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{
"id": 1337379,
"url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1337379/?format=api",
"text_counter": 306,
"type": "speech",
"speaker_name": "Mukurweini, UDA",
"speaker_title": "Hon. Kaguchia John",
"speaker": null,
"content": "mainstreaming young people into the leadership of this country, but for one reason or another, we have not got it right over the years. For that reason, the National Youth Council has remained ineffective and has not achieved the goals and intentions that it was created to achieve. For that reason, I congratulate my brother for bringing this amendment because this is, by and large, going to unlock a situation that has been moving from bad to worse and worse to worst. The issue of our young people is not an issue that we can put under the carpet. We cannot downplay it, as young people are important in running this nation. They are the hope of our tomorrow. They are the generation that is taking over the leadership of this nation, and they must get the proper training, have the capacity built, and get the exposure necessary to help them prepare as leaders with integrity. It will also ensure that they become a bundle of value in their leadership role in our nation. The National Youth Council can play this role very well if it is properly organised, prepared, structured, funded and capacitated. One of the ways is by ensuring that the structures are working and the human resource or capacity in it is enhanced so that it can deliver. One thing we lack as a country is a proper mentorship system. As a Government, there exists an internship programme that takes care of our young people who are coming from college. But we need a structure that should be appropriately guided through the National Youth Council to mentor our young people. Once they have done the internship in the marketplace, there is also another opportunity for them to do job shadowing so that they can job-shadow senior corporate leaders, political leaders, lawyers, advocates and doctors in this country so that the young people can get proper exposure. They will also understand that as they prepare for life, things are not automatically earned because some young people today have a challenge that they want to succeed here and now. This job-shadowing, mentorship, internship programmes and properly guiding them through established structures – which we must ensure they work – is one of the ways to help our young people understand how to be effective and be leaders in this nation in an appropriate manner. Hon. Temporary Speaker, I encourage our political parties to ensure they also have young people in their ranks. Ensure that the young people become key components in leadership at all stages, from the top, mid and lower levels. We should ensure that the young people are properly embedded into that system. I am glad that we have young leaders in the National Assembly. In fact, the 13th Parliament is probably one of the youngest we have had in the history of this Republic, where the average age of our leaders this time round does not go beyond 50 years. It is actually in the range of 40 years. This is a good thing, and it shows that young people are now coming alive to the fact that they are supposed to be taking the reins of leadership in this country. Therefore, we as leaders, must ensure that we amend this law today to ensure that young people are brought on board through the National Youth Council (NYC). We must also walk the talk in a way we can encompass and mainstream young people's leadership into our political parties, institutions, commissions, boards and whatever level of governance we have in this nation. We usually say that a country or a nation that does not take care of the young generation is a country that is planning to fail because it will not have leadership in future. I want to support this amendment and say that we expect the Cabinet Secretary to exercise objectivity when addressing this issue of how to competitively bring on board the young people in National Youth Council by ensuring there is representation, the gender issue is addressed, marginalised societies, communities and people are well taken care of. We must look beyond the political divides to ensure all people from all corners of this country are brought on board because young people matter and are key and important in running this nation. The electronic version of the Official Hansard Report is for information purposesonly. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor."
}