Aboneka Writes

I have carefully followed events around me for quite some time but one thing bothers me in whatever interventions we make as a country and as a people; the loss of foresight. There seems to be more concentration on uplifting girls and women in total isolation of boys and men! Our country is not a “single sex” country, but rather a “mixed” one. Everybody is focusing on the girl child, claiming that they are the most vulnerable thus the special attention and treatment. There are a number of girl and women interventions by Organizations, individuals, government and some that are borne by legal instruments such as affirmative action for the girl child, 1.5 advance points, free seat in Parliament among other campaigns which have in fact turned out to be reverse discrimination against the boy child. I am aware that there is background to all these interventions but who ever cares about the boy child! The boy child too needs quality education, reproductive health education and services, ec

Africa continues to grapple with warring trends of un educated and unemployed youth. According to the ILO’s World Employment and Social Outlook (2016) trends for Youth report shows that as a result, the global number of unemployed youth is set to rise by half a million this year to reach 71 million – the first such increase in 3 years. This means that with a youth population that is expected to double, to over 830 million, by 2050 in the whole continent, the incidence of unemployment among youth in Northern Africa remains elevated at 29.3 per cent in 2016, representing the second highest rate across all regions. Therefore, these figures indicate that there is a real huge problem in Africa. It has also been argued elsewhere that unemployment is caused by lack of an education. However, it is also true that many young people graduate and still have no meaningful, professional employment; does this therefore mean that the education is useless? Perhaps in this case, yes it is useless if