Mr. Paul Osei-Kuffour, Coordinator of WADEMOS Network has stated that he sees a very dynamic and robust resilient young people saying, what is left is for government and the society to give them the opportunities and the spaces for them to build their capacity and respond to societal issues and challenges.
He was of the view that, without the young people, there would not be any future for democracy added that young people are the next generation to respond to the current democratic challenges and the reverse that are being experienced.
Mr. Osei-Kuffour therefore, advised the young people to do a lot of reading and also prepare themselves adequately, engaging themselves with Intergenerational dialogues where they speak to very experienced subject matters especially, experts in various fields so that they broaden their horizons and knowledge on issues and principles.
This came to light in an interview during the graduation of the young participants after sharing their experiences, giving feedback about their learning and lessons from the project, and also demonstrating some of the capacities and competencies that they picked from the program.
The young participants celebrated the successful completion of the program by reflecting on their journey and having a conversation about the state of democracy in the sub-region and how to counter the threats to democracy.
According to Mr. Paul Osei-Kuffour, if the young people are not prepared well for the challenges ahead, then it is a clear indication that there will not be any future, nor would there be aspiration or hope for democracy.
The Next Generation initiative is one of the projects under the West Africa Democracy Solidarity Network (WADEMOS) for which the focus is on the young people who are trying to harness the potential and capacity of the young people to transform and change the current Democratic context and narratives.
The Academic section was done where over 15 young people from 15 countries in ECOWAS were shortlisted through a competitive process. They then went into the academy, where they went through further online training in capacity building and empowerment programs.
This was done for about two months, and then subsequently they were enrolled into a mentoring program for about a month where they were pitching with their mentors.
The essence was to allow them to practically eye some of the learnings in terms of the concepts, values, and principles that they become during the online training sessions.
