Our keynote speaker for the 2012 Youth Summit, Charles Abugre, Regional Director of UNDP United Millenium Campaign, (which focuses on the MDGs with a view to bringing in the citizens voice) voiced a rousing and highly motivational speech on the realities of Africa and how we can be positive about our futures. Below we publish some of his key quotes from the speech. Please note, the opinions of Mr Abugre do not necessarily represent the opinions of the United Nations.
- "A subject is someone who does not have their own mind... a totally mentally manipulated person."
- "A citizen then means going from being Africans who are not our own person, to Africans who are our own person."
- "The engine of the economies are the citizens who think, create and labour. The direction for movement, the wheel, is the state. the fuel into the engine that drives the direction, is the private sector."
- "There is no problem with multiple identities. There is problem with bigotory. It handicaps our development."
- "There is no nation that has made progress anywhere without first fixing he state."
- "You can't withdraw from politics, you can not replace the government with a private sector or NGOs... you can not make progress without fixing the state."
- "For the state to be corrupt is pricely the reason why you should act. You can not withdraw when the state is corrupt."
- "In Africa we are in the best situation ever to make progess. We have a big enough population to actually start building economies. The populations are increasingly youthful and the most vibrant demographic group that makes change in a society are the youth."
- "We can actually now market a literate, savy, hardworking, young population. This is the best we've ever had. We are learning lessons, even from the period before colonialism and dictatorship."
- "There is absoluately no need for doom and gloom. From subject to citizen means 'I believe in progress, in harnessing opportunities.'"
- "Learn your history. We should listen to our poetes and sing our songs. They are all routed in our history. They contribute to our being. So we should read to become our being."
- "If you privatise under a state of corruption this is what will happen. The state will thrive, some people will thrive, you will see some services, but many people will be excluded."
- "The slums are the sources for a lot of creativity that is coming along."
