst is upon us.
That resilience is domiciled in our continent psyche and together we shall win forever. We shall win over forces of disunity. We shall win over forces of unemployment, marginalization and Reformation
But more importantly, in 2021, Africans need to know that IYP has made it possible to have youth leadership center in catering the needs of all young people and organizations. Our leadership is bold but not domineering. Our leadership is intelligent, but not arrogant.
Indeed, IYP is the only type of leadership that can navigate the difficulties currently facing our dear continent and it youth organizitions in Re – defining the Young African Leadership purpose and Uniting the youth, which are our Parliamentarian motto and which are the hope of all young Africans.
Once again, I wish you all a Happy New Year and may 2021 be the year of youthful strength.
Hon. (Engr) Promise Anurika Nwadigos – President International Youth Parliament Addis Ababa,Ethiopia
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