Mohammed Ibn Chambas, former President of ECOWAS, has urged African Governments to institutionalise intergenerational leadership programmes to ensure meaningful youth participation in governance and the economy.

Mr Chambas, also a former special representative of the UN Secretary-General for West Africa and the Sahel, made this call on Thursday at the 10th-anniversary celebration of the Goodluck Jonathan Foundation in Abuja.

Emphasising the need for Africa to accelerate youth and women empowerment to build a stable future, Mr Chambas said, “We cannot silence the guns in Africa until we satisfy the youth.”

He noted that Africa’s landscape was evolving, with new generations demanding a seat at the table and new threats testing the resilience of democracies.

Mr Chambas recalled that 50 years ago, Africa faced a world defined by Cold War strategic rivalry, economic marginalisation, apartheid, racism, and conflict.

He said that today the continent’s new challenges include economic uncertainty, unilateralism, and retreat from multilateralism, widening global and national inequalities, geopolitical tensions, disruptions of global value chains, terrorism, violent extremism, and climate change.

“Demographically, the youngest continent on earth, young people are not just asking for a seat at the table anymore; they are demanding it. The recent wave of Gen Z protests across Africa, beginning with the Arab Spring in North America and EndSARS here in Nigeria, has fixed the nation in my own Ghana.

“To various uprisings in Senegal, Togo, Liberia, Kenya, Angola, South Africa, Madagascar, Morocco, and very recently, Tanzania, tell a story. It tells us a story not only of the failure of successive governments to deliver jobs or stop state capture, but also of the sheer insensitivity displayed by government officials and apparatchiks in the face of endemic poverty among the less privileged.

“Let’s face it, these protests, while sometimes excessive, tend to get the attention and cause reactions and changes and reconstructions that could have been given on a silver platter. We cannot silence the guns in Africa until we satisfy the youth,’’ he said.

Speaking on the legacy of the GJF, established in 2015 to strengthen democratic governance, promote peace, and uphold the ideals of justice, Mr Chambas lauded the foundation’s role in fostering peace and credible elections in the region.

He identified the establishment and operationalisation of the West Africa Elders Forum as one of the most notable legacies, describing it as a homegrown, nonpartisan platform committed to preventing conflict and upholding democratic norms.

Mr Chambas, a member of WAEF, revealed that “in the space of four years, between 2021 and 2025, the quiet diplomacy and trusted counsel of the forum have contributed to shaping at least seven peaceful electoral processes in West Africa.

(NAN)