Young people deserve a chance to constitute governments

By Sebur Nyuon Antipas Nyok

Today in Africa and many parts of the world, a very outstanding issue has remained unaddressed for years. This is the issue of who is legible to take up government posts and various public offices.

The rhetoric which politicians always use to persuade the young generations so as to remain the ruling class seems to be going nowhere that is, “you are the leaders of tomorrow”. As an individual who believes in himself, I think it is high time we turn this stone.

This illusion has densely occupied the African continent and perhaps this argument will likely make space small for those of us who had this mindset while I strive to uncover this mystery.

I believe that what an elder sees while seated a young cannot see while standing but at the same time in my own perspective, I would like to say what a young one could see while standing, an elder may not be able to see. This is why this world was structured on the principle of co-existence right from the time of creation. Meanwhile the leaves need the roots to keep in balance, they are also needed by the roots for food.

In many societies today, there is an increased believe that the leadership of country is meant strictly for the mature and thus this is the reason why the old always find themselves in this position leaving out so many that could be better for the job just because of their age.

First of all what is maturity? There is a gross difference between maturity and age of an individual as it is possible to find a fifty year old who is a ten year old in mind. The reverse is undisputedly true. Many young able members of society have been marginalized for a very long time simply because the youth stage is assumed that of people who cannot contribute anything positive. What should we say about those beyond age of sixty but corrupt. Is this a good leadership quality? What age did Mark Zuckerberg materialize his dream of connecting the world together? How many were far much aged than he was when he turned this world around with Facebook? these are some of the questions we should ask ourselves.

With respect to everyone’s opinion, I would like to say the young and older members of community cannot realize positive results if there is no bridge connecting them together. I cannot battle the fact that the elders always are there to feed the young with wisdom and knowledge because they have seen more than we do but at times, we have many advices to offer to them. This is why learning is a lifelong process so they cannot know it all. We live in the twenty- first (21st) centaury where technology is the key mathematics that is used to find X. The younger generations are well placed in this field because of their flexibility and adventurous nature so, they can do a lot in short range.

As a constituent of living things, man is designed to age with time. No one knows why things had to take this trend well let’s leave that to the creator. The point here is as humans age, the brain is the leader of depreciation because before it tells other body elements to age it has to take a lead. This means the efficiency of man has got a limit and therefore the need for a fresher blood to help. In this case the youths. We need the elders to be there but I am saying for tangible results they need the youths so as to realize this era’s dream since the olden Rome and that of today are so different and the reason being changes in generations leading to newer ideologies.

Many people today are used to forest of words and desert of points and that is why I am saying instead of saying the youths are leaders of tomorrow, can we ask ourselves when that so called tomorrow will arrive? Because I am wondering if the tomorrow of now days has turned to decades. We seriously need to study critically the copious amounts of slogans people used these days to hijack development for their own benefit because they are not just appealing words as we have been thinking. They actually affect our societies directly.

To mention but a few, the list of reasons as to why the youths deserve the keys to the doors of society like their older counterparts are so many.

I am an individual who believes we can do better when the elders who always think leadership was meant for only them and the youths join hands together. We have all our strengths and weaknesses and it is only coming together that dilutes the weakness and increases the power of our abilities.

As I conclude, you have the power to contribute to society in various ways and accepting to be flexible is one way we learn. We all got our own take on issues that affect our populations and us but should development be sacrificed for myths that drag our societies to eighteenth (18th) Centaury?

We are a great people and will be even greater when all ideas of South Sudanese flow through one pipe. We are one country and therefore one ideology can only be possible when we work as a team in respective of age. We are all equally responsible for building a tremendous nation.

Sebur Nyuon Antipas Nyok is the Author of a book titled “The Road To Development In South Sudan