To curtail something is to slow it down or stop it down. The implication of the title of this article is that youth development has been slowed down, but not necessarily stopped entirely. A people or groups of them can sense their country is developing, experiencing development in the reverse or stagnating in development depending on the changes in their socioeconomic or sociopolitical circumstances.

There is widespread perception among the youths of Uganda that the rulers are curtailing their development for their own benefit. Some argue that they are being exported to slave markets in the Middle East so that they do not contribute to a future population of Uganda through reproduction. They say their labour is enriching those in power and those active in the export of youth to the Middle East slave market.  

It is easy for those in power or leadership to generalise that a country is developing when they experience individual or family development at the expense of the rest of the country. They may become deaf to the reality that the absolute majority are experiencing no development but spiralling impoverishment. The absolute majority must do something to remind those in power or in leadership that something is not ticking in the development dynamics of their country The absolute majority in Uganda, judging from the 2024 population census are the youths. It is important that they experience development in all dimensions. This is what I refer to as youth development.

When I say youth development, I mean growing and developing the skills and connections young people need to take part in society and reach their potential. Thus, youth development is about young people gaining a sense of contributing something to the value of society or country as a whole.

According to USAID/Uganda Youth Assessment Key Findings, Uganda has the world’s youngest population with over 78 per cent of its population below the age of 30. With just under eight million youth aged 15-30, the country also has one of the highest youth unemployment rates in Sub-Saharan Africa. USAID found youths are frustrated with programmes run by the government of Uganda and others and feel excluded. However, despite feelings of disempowerment and discouragement, Ugandan youth are interested in their role as citizens and are politically aware.

Although Uganda is making strides economically, it faces significant challenges in meeting its youth’s needs today and their challenges tomorrow as its population continues to grow at a rate of 3.2 per cent per annum. It is a time bomb, which the country’s rulers seem to be insensitive to. According to Worldmeter Uganda’s total human population id 50,007,652 as of Sunday July 28, 2024, based on Worldmeter elaboration of the latest United Nations data.

More than 80 per cent of this population are youths. They need the greatest voice in national affairs. However, the way the rulers related to them 30 years ago is the way they continue to relate to them today: a voiceless lot whom only government politicians can speak for. Government politicians ignore the fact that today the youths are more linked via the mobile phone, internet and social media and can easily mobilise themselves for a cause. So while the rulers believe in no change, the youth dynamics have changed a lot via technology. When one interacts with and listens to them via internet and social media one quickly comes to the conclusion that the young want to experience meaningful youth development and change rather than going on as if they don’t matter despite their numerical superiority.

Where the youths are marginalised or excluded from the socioeconomic development process, they become hopeless, hapless, disempowered and unable to put value to their own lives. They may turn to taking drugs, committing crime or committing suicide. It does not matter whether they have been to school or university, they will all behave and act the same way because they will find themselves together at the same level of the “undesirables” or “inconsequential” and begin to see themselves as worthless. They may all find themselves interacting as equals in the ghetto. They may lose interest in their country and in life and begin to see the leaders or rulers as their primary enemies, especially if the leaders and rulers live in opulence while they live in squalid conditions.

Not long ago, Suhaibu Mohammed (2019) observed that despite its strong economic surge in the recent past, Africa’s economic performance remained non-inclusive. This is true of Kenya as it is of Uganda and Nigeria whose youths are organising themselves globally via social media to demonstrate against bad governance, which is pushing them in extreme poverty and marginalising them from meaningful socioeconomic development.

In all these countries the dominant demographic group, which is being oppressed through unemployment, joblessness and imposed poverty, are the youths whose voice is not easily heard by the powers that be and if they are heard, the powers that be want to hear their collective voice in a controlled manner. Although the leaders want the youth to adhere to the constitutions of those countries, the leaders, in pursuit of their narrow economic and political interests, frequently violate the constitutions.  

As I write, the Nigerian youths everywhere on the globe will on 1st August 2024 launch their demonstration against bad governance, using what they call ‘people power’ but within their new party called Nigeria People’s Party (NPP). NPP contested the 2023 Nigerian presidential election, but its standard-bearer, Rabiu Kwankwaso, came in fourth place, carrying only one state, its stronghold of Kano. The Youth are using social media, just as the youths of Kenya and Uganda did.

In Kenya, youths demonstrated against a finance bill that disregarded them and were able to cause President William Ruto to undertake major reforms, although the youths are still demanding that the president must also leave office.

In Uganda the youths used the corruption of the speaker of parliament to express their disgust against spiralling corruption in the country, although they knew that corruption has grown into a virulent cancer over the past 38 years. Unfortunately, the ruling elite have narrowly dismissed the youth demonstrations as the work of foreigners from especially countries which have legalised homosexuality and same sex marriages.

Interestingly, a few years back we had in North Africa what was called Arab Spring. Arab Spring, Arab Spring was a wave of pro-democracy protests and uprisings that took place in theMiddle East and North Africa, beginning 2010 and 2011, challenging some of the region’s entrenched dictatorial, authoritarian regimes. Most of the regime fell from grace and power. The Arab Spring was the work of the youths of that region. When youths decide to rise against power, it is usually that they have nothing to lose but everything to gain as the dominant energetic group.

In this article I want to dwell on bad governance, which the Nigerian youths have decided to use as their uniting clarion call.

As one writer has put it, bad governance can be defined as the lack of transparency and accountability in government institutions and the misuse of power by public officials. It can have several adverse effects on a country, including economic stagnation, corruption and a loss of public trust in the government.

Bad governance can lead to exclusionary development among the population and economic stagnation by discouraging investment and entrepreneurship. When businesses and individuals lack confidence in the government, they are less likely to invest money in the economy. This can lead to a decrease in economic growth and development and an increase in poverty among all segments of the population except those in power who take national resources as their own (NTF, 2023).

There are thus many causes of bad governance, namely: unethical leadership, inefficient internal audits, corruption, arrogant leadership, unqualified inexperienced executives of national institutions, political ethnicity, ethnic politicisation, fraud, unaccountability, lack of transparency, oppressive laws, greed and selfishness of leaders, outright theft by those in power, overconcentration of political power and authority in the hands of one person, et cetera (e.g., NTF, 2023).

In Uganda, there is currently a falsehood that if government gives money to individuals, even in groups, they will automatically begin to develop. We have had government schemes such as Bonna Bagaggawale, Myooga and Parish Development Model (PDM). In the past, governments were focused on developing whole communities, which nurture children, women and men together as a whole, but the use of these schemes excludes many from the development process. The assumption is that when a few individuals develop, the development will trickle down and permeate to the whole society. However, this is not happening,

While government may pride that it is sowing seeds of the money economy, as desired by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank, through the above-mentioned schemes, what is happening is that divisions, corruption and impoverishment being amplified amongst communities and beyond instead. Partisan considerations are ensuring that people who do not confess membership of the ruling party are being excluded from accessing the money released by government.

There are claims that not all the money intended to reach the bottom actually does so, with most of it being stolen by government officials and politicians.  Most youth in the communities do not participate in the scheme. They are increasingly taking to drugs and crime to make a living.

There is need to institutionalise good governance in Uganda to ensure that the youths experience meaningful development and do not feel they being politically, economically and socially excluded for the benefit of a few in power.

For the purposes of this article, I will take good governance to mean “processes and institutions produce results that meet the needs of society (children, youths, men, women) while making the best use of the resources (natural, time, energy, money, crops, food) at their disposal. From a human rights perspective, good governance refers to the process whereby public institutions conduct public affairs, manage public resources and guarantee the realisation human rights for all, not a few in power or connected to power. It is bad governance if only a few are guaranteed human rights and the absolute majority are not.

In summary, good governance relates to the political, social and economic and institutional processes and outcomes that are necessary to achieve the goals of development for all. Ultimately development for all implies just and inclusive society where everyone lives in dignity. Unfortunately, in Uganda in particular and Africa in general, the absolute majority of people (young and old) are increasingly not living in dignity. It is the young who most care about a future of dignity because it is they who belong to the future and to whom the future belongs. It is them we have robbed the future from. It is them, more than us who have already lived our future, who must struggle to ensure that their future is dignified. It is their human right to have a dignified future, free of corruption. Our own future has been eroded by corruption.

The true test of “good’ governance is the degree to which it delivers on the promise of human rights (civil, cultural, economic, ecological, environmental, political and social) rights. If not, the likely people to rise against a corrupt system are the youths who also dominate the population in terms of numbers in the Ugandan context in particular and the African context in general.

For God and My Country

• A Tell report / By Prof Oweyegha-Afunaduula, a former professor in the Department of Environmental Sciences of the Makerere University, Uganda. Prof Owegha-Afunaduula is also a cofounder of Centre for Critical Thinking and Alternative Analysis, Uganda