 Hello, good day to you or wherever you may be joining us from. We appreciate your participation in this web chat. You would recall that sometime in July 2009, during President Barack Obama's medium visit to Africa and of course to Ghana, he made a profound statement and I quote, this is a new moment of great promise. Only this time we've learned that it will not be the giants like the Enkrumas and the Kenyattas who determine Africa's future anymore. It will be the young people brimming with talent and energy and hope who can claim the future that so many in previous generations never realized. This was the precursor to the first ever president's forum for young African leaders which was held in August 2010 and subsequently the first ladies young African women leaders forum which was held in June 2011. The Young African Leaders Initiative continues with mentoring partnership with young African leaders and young African leaders and companies in the U.S. sponsored by the U.S. government in collaboration with private U.S. companies and non-governmental organizations. The mentoring partnership program will be launched in June 14th to 15th 2012 at the Young African Leaders Innovation Summit in Washington, D.C. My name is Anani Aokuonu. I am the alumni coordinator at the U.S. Embassy here in Accra and I'm happy to be moderating this online conversation. For our web chat today, we have two young African leaders speaking to us about their political leadership experience and their understanding of political activism and social justice, what it means to them, and how they became young African leaders. The Honorable Samuel Okujato Ablaqua, Deputy Minister of Information for the Republic of Ghana, is an alumnus of the American Council for Young Political Leaders Program in 2010. Honorable Ablaqua started his political activism as a student leader right from high school through to the university when he became the president of the National Union of Ghana students. Miss Shamima Muslim is a broadcast journalist and an alumna of the President's Forum for Young African Leaders. Miss Muslim has been in the forefront of youth leadership right from her high school days through to the university and she has championed female empowerment tremendously through radio and television programming. Ladies and gentlemen, you are welcome. And as we say in our local parlance, aquaba to our online audience, which means welcome, especially to our audience joining us from Togo, Benin, Guinea and other African countries and across the globe. Now Honorable, can you tell us a little about how you became a young African leader and what the terms political activism and social justice means to you? Thank you, let me also say hi to all our viewers across the world. It's a pleasure to be here and to have been invited to engage with colleagues around the world. As you did indicate, a Deputy Minister of Information in the government of President John Evans Atamels, I was sworn into office on the 22nd of April 2009, I've held this portfolio for the past three and a half years. Before coming into government, I was also a member of the Committee for Joint Action, which was a civil society organization. We championed several courses, including improving access to housing, improving access to education through political activism, ensuring that the living conditions of our people are improved and keeping government accountable. That was a remit. Before then, also I was the President of the National Union of Ghana students and as President of the umbrella body for students in Ghana, we had the mandate to seek students' welfare, to negotiate on behalf of students, to ensure that the concerns and the interests of students were safeguarded and to seek the best interests of students at all times and also create an interface between students, university authorities, authorities of senior high schools, of the training colleges and other tertiary institutions and also to ensure that that interface with government was also protected because you needed to negotiate with government on student loans, on academic facility user fees, residential facility user fees and other matters which bordered on the general welfare of students. Before then, also, I was a trustee for the Greater Accra Students' Representative Council, where I met you, yeah, and we had very good times together and that's when I really stood for elections for the first time in my life and I was happy that I did win and did experience what leadership is and what seven your colleagues should be all about. So if recently I was elected as the Parliamentary Candidate for the North Tone Constituency, my constituents would be very angry if I don't talk about that, you know. So I'm happy that in the next Parliament, very hopefully, I will represent the people of North Tone in the Parliament of the Republic of Ghana. So that's the last of the first election, public election was in 1998 and then there have been other elections since. So it's been a very humbling experience to offer yourself a leadership and be given the opportunity, time and again, to serve and I believe that when given the opportunity you have to make sure that you carry the will and aspirations of your people. You don't leave your people behind. You are only a representative of your people, the people who have elected you and the cause for which you have all committed to as an organization, as an association. So you must always be mindful of that. A lot of times leaders lose touch about what the cause is and about what their people are fighting for. And we have seen in recent times in Africa and with the Arab Spring that when leaders lose touch, when leaders refuse to take the concerns of the people seriously and to make sure that at all times it is the national interest which is given prominence, you will be swept away by the popular will of the people. So really that has been me. On the second part of your question about what I understand by political activism and social activism, I think that there are different kinds of people. There are those who want to sit on the fence, who want to refuse to take action to pursue a particular objective or a particular cause. But activists are people who refuse to sit on the fence, who decide to pursue an objective. And so when you decide to pursue your objective, it could be belonging to a youth group, belonging to a women's group. It doesn't mean where it could be in your church, it could be in your community, it could be political, it could be national, it could be in school. Regardless of the setting of the community, what is important is that you offer yourself to be a change agent that you are not satisfied with the status quo. So you want to achieve a particular objective. You want to be able to avail yourself so that your community can get better than you came to meet it. When you do that, then you are an activist. There are different kinds of activists in terms of the philosophical and the penis. And I think that that is also important. You should have a set of ideology that guides you. Are you a right winger? Are you a leftist? What is your conceptualization of the world? Because at the end of the day, it all comes to that. So regardless of where you belong ideologically, when you decide to take action, you decide that you want to be counted. You don't want to sit on the fence and just be aloof. Then I can describe you as an activist. On that note, your experience might be slightly different from Shamima. So Shamima, can you tell us a little about how you became a young African leader and what these terms mean to you? Well, thank you. Hello once again to all of you listening from across the world. It's really a great pleasure to be having this conversation with you. And I'm looking forward to a very open and frank discussion about our common challenges and problems as a continent and perhaps re-diagnose these problems again and challenge the status quo. Like you referred to, Honorable Ablaka and myself were all student leaders way back in our days at the University of Ghana. I was the first female local Nooks president of the University of Ghana. And for me, that's where my activism started from. And not to say that it was as a result of this burning desire to be engaged. And I always tell every young person I meet that the world is a stage unless you want to be just a passive passerby. You have to engage. You have to engage your communities. You have to have conversations about your situations. If you're unhappy about your situation, you have to talk about it. And then at, you need to be able to recognize what you want to see change about your reality. And for me, that's what's been my driving principle. Everywhere I find myself, I have to be engaged in the system with my colleagues, talking and redefining what we all have to do and then acting. Because I think that the world is a stage, is a global world. We all speak about it. And my leadership and our collective leadership is work in progress because different realities must challenge us to be able to come out with creative solutions to our common problems, which is why I think that it is not a zero-sum game. America shouldn't be stronger because Ghana is weaker. In fact, I believe that our collective value grows and becomes more valuable as a world if individual nations are all growing in quality and collectively. And again, I'd like to just add that insecurity anywhere is insecurity everywhere. And so whether you're a superpower or you're a weakling, we must all be interested in our collective aspirations. So that internal dialogue is something that I have all the time because I come across different challenges as a young woman in the media doing broadcast journalism, love politics very much, but not yet brave to do it mainstream, like how a blocker is doing it mainstream, maybe someday. But I'd love to ask the questions. I think accountability is beautiful. It's beautiful when you are the one asking all the questions. Don't tell you that it's different when you are in the reality because the concerns and the challenges of the reality sometimes prevent those with good intentions. I'd love to think that our politicians come into office with good intentions because I don't want to be entirely epistemic to things that there might be some other old-year motives to seeking political office, although certain actions by politicians across the continent seem to suggest that. And so that internal dialogue has brought me to a point where I'm asking myself, what do I want to see in Africa? Of course, I want to see a successful African country, continent made up of successful nations who are self-reliant, who are industrialized, who are proud in their rich heritage, the majority of whom are beneficiaries from our own natural resources and human resources as well. As part of being a country where its citizens will own or manage or control the commanding heights of the economy, otherwise, what will it be? And I'll tell you why I am even now more than ever in conviction that this ought to be the clarion call for all young people who are leaders of tomorrow. My read diagnosis of the problem is that, you know, it's lazy when constantly we say the leaders are the problem. The leaders, yes, have been part of the problem, but Africans have failed Africa by allowing our leaders to fail Africa. I think that this forum should say it as it is. There have been incremental gains, but I don't think that for the life of any country that is over 50 years, we must still be arguing about incremental gains. I think that it is time for the true transformational interventions that will change the face of our continent, that will make us the industrialized continent that we want to see, that will make the African the multi-billionaire. When you look at Forbes, a hundred rich people, I should see some Africans represented there, not just one, not just two, 15, 20, 30. Why can't we aspire to do that? If African continent is supposed to be controlling vast amounts of arable land, we have rich natural resources, our reality cannot be the way that it has continued to be. So I think that they got part in Africans have failed Africa by allowing our leaders to fail Africa. I think that Africa must therefore work for Africans and the benefits shared globally. And I think that a better Africa will be a better contributor to the world. And we can't hope to deliver quality life for our people if the structure of our economies remain the way that they are. And Ablaka would agree to the fact that we are still largely an import-driven economy, the African continent. And I'm saying that how can we possibly grow a nation of people who are proud in themselves and are proud about their country when it's a nation of people who are working around with foreign acquired tastes? From toothpicks, I beg your pardon, to toilet paper. I don't think that that is a reality that we must be proud about. And we need to challenge these things. Yes, we are part of a global economy, but how is it that other countries have been self-reliant in the ways that they have been and we are not drawing inspiration on how they have done it? And I came away from the US when I attended President Obama's Young Leaders Forum, very much convinced that this is the way African nations should go. Because I was told by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to look around as we drive, as we walk, and be inspired about the sheer ingenuity of the American people. Entrepreneurship, small-scale businesses, every street corner. There were American people who owned shops, who controlled their businesses, who were managing their businesses. They were fiercely proud about being American people. I had stories of Americans who had never traveled even outside of their states before, because they are proud of their state and they have everything they need in their state. So they can't even think about a country called Ghana. What's in Ghana? Everything, it's in America. So I'm saying that I want to be that fiercely proud about my country, Ghana, about my continent, Africa. And I'm thinking that it is also time for us to build those entrepreneurs that will create the wealth and share it, because you can't share that which you do not have. And you cannot share that which you're constantly borrowing. How much will it be? But if you created the wealth, and I also was told by President Barack Obama during the town hall meeting, the engines that were powering the economic growth of the American people, he referred and spoke proudly about the Silicon Valley gift to the world. He spoke about the industrialist, the manufacturing base of the American people, the Ivy League universities that I sitting here still aspire to attend one day and have it on my CV that either I have a graduate and what have you. Why have these things been possible in America? And I'm thinking that if President Obama brought all of us young African leaders to come to America and see what is possible, it is because he wants us to challenge ourselves as tomorrow's leaders and to challenge our leaders today that if other leaders have been able to deliver for their people, our leaders have no excuse not to be delivering the social contract they have with their people to make our lives better, to make us a proud people, a self-reliant people, whilst we also share the gains globally. I think that it is time for young people to wake up to this call, be inspired and realize that we too can. Yes, indeed, we can. That's really profound and to think about all these thoughts in your mind, I would guess that that's why you conclude by saying that Africans have let Africa down because we let our leaders let Africa down, right? In that case, Sharif in Senegal thinks that a good leader is one who is more focused on his followers than himself. And Keft at IRC in Abidjan asks, what are the traits that you respect in a good leader and how do you spot or identify a potential leader? So I guess we'll start with you, Honorable. Yes, I agree with the first contributor that's Sharif. Yeah, Sharif. From Senegal. Yes, and I must add that if you look at the African situation, we have to be angry about where we are we have to reject the stereotype that we are not a God forsaking continent and that we can improve a lot. In the same vein, we should also be conscious about history, that this situation has not come about by our doing as African people. Knowing that we possess more than 60% of the resources of the world, gold, bauxite, oil, timber, name them, we have been subjected to pillage hundreds of years from the slave trade to colonialism and to modern day globalization, which in various forms have been inimical to our interests. Being conscious of this does not mean that you are giving excuses. It means that you have to be more conscientized to protect what is left and to ensure that you build a fair and just society for your people. And you cannot do that by allowing the pillage to continue. You cannot do that by allowing the exploitation to continue because it would come in various forms. And so it is for our people as African people, including the African leadership, to be conscious of this. A lot of times leaders are opportunistic. They look at only what to benefit themselves and their families or cronies and they forget about the national good. They forget about the millions of others who will continue to live in squalo. On the question of how you identify a good leader, I think that a good leader must have vision. A good leader must be the leader who aspires for greater heights and refuses to just be a manager, just accept the status quo. That yeah, this is how we do it. There are many problems about how we can make it that it is going to be very difficult to stay the honestness. And so you are just going by. You need a leader who has his own vision and who works towards that vision in a very strong manner. A good leader must also be a listener. A lot of times in Africa, leaders think that they must lord it over, they possess it all, they are all knowing that is a wrong mentality, is a wrong attitude to take. You need to accept that only one person can be a leader at a time, but it doesn't mean that all the wisdom needed to transform your society, you possess it as a leader. It will as well be that you just have to harness that wisdom, that energy, that drive, that ingenuity that the people possess. Just harness it and direct it positively. Once you do a positive direction of that, you would notice that you transform your society and you would even take the credit as a good leader. So that is my answer to the question about how to identify a good leader. There has to be a vision, it has to be clear, it has to be well articulated. Then the leader must be a listener and the leader must be a team player who is able to harness the potentials and all the resources that are available amongst the people regardless of where they are. A lot of times you notice that leaders in Africa believe in divide and rule. They want to neglect those who did not support them or they want to specialize or focus attention on only those who they perceive voted for them at their own people they are comfortable with. And all the knowledge, all the talent, all the jewels are not in one location or with your tribesmen or with your clan or with your party supporters. So there's a need to be more broad-based, more nationalistic, more open-minded if we are to achieve the development and the objectives that we seek. You know, just this weekend, this past weekend has been a very sad weekend for our brothers and sisters in Nigeria with our own share of the problems here in Ghana. And I got a text message and I'm sure some Ghanians or even some Nigerians have seen that text message and it says how to cross a road today. Look left, it used to be what? Look left, look right and left again, then cross. Now we're being told, look left, look right, look up for aeroplane, look down for bomb and walk in a zigzag manner to avoid stray bullets. 21st century Africa and the realities of happening in African nations are now reducing us to accept these things. I think we must reject it. And Shaif is saying that you think a good leader is one that focuses on the followers rather than himself. I think that we need to invert it a bit. I think that the problem that we have had with African nations are leaders who came into leadership positions not prepared for what the tax of leadership is all about. I think that truly to be an effective leader you need to spend some time on me, on you because just as the debate as to whether or not leaders are born or bred is still ongoing and yet we recognize the fact that there are some skills you can learn because again talent is overrated. Persistent practice is key. Knowledge, if you learn it and you applied it, it is not a big, you know, a bit confused state. If you applied certain principles, the results and the outcomes will be what they are. So I think that as young people if we think that leadership has filled Africa what it means is that we must now be training ourselves to become better leaders tomorrow. We need to also recognize that leadership must be seen as a concept everywhere. Leadership is everywhere and at every opportunity that you have, you as an individual can exhibit leadership. Of course, there would always be the official levels of leadership, political leadership, religious leadership and what have you but social leadership is actually everywhere. How much of a leader or an influencer are you in your community, in your family? How much an enabler are you amongst your siblings? So we need to recognize that it starts with you so that you can recognize what challenges it is to actually move people along a certain path that you think is good for them because if you have attempted to lead a group of people you would come face to face with the challenges of expressing leadership at a basic form and perhaps that is what would enable you go down a path of recognizing what are methods that you can use that are sustainable but as we still speak, the leaders that control our lives and determine when we sleep or not is really the political leadership that and parliament that will provide the laws that guide the way we operate. Of course, there's a greater accountability for the leadership that controls the public purse and so they must be accountable to the people. For those group of people, yes, we must scrutinize the kind of leadership they bring whether they are seven leaders or they are just there for themselves and it's up to us, the young people, to train ourselves so that we can be the change that we want to see. Well, if the young people have to train themselves to be the change that they want to see, Solomon from Zambia is asking, why then do you think the older African group of politicians still cling on to power instead of making room for the younger generations? Because having said all that you have said, I would guess that the younger generation would have a lot more to offer than the older generation but he wants to understand what is it that is making the older generation cling on to power? Not exactly that the older generation, the younger generation has more to offer than the older generation and I think that the younger generation must recognize the fact that the only impetus that guides us is because tomorrow is ours and so perhaps we have a greater duty upon ourselves to make sure that the right things are done today so that tomorrow becomes easier for us to manage. Of course, I'm sure that the leaders of today whilst they were also young, also had very serious criticism against the leaders then but it just shows you human nature. Why do some African leaders cling to power because you allow them to? So all power must now come back to the citizens. Like I said, Africa is not working because the people have allowed it not to work. If we all just look at what happened in Nigeria instead of declaring three days of mourning if the entire country citizens must up and say that we are boycotting all flights for three days until the right things are done, until the inspection division of the aviation inspects every single aeroplane that is flying into Nigeria and out of Nigeria that we know the status of every single aeroplane. That is a citizen that is demanding accountability from its people. So if you get tired of the situation that now you suffer from inertia and your unwilling are told to engage and that's what worries me sometimes about the young people we have today from our universities. They express despair at the status quo to the extent that they are unwilling anymore to engage and do the hard work of reformation and transformation. That is lazy. Leadership is hard work. If you don't putting the nine yards you can't reap the benefits and so we must all put our shoulders to the wheel and ensure that activism enables our leaders to live by the tenets of our constitutions and leaders must be told and they must see non-setting times that there will be serious consequences if you make attempts to subvert the will of the people, to subvert the constitution because of your own parochial interests. We would like to hear your honourable. Yeah, I think first of all we have to be careful that as young people we don't create the impression as Shamima said that we assume a certain arrogance that we have the magic wand. We add a panacea to all our problems. Inasmuch as youthful dynamism, fresh energies, fresh vision is relevant and necessary and needed you also need experience and people who've seen it all and who can bring some experience to bear. We have an African adage that what the agit sees even squatting a young person will climb the tree and still fail to see. So we have to be conscious of that and we also have to be conscious of the kind of leadership we are talking about. If it's chieftaincy or a monarchy you can be there till you die. We have just been celebrating the 60th diamond jubilee of Her Majesty the Queen and we wish her a long life and it was a beautiful celebration. So I mean she can continue. I mean monarchies, yeah, they can be in power till the good Lord takes them away from us. So we need to separate that. I get the impression that there are some African political leaders who are in a state of confusion. They were not clear whether they wanted to establish a monarchy or they were in political leadership. I mean some who called themselves King of Kings who clearly wanted to become chief domes and monacs. They should just have, as it were, changed the nation state and allowed for a monarchy to emerge and then you can leave the political leadership for others. But if you are in a political leadership and you say that you are practicing democracy then you should allow for the people to continue testing your popularity. Whoever avails himself or herself to lead the people, it must be at the people's choice, the people's determination. You don't have the right to impose yourself on the people constantly. So if it's five years, if it's four years, if it's seven years, there should be a system, a mechanism where you test the permission that the people have given you. So that's what I would say to that question. But I agree with Shamima that all of us must know that we have a duty to Africa, a duty to our nation, a duty to our communities. It's not only about the leadership or the political leadership. There's very little the political leadership can do. Resources, for example, if the people refuse to pay taxes, what is the leadership going to use to build the roads, to build the schools, the clinics that we want to see? In our communities, there are many, many things we can do communally. We can refuse, we accept too many things as African people. The amenities, the terrible services are poor and we just accept it. The lights are off when they come on. Then we are celebrating. We are clapping and jumping that the lights are back. We are excited. I mean, the lights were not supposed to go off. We should demand and we pay any bill that is brought. I mean, even if we have not had light, electricity supply for the whole month and yet when we begin to demand our right, stand up for our rights and many processes we can engage in citizen activism. We can form groups that specialize in that. We can bring class actions. We can go to the courts. Once we begin to pressurize these institutions, they will not take the people for granted. The leadership will not take the people for granted. So let all of us know that we have a role to play in this and in building that society that we want to see. And we should situate all of this also within the context of social justice. You know, if we see all of this within that context, we would know that we were created by God to be the best and to have the best. There is no reason why you should suffer what you suffer in Ghana or in Somalia or in Iraq and another person in another country should live comfortably or differently. All of us should stand up and fight for the best of society. We should fight for that society where no child is hungry and lacks food, where no woman is denied basic access to maternal care because we are all human beings. We are all citizens of the world. We are the same people, the same status and we deserve the best. So let's work collectively towards the best. That is my understanding of social justice and working for a fair and just society. And the leadership, the political leadership, sometimes are the worst offenders of people who flaunt social justice because they are double standards. We don't seem to have principle so that you find countries who say they believe in democracy, multi-party democracy, supporting, you know, dictators and autocratic regimes because at that point in time, it's use their interests and you know, they don't really care about the consequences and the situation of millions of citizens in those nations just because at that point in time, they are comfortable with the political leadership. So all of us must rededicate ourselves to social justice. Let's identify the principles, let's identify the virtues and rededicate ourselves, all of us as a people, the leadership, citizens of the world and that is how we make our world a better place. But when we double talk and when the principles are different and when we don't apply them fairly, the United Nations, the NATO and the other institutions that we have are not seen to have the fair legitimacy which the people expect, then we begin to have problems. This huge drive for social justice is one thing that pushed you to become young African leaders. I have two questions I would like to package into one. A departing young African leader would like to know can a young politician who challenges the status quo ever survive in the political realm and make the difference? That is key because it's a question of challenging what is there and yet you want to be there and then Aubain Adi also asks, what kind of problems may young African leaders face in trying to be politically neutral? So where do you stand? Do you challenge the status quo or do you try to be politically neutral and what are the challenges? It's, yeah, there are two tough questions and I believe that as a leader or as a citizen who wants to come into leadership, you should have your own set of values and principles because if you just are driven by what the wind determines, you will notice that you will just become like the rest. So you should have your own set of values, your own set of principles that there are some things you cannot partake in and the problem with leadership on this part of the continent is that we are scared to leave. We are scared to take a bow. I mean, there's nothing wrong with resigning because what a government you are part of is doing something that you detest, something that your principles don't support it. If it is about, for example, a position against a section of the society, look at what happened in Rwanda, for example, where there was conscious planning against a different tribe. If you belong to that government, you need to resign, you need to speak against it and you need to take action to ensure that the entire nation is protected. So you expose those who you were part of, who were scheming against another tribe. So you should have your own independent principles and values before you go and join a government. In the first place, governments are formed out of political parties. Why did you decide to join political party A or political party B? Is it because it was just the nice thing to do or some friends belong to it or your parents belong to it? You need to ask yourself the basic questions. What are the beliefs of that political party? What are their idiosyncrasies ideologically, philosophically? What drives that political party? Are they to the left? Are they to the right? Are they center? Does it run in sync with your own principles, your own values? Before you join and then when you join, you have your own set of principles. If not, you'll be consumed because like you see even in the church, even in the mosque, there are people who destroy religion, who distort the scriptures and who will engage in all kinds of acts. You can find thieves and criminals even in the church and in the same way in governments and in political groupings, you find all kinds of people. So where you see that what the collective wants to do is not in the interest of the nation or it runs in contrast with your beliefs, your principles. You need to stand up, speak against it. You need to resign and you need to go on record that you are not part of that. You see, we are too scared of the future. Jesus Christ said that even the best, the best of the air, they know where they'll find their next meal. And so people are scared in this part of the world about where our salaries will come from next and we might be ostracized and all. Once you do it for principle, society will respect you and increasingly you'll notice that you would even stand up, gain the respect of a lot of people. And I think that that is where we need to be going. On the second part of the question. Yes, the challenges that you may face as a young leader are enormous. You need to prove yourself because in this part of the world, there's a belief that wisdom comes with age and that the more age is on your side and the more wise are and the more contribution you can make. So you need to work harder if it is two times, three times harder than what the aged will do to prove themselves. So you need to do that. And you need to find balance between showing respect to, you know, to authority to the elders and also showing your capabilities. At the end of the day, there will be assessments by appointing authorities and by the people who you lead and they would really pass the verdict or the judgment whether you are qualified, whether you are competent and whether you are bringing any value. If you don't prove yourself, I'm afraid, you would be kicked out. So there are many challenges. It's not easy and that is with the political leadership but I'm careful not to limit it to only political leadership. But leadership, generally as young persons, if you are even an entrepreneur wanting to raise money, it's not easy to come by capital to start up your business. If it's a small-scale business, you go to the banks, they are talking about collateral, you need to bring all kinds of assets. It's really challenging if it is a social group that you are leading, even how to raise resources, to fight, pursue the causes that you are engaging in, it's very challenging. But thanks to technology, thanks to the modern era, new media, you can raise resources, you can use new media to really get a lot of people who are agreeing with you, who believe in your cause to support you. So you just have to work harder, know that it is not easy anywhere. As a young person, naturally, you have a lot of challenges, you are vulnerable. So just be conscious of that and work very hard towards your objectives. I'm just having a last one. So I'm saying that it is very hard for young people to break the glass ceilings, especially in very closed environments, like the political environment. And I was just saying, ask the woman, if young people have to work doubly as hard, ask the woman, they have to do triply, quadruply as hard just to be recognized and giving the opportunity to show what they can also bring to the table. But the bit about how do you remain politically neutral? I don't think that we should be thinking about political neutrality. Right is right, wrong is wrong. There are always shapes of gray in between. But I think maybe you want to talk about being partisan. You see, if we have adopted democracy as a form of government and the main vehicle by which we are able to determine the selection of our leaders, often it's through political parties. So political parties and partisanship will be there with us for a very long, long time. Now, how do we cut the tape and ensure that of the things that are our collective things to do, we don't let undue partisanship derail the efforts, the national efforts, like in important areas like health, education, what have you. These are areas that we must have a collective position on irrespective of which particular political divide you are in. I do not think young people should think that the way to go is to remain politically neutral. We are all political beings. Everything we do is about politics. Partisanship is different and staying neutral is almost like you're taking side with the strong. Because if you come upon two people fighting and there's a strong man and there's a weak person, say, I want to be neutral, I don't want to get involved. What you have ineffectively done is to side with the stronger of the fight. So it's not about being neutral. In fact, there's no space for neutrality in our current problem. We must pick out against wrong. We must encourage the right things to be done, I think. Excellent. Marie Josie writes, do you think Africa feels the huge giant step new technologies, including the internet, have made in the past 10 years, deleting the gap that might have existed before? And Mahmoodu also comments that political parties or politicians don't own social media. So when used correctly, the online communication tools are more powerful than traditional media sources. So basically, what's your view about the role of technology in leadership as of now? Well, I think that any forward-looking African leader must realize that this is a huge opportunity that you can either use to advance your cause, you neglect out your own peril. We have to take the happenings in Egypt and elsewhere to know that social media is a powerful tool that no longer can be ignored. And we should be able to use that to get governance closer to the people. Closer to the people, because you can monitor to really hear what your young people are saying, what their collective aspirations are. And if there's these kinds of conversations that go on across social media, that should actually give a listening leader insights and inklings as to what the collective aspirations of its young people are and what kinds of policies and programs he should be thinking about. That is if you're in a position to use it productively. But broadening the whole information communication technology bit, I'm sure the likes of the glow owner, what's his name? Adenuga would tell you that this is a gold mine. Beyond our natural resources, beyond our new found oil communication is a gold mine. What do we have? How many Africans control and own, what do you call it? Let's say we use telecommunications, telecommunications companies, for example. And I was at a forum once in the Ochehine, Osadifu Amoteo Faripei, gave us an illustration. He was going to his village. He said he was trying to traveling to a village. And he came across an old woman who was actually carrying water. She had gone to the water to carry water. And she was talking on the phone. So he was curious. So what did he do? He stops and goes to have a conversation with this woman and says to her, where did she go? She said, well, she went to fetch water a few kilometers back, and she's going, who is she speaking to? She's speaking to her son in America. That is talk. And he says that if this old woman in the village actually has a phone and can pay to speak to her son in America, and yet this woman has walked how many kilometers to go and get access to water. And this talk that is now so everywhere is controlled by foreign companies. Are we serious as an African continent? I think these are fair questions we must ask. Come to our country. Come to African nations. The so-called commanding heights of every country, infrastructure, mining, oil and gas, telecommunications talk, even talk, controlled, owned, managed by foreign companies. We get patent. And I'm not sure that this is sustainable in the medium to long term. We must look at controlling the areas that work. The areas that would really bring the transformation that we need, that will also make us the billionaires, the multi-billionaires, whose social contract with the people would be seeing through the kinds of corporate social responsibility that you do for your country because the country has given you this much. How are you supposed to be patriotic? And every day you are struggling by on a patent salary because you don't control any production activity. And these are the realities we must definitely confront ourselves with. It's no longer OK that all of these important sectors are being controlled by foreigners. Yesterday on my show, Metro TV, Good Morning Ghana, somebody sent a text to me because Cabinet had announced that scratch cards must be printed locally to create jobs and what do you call it, incomes for the people. But the argument is scratch cards, who owns the company? How much of the returns are taking outside of the country? Scratch cards is just scratching the surface, really, of the bigger problem. And we must confront these things and be honest with ourselves in terms of the direction that we should go if we truly want to transform the face of our economy. I guess Honorable Wood would have a word about this. Yes, I agree very much with Shamima that it's good to say that we have to use new media and new technology and to appreciate the tremendous improvement that it brings to our way of life. We should see all of this technology as improving our way of life. And that is why sometimes when we are stuck in our culture and we call it African, that's the African way of doing it. I mean, we are OK carrying chips in Palanquin. And we say, yes, it's the African way of doing it. Whilst chips were being carried in every part of the world, including Europe 200, 300 years ago before vehicles were invented, now those chips are no longer being carried in Palanquins. They are being carried there, they are being chauffeured. But yet here we want to do that. We still want to prepare our food, for example, using a pestle and pounding in the mortar. And we say, yes, that is how we like it. It tastes differently. And so that's the African way. So we are not using technology to improve our way of life, to improve our living conditions. So we need to look at that aspect of getting things easier than making a judicious use of the time. And also the fact that all of this new technology allows for the brain to be exercised and they are products of the brain. We should not be talking about using it alone and being at the user end. We want to be inventors. We wear our Zuckerbecks, wear our Steve Jobs. Look at how Apple is a giant today and is creating jobs for millions of people. Look at what Facebook has done. And we are the ones on Facebook as young people excited about it. Where are our inventions? So in the technology question, we should also be asking ourselves, what can we also invent? Because when you invent, it's good to use technology. It makes life easier. But you can also make money. You can also create jobs. You can improve societies when you are at the invention end. When you have brought the idea. And there are many things that we can do with technology. And I'm hoping that as Africans, we would learn how to use these technologies to invent so that we can be at the receiving end of the gains in terms of the financial gains of technology. As a member of government, I must say that we recognize that new media is important. And that new technology is very necessary. So you'll notice that even in our communication, how we send information out, how we interact with the citizenry. We include new media. We are including new technology in how we engage with the people. The president and his regional ministers are now hooked with video conferencing so he can interact with all his regional ministers at the same time from his office. So we are making progress. Very soon, you don't need to converge in a particular geographic location and take decisions as the people. It will be possible to interact with your leader, with millions of the citizenry like we are doing today, interacting with colleagues across the world. Wow, that's an excellent point. So let me acknowledge that we are getting a lot of questions from our online audience. And we appreciate all of them. Ideally, I would have loved to take every single question coming in, but unfortunately, I can't. However, let me assure our online audience that we will do the best we can to answer these questions. And if it means putting them back online in the form of text for them to have it, we'll get it on there for them. So on that note, I would want to move on to the last and final question for this session. And this will go to both of you. Exactly what does the term political activism mean to you? I have to come back to this because, again, we want to situate it in the context of the discussion as young African leaders. What does the term political activism mean to you? And what advice would you give other young people who are looking to engage in political activism? So I think for the purposes of your different roles as leaders, I'll start with Shamima. Right. Well, as a media leader, that's what I like to consider myself behind the mic in asking questions. I think for me personally, political activism means that I educate myself about the issues first of all, the political, social, economic issues that face my country. I apprise myself with the relevant international conversation, how others have done it, so that I can hold those that are the duty bearers who control the public purse to account. To account on the social contract that they entered with the people, the 24 million or so of us during the electioneering period to deliver. And politics must have an end. It must deliver the social good. We must see it reflect in the quality of our lives. We must see it reflect in the way that our heritage is protected. We must see politics reflect in our dignity and upholding the dignity as a people proud of our nation, fiercely proud of our nation. It's a good place to start if you're already thinking to become politically active. Engage, engage. Challenge yourself. Challenge the status quo. Look around you. Use social media. See what young people are achieving elsewhere. And tell yourself that you too can, you too will. Many years ago, Harold Lasswell defined politics as who gets what, when, and how, and who pays. So it's basic. I mean, we are, by nature, political beings. And all we do is political. And what we see around us is political. Let's not see politics as only those who belong actively to political parties or who are political party leaders or who are in government or who are ministers. We are all political. And if you fail to act, others who are acting will have their outcomes affect you. If you refuse to vote, you have indirectly voted for the choice of others who went to vote, because everybody has a vote. So let's strip it to the bare essentials. All we do is politics. Be it in the church, there's politics in the church. There's politics in the home. There's politics in the school. Let's not see politics as only those who come and say, vote for me, and who become ministers or members of parliament. So political activists are those who, as I said earlier, refuse to sit on the fence and who want to alter situations. If you are not happy about something, or if you think something can improve, or you have an idea that you want to bring to life, take action. Move towards bringing that idea to life. I like a Chinese proverb which says that, no matter the case, let there be movement. If you have to crawl, if you have to walk, if you have to run, if you have to fly, just move. Let there be movement. And move towards your goal. Move towards your objective. That is how we should see ourselves as political activists. And I believe that the Lord Almighty has in all of us a certain potential that we need to look for and harness. It could be business. It could be being a great entrepreneur, a great inventor, being an orator, which can mean you can be a motivational speaker, you can be a good storyteller, you can be a good media anchor like Shamima, or you can be a preacher. It doesn't, you don't have to look at somebody and want to be like the person necessarily. It's good to have mentors, but look first at what are your strengths? What are your unique capabilities that will make you stand out? It might not even be the course you have studied in school all these years, all these decades. It might not, you may find out that a talent which you had not really paid attention to or respected will be what would even keep you alive and make you a millionaire. So let's all look out for what makes us stand out and what makes us move towards our goals and objectives. That is a political activist. And it could be one, or you may need to bring people of like-minded people so that you'll be in a group of five or 10. And don't forget also that political activists are those who change bearers and change agents. They are those who get what they want. So if you are appalled about a situation, you would remain appalled. You remain seeing your hands in despair if you don't take action. Many people thought Mubarak was so untouchable and invincible. But young people, political activists, took a decision that they wanted a new leader. They wanted democracy in Egypt. And democracy is being restored in Egypt. We saw that in Tunisia. We saw that in Libya. So regardless of what your objectives are, just take an action. You'll find that there are many people who agree with you. And collectively, you will make that change happen. Notwithstanding this beautiful explanation to this question, I still want to give you another opportunity to give us your closing remarks with respect to all that we've discussed so far. I just want to thank you and the United States Embassy here in Accra for putting this together. You're very lovely staff who we are always excited to work with, very welcoming setup. And also to the American government, led currently by President Obama. Before President Obama, there were many of such initiatives. I have met people who have decided to stay in Ghana from the United States of America, who came here as Peace Corps volunteers as long as 50 years ago. And it's all because of these initiatives to look beyond the shores of America, open up the scope, and allow for greater understanding of different cultures, and to keep the world in a cohesive manner. Because when we all open up, and we can visit each other's countries, and we can learn from each other, we can talk to each other, we can interact with each other, it improves the peace and the security situation of the world. It erodes the misconceptions. Some people think that, oh, Americans don't like Ghanaians, or don't like Togolese, or don't like Beninoas, or don't like Senegalese. And all of these misconceptions can be cleared when we continue to have these interactions. So it is a very wonderful opportunity, and I'm glad to have been part of it. I want to also thank all our audience across the world who have spent an hour with us, taking time off their busy schedules to be with us. We hope that we have not been boring sometimes. If we have, please forgive us. And we will continue this conversation. I'm sure that the link will be created, and we will get to meet those who have joined us, and we will keep interacting, hopefully through new media and new technology. Thank you. Thank you. I can say that we die when we stop talking, and conversations can make a difference. Conversations can re-energize us to know that our problems and challenges are shared, and so can the solutions be shared, energizing ourselves to move on. I'd like to also just say thank you for the opportunity. I can't see you, but I'm sure you've been a very engaging audience, and I have enjoyed the first time I'm engaging in a web chat. So that's what technology does. That's what I said about, you know, really taking opportunities and learning and being broad-minded. So thanks to the U.S. Embassy in Accra here for giving us the opportunity to see what is possible. It's about what is possible, and then the creative juices would flow, and you can also apply in your own little corner. I was told again when I visited America by President Barack Obama that America is interested in what happens elsewhere. He talked about disease. The transmigration of disease means that if America is not interested in disease control across the world, it would have bearing on America, just as it would have bearing on Ghana. So we are a global country, but yet when you have a big problem and a big tax, you break it down into smaller pieces and work at it. We must look also at isolating the problems from within our countries and finding solutions. And the President of America told me that his first priority is to the people of America protecting and promoting the interests of America. The interests and the priority of every African leader must be at all times seeking the interests of the people of Africa and promoting the interests of the people of Africa. Many thanks for your wonderful audience. Thank you. Thank you very much to our guests and thank you very much to our audience online globally. We appreciate the fact that you took time to take part in this web chat. We know that some of you are in time zones that is very, very early in the morning around this time, but you still made time to join us on the web chat. We are so grateful and we hope that this web chat at least has brought to light the whole concept of being a young African leader. We hope that we have addressed questions on your mind and for those questions that we were unable to address would find a creative way of addressing them, but I cannot conclude the session without acknowledging our hardworking colleagues from IIP in Washington who joined us on standby. Maybe we want to do a round of applause. And especially to Jenrin and Sarah who came down to join us here in Accra to convene this web chat. We say a big kudos to them. They've done a wonderful job. And my sweet colleagues who have put this production together led by our lead producer Rookie and every other person on the production crew. We are so grateful to you all for taking time to be part of this web chat. Thank you once again, and we will continue to dialogue. Bye-bye.