It is high time African youth take control of their destiny before someone else does, Dr. Amadoun Toure told thousands of African youth at a summit in Kigali.
Dr. Toure, the Executive Director of the Smart Africa Initiative, was addressing youths attending YouthConnekt Africa Summit at the Convection Center in Kigali.
At plenary session discussing; “Youth and Politics”, Dr Toure said youth across Africa should begin engaging in the politics of their countries.
“Doing politics is an obligation and is a reality, but not doing politics is also bad politics,” Dr. Toure said.
Dr. Toure explained to the attentive youth that politics is wrongly perceived and this is the time to get things right. He said African youth need to be active in different fronts: Vote, participate in politics, or express opinions.
“I am very optimistic about the future,” he said adding that, “Technology has one ingredient, the brain.” “The youth have whatever it takes, they have the brains and they have the will and passion.
Social media
Regarding the use of social media to inspire and share knowledge and information, Dr. Toure said that the tech era is revolutionary in a way that it has reversed the traditions of information sharing in Africa.
In Africa, he said, “Information is only good when it is a secret.” This, he said, “Is anti-thesis of development. With the power of social media, you don’t have to hide anything anymore.”
