President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has said any concept that seeks to mobilise and inspire Africa’s young people to stay and contribute to the development of the continent was extremely important and timely.
President Akufo-Addo said the youth conference to be organized in Ghana by the All African Conference of Churches (AACC) on the theme: “Africa my home, Africa my future” was the best possible expression in this contemporary time.
Addressing a delegation of the AACC who had paid a courtesy on him at the Jubilee House on Tuesday, President Akufo-Addo said political and economic difficulties confronting the continent, had forced the youth to leave in search of better lives abroad.
That, the President said, was imperative for leaders of Africa to work hard to build a continent that inspired the youth to stay and contribute “and I think the Church taking the lead is extremely important and timely.”
President Akufo-Addo said he was, however, fortified that these developments were not peculiar to Africans “because at the end of the 19th century, virtually the whole of Italy migrated to America so was the people of Ireland,” due to economic circumstances.
The President expressed his full support for the idea of the AACC and their upcoming youth programme to be organised in Ghana.
The delegation of All African Conference of Churches led by the Most Rev Dr Kwabena Boafo, Presiding Bishop, Methodist Church, Ghana called on the President to introduce its General Secretary and, also, announced the upcoming African Youth Congress.
Most Rev Dr Boafo said the youth conference which was initially scheduled for 2020, was postponed due to the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic.
The General-Secretary of AACC, Rev Dr Fidon Mwombeki, said at the last AACC conference in Kigali, Rwanda in 2018, the association decided to organise a youth conference to inspire the youth to be patriotic to their homeland – Africa.
He said the youth of Africa had been uninspired and unpatriotic and disappointed with the political leadership and economic systems of Africa and had embarked on journeys to foreign lands to seek better living conditions there.
Rev Dr Mwombeki said though the youth were right to move out to seek a better life in places that had better jobs and living conditions, the AACC thought otherwise to sensitise them to stay and help develop the continent.
He said the AACC wanted to create a platform where young Africans would meet “and think about Africa in the spirit of the early leaders of Africa on the continent.”
That, when founding fathers first “met in 1945 as students in England, Manchester and they decided we wanted independence, we appreciate where did they get that audacity.”
Rev Dr Mwombeki said all countries in Africa were under colonialism but the students were resolved to lead an independent Africa “and within 15 years, African countries began to attain independent.”
“That audacity, that courage, that patriotism which made them come back and suffer, and go to jail in other to bring independence, that spirit of patriotism is the one in which we want to encourage and provide a platform that the young people themselves can encourage and inspire each other,” he stated.
The All Africa Christian Conference, also known as the All Africa Conference of Churches was formed in April 1963 during the second meeting of the Assembly of Churches of Africa held in Kampala, Uganda.
That, AACC which was established almost at the same time as the then Organisation of African Unity (OAU), now African Union (AU), had the same aim of liberating Africa — working for political independence and later economic independence.
Rex Mainoo Yeboah, ISD
