President Akufo-Addo has stated that the army of unemployed young people in Africa constitutes a threat to the peace and stability of the continent.
Akufo-Addo noted that such young people are targeted for recruitment by terrorist groups and, therefore, urged African leaders to provide the youth with jobs so that their energies can be mobilised for the development of Africa.
Speaking at the High-Level AU Retreat on Peace and Stability in Africa held in Accra, Ghana, today October 25, 2018, Akufo-Addo urged African leaders to transform their economies to provide opportunities and hope for the youth to live dignified lives.
“We are required to pay urgent attention to the bubbling volcano that is the army of the young unemployed. The World Bank tells us that in 40 African countries, over 50 per cent of the population is under the age of 20. Indeed, the median age across the continent is stated to be 19 years and five months; that is a lot of young energy that can be mobilised for the development of the continent,†he said.
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“We must create the opportunities for jobs for our youth or they risk becoming instruments of instability or targets of recruitment by terrorists. We have to provide them with access to education; we must transform the structure of our economies from the raw material producing, exporting economies to value-added and industrialised economies, which will provide opportunities, jobs and hope to our young people to live dignified productive lives,†he added.
President Akufo-Addo also urged African leaders to promote and develop on the continent, a system and culture of accountable governance free of corruption, whereby Africans are governed in accordance with the rule of law, respect for individual liberties and human rights and the principles of democratic accountability.
Also in his address, President Akufo-Addo charged African countries to intensify efforts to fight terrorism on the continent, as the turbulence caused by perpetrators of terrorist attacks, threaten regional integration.
In his view, the objective of an integrated Africa cannot be achieved without peace and stability on the continent, adding that countries should shun nations notorious for terrorist activities.
According to him, Africa will not have a united front to confront its economic and political challenges if some states continue to battle human security challenges which confront their people.
“At the moment, terrorist groups including Al Qaeda, the Movement for Unity in Jihad, Boko Haram and Al Shabab, have fed on the traditional threats to security and they have unleashed terror on the citizenry in their effort to stifle the freedom and liberties enjoyed by our people,â€