National youth meeting turns rowdy

Hundreds of youth who attended the National Youth Council (NYC) debate on unemployment turned rowdy and made deliberation difficult.

The Friday public debate held as part of activities to commemorate International Youth Day scheduled for August 12 was marred by hooliganism.

It all started when Makerere University political science professor, Yasin Olum argued that the youth crisis will never be resolved as long as the young people don't check their discipline.

"Trying to solve the youth question is spent energy if the people entrenched in the crisis don't understand that change starts from within. You have been shouting at each other through the conference, character assassinating personalities that are not here to defend themselves against your claims but such behavior is unbecoming and research shows many people are hesitant to help you because you are indiscipline," he said amid boos.

Olum's charged lecture was triggered by an earlier scene in which a one Eric Lubega, 65, who referred to himself as a senior youth in his submission, was equally insulted and silenced by the gathering.

 Lubega, in charge of security at the national fellowship of born-again churches, was trying to stress that Godliness among the young people, avoiding gambling activities and drug abuse will help solve the youth crisis.

The ugly scenes unfolded as the national youth council chairperson Lilian Aber watched in silence. The state minister for youth and children, Florence Nakyiwala was absent.

A day after Nakyiwala was appointed in May, the youth council called for a press conference to express dissatisfaction for the choice made from the opposition's Democratic Party (DP).

Under the theme, 'Youth unemployment crisis in Uganda; which way forward', the youth expressed mixed reactions, with some heaping the blame on government while others agreeing that mindset change and attitude will change their welfare.

 Edwin Muhummuza from ‘Youth Go Green' said that much as government has designed good national policies to help solve youth unemployment, there is need to develop a mechanism in which programs contained in the policy papers can sufficiently trickle down to the targeted groups.

Gonzaga Kyeyune, a Senior Four student from Kalinaabiri Secondary School argued that "we need to have a tight retirement policy to evacuate public servants above fifty years of age as a way of creating space for the young ones".

"We also need to change the education system to skills development and safeguard against politicians and public servants holding more than one position," he added.

Uhuru Sselubiri, a rabbit farmer, advised fellow youth to embrace the opportunities created by changing trends of technology to maximize profit-making in entrepreneurship and stop focusing on white-collar jobs.

Aisha Nakalanzi, a student from Kampala High School, said that the only way to eradicate poverty in a very rich country is by changing the youth lifestyle from passive to innovative workaholics.

On his part, the head of Makerere Business School economic forum, Dr. Ramathan Ggoobi recommended reduction of interest rates on loans to attract private investment, offer tax credits to investors based on number of native employees, revive cooperatives to organize the youth into productive groups and prioritize financing the agricultural sector.

According to the World Bank, 78% of Ugandans are below 30 years of age while 53% are below 15 years, with 83% youth unemployment. 90% of youth unemployment is caused by lack of skills yet 500,000 youth join the labor market annually.National youth meeting turns rowdy

Hundreds of youth who attended the National Youth Council (NYC) debate on unemployment turned rowdy and made deliberation difficult.

The Friday public debate held as part of activities to commemorate International Youth Day scheduled for August 12 was marred by hooliganism.

It all started when Makerere University political science professor, Yasin Olum argued that the youth crisis will never be resolved as long as the young people don't check their discipline.

"Trying to solve the youth question is spent energy if the people entrenched in the crisis don't understand that change starts from within. You have been shouting at each other through the conference, character assassinating personalities that are not here to defend themselves against your claims but such behavior is unbecoming and research shows many people are hesitant to help you because you are indiscipline," he said amid boos.

Olum's charged lecture was triggered by an earlier scene in which a one Eric Lubega, 65, who referred to himself as a senior youth in his submission, was equally insulted and silenced by the gathering.

 Lubega, in charge of security at the national fellowship of born-again churches, was trying to stress that Godliness among the young people, avoiding gambling activities and drug abuse will help solve the youth crisis.

The ugly scenes unfolded as the national youth council chairperson Lilian Aber watched in silence. The state minister for youth and children, Florence Nakyiwala was absent.

A day after Nakyiwala was appointed in May, the youth council called for a press conference to express dissatisfaction for the choice made from the opposition's Democratic Party (DP).

Under the theme, 'Youth unemployment crisis in Uganda; which way forward', the youth expressed mixed reactions, with some heaping the blame on government while others agreeing that mindset change and attitude will change their welfare.

 Edwin Muhummuza from ‘Youth Go Green' said that much as government has designed good national policies to help solve youth unemployment, there is need to develop a mechanism in which programs contained in the policy papers can sufficiently trickle down to the targeted groups.

Gonzaga Kyeyune, a Senior Four student from Kalinaabiri Secondary School argued that "we need to have a tight retirement policy to evacuate public servants above fifty years of age as a way of creating space for the young ones".

"We also need to change the education system to skills development and safeguard against politicians and public servants holding more than one position," he added.

Uhuru Sselubiri, a rabbit farmer, advised fellow youth to embrace the opportunities created by changing trends of technology to maximize profit-making in entrepreneurship and stop focusing on white-collar jobs.

Aisha Nakalanzi, a student from Kampala High School, said that the only way to eradicate poverty in a very rich country is by changing the youth lifestyle from passive to innovative workaholics.

On his part, the head of Makerere Business School economic forum, Dr. Ramathan Ggoobi recommended reduction of interest rates on loans to attract private investment, offer tax credits to investors based on number of native employees, revive cooperatives to organize the youth into productive groups and prioritize financing the agricultural sector.

According to the World Bank, 78% of Ugandans are below 30 years of age while 53% are below 15 years, with 83% youth unemployment. 90% of youth unemployment is caused by lack of skills yet 500,000 youth join the labor market annually.