Museveni inspecting a guard of honour by Ugandan Scouts before opening the youth forum at Entebbe

President Yoweri Museveni has advised the African youth meeting in Uganda to address social economic transformation to enable development. He, however, said the youth need proper ideological orientation, urging them not to confuse ideology with biology.

“People think because they are young, they necessarily have new ideas, which may not be true. You can be young with old ideas and you can be old and have new ideas,” Museveni said.

He said social economic transformation is the only way Africa can help its youth become successful.

President Museveni was speaking on Saturday at the opening of Africa’s first youth forum dubbed “African Youth Forum”.

The three-day forum is being held at the Imperial Botanical Beach Hotel in Entebbe, under the theme “maternal, infant and child health, African youths call for action”.

The forum attracted about 140 delegates from 37 African countries. The outcome of the meeting will be presented to the African leaders who will meet from July 25 to 27 at the 15th African Union (AU) summit to be held in Kampala.

The first official meeting of the African Union opens in Kampala today. It will be attended by ambassadors accredited to the AU headquarters in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

According to UNICEF, the youth form the majority of Africa’s population, with those under the age of 25 representing 62% of the overall African population.

“Africa must move from the third to the first world. There is no way you will deal with the youth successfully if you remain third world.

“There should be social transformation. The right stimuli need to be applied. We need to identify the factors that impede and drive social economic transformation.

“You can either be a progressive or reactionary youth. You should focus on yourselves as social-economic transformation-inclined,” he said.

Museveni said Uganda has encouraged education and skills acquisition for the youth followed by ideological formation and jobs.

He, however, said Africa is faced with challenges like lack of infrastructure and electricity, which would help the continent develop.

The President noted that inadequate social services like electricity and education also undermine Africa’s efforts at achieve the Millennium Development Goals set by the UN.

Museveni, however, noted that the youth alone cannot bring changes, saying they need a conducive atmosphere to allow them acquire the necessary edge.

He said African youth need education and skills to enable them get jobs.
“Education is very important and that is why Uganda has the programme of education for all,” the President said.