KEY POINTS

• Africa, Gambari urges, should tap youth for structural transformation.
• Sustains key opportunities on digital economy and global shifts.
• Women’s inclusion in governance is essential, according to UN Women’s representative.

Drawing on its fast growing youth pool, Africa needs to become a global player in the shifting diplomatic landscape, said Prof Ibrahim Gambari, former Chief of Staff to President Muhammadu Buhari.

According to Gambari, who spoke at the 12th Anniversary Lecture and Investiture into the Realnews Hall of Fame in Lagos, ‘Africa’s youth offer the continent a demographic advantage in a world challenged by declining and aging populations’. Themed *“Africa in World Shifting Geopolitics.

The event, organised by Realnews Online Magazine, featured media executives, technocrats and scholars who attended ‘Matters Arising on Demography, Technology, Artificial Intelligence and Natural Resources.’

The demographic dividend as a driver of change

African nations needed to adopt national and regional strategies that give young people the means to transform the continent, Gambari said.

‘We can only harness our human and natural resources to leapfrog our development and effect a structural transformation,’ he also said.

He said Africa is highlighting the potential for the continent to be a rule-maker rather than just a rule-taker in the emerging global order, which should see Africa turn its youth bulge into an opportunity, putting us at the forefront of the digital economy and the innovations driving it.

Structures of Africa’s role in global shifts

Globalization and technology create the new global landscape, mentioned Gambari.

For his part, he expressed happiness that countries like Africa had to position themselves to reap from the new economic power shifts witnessed. Pointing out that though globalization had touched on countries like China and East Asia, Africa needed to assume its space through globalization.

“What I believe is definitely that Africa stands to gain hugely from the ongoing geopolitical shifts; but Africa must push for a new, inclusive global order as joint rule makers,” Gambari continued.

Africa in global shifts

Commenting, Beatrice Eyong, UN Women’s Country Representative pointed out the importance of women’s inclusion in governance, and warned that the feminization of poverty could worsen challenges on the African continent.

Publisher of Realnews, Maureen Chigbo, said that the anniversary lecture was conceived as a policy discussion platform.

In an assessment of the economic challenges and its stiff competition with other publications, she reviews and highlights the magazines efforts to embrace critical issues in politics, business and youth development.

Notable individuals including Prof. Gambari were also honoured as 2024 inductees into Realnews Hall of Fame for their contributions to Africa’s progress, as part of the event.