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00:00I don't think I've been fair to the youth and to the conundrum of change that is being
00:20asked for. What people are asking for, it's not that difficult. It's not that difficult
00:29at all. They are asking for an end to corruption. Surely that's not a difficult thing to attempt
00:39to do. The way and manner in which parliamentarians simply assign to themselves humongous salaries
00:57allowances, while there is unemployment, but graduates after 10 years still have no jobs.
01:16What you need to do, it's not difficult to conceptualize. In Africa, you have leaders who are in their 80s,
01:31who are in their 90s, who have been in office for how many decades, and they don't want to leave.
01:43And you and I know that, in fact, one of the things that Biden said in his, if you like, resignation, in his
01:57standing down speech, was that you, the people, make the choice. You, the people, make the decision.
02:08In the Global South, it is the agencies of government appointed, whose members are appointed by the government of the day,
02:27who makes the choice. It's either they don't allow people to vote, or when people vote, their votes are not counted.
02:38In fact, in the case of Uganda, this is not the first time that you are going to have threats of demonstrations.
02:48They've been arresting and persecuting members of the opposition for years. So it's not constitutional changes that the youth are
03:06asking for. What the youth are asking for are simpler than that, are more straightforward. No lack of corruption, employment,
03:25democracy. Those are the things they're asking for. And those are the things guaranteed by the constitution.
03:32I think that we are going to have more demonstrations in African countries between now and the end of the year.
03:46Because we just have, we have African countries being ruled by gerontocrats, old men who refuse to go, who are way beyond their level of
04:10reasoning, way beyond their level of ability to cope with the problems that they have, you know, atrocious levels of corruption. And you
04:27expect people to keep quiet. And the youth are saying we've had enough. My advice to not only the leaders of countries on whom notice
04:48have been served, but on all African leaders is you don't need to wait for the youth to serve you notice. You are not that dumb not to know what
05:09you need to do. You're not that dumb. You yourself can assess the issues that are at stake. You yourself can come to a conclusion of what needs to be
05:26done in order to assuage the anger in the land. So that it's not your question of using force as a means of addressing the issues that the youth are
05:52coming up with. Now, let me, let me make things very clear. The constitution of almost every country permits demonstrations. We saw it, demonstration
06:14against Netanyahu when he was speaking at Congress yesterday. But people tend to forget that the same constitution also enjoins government to provide for law and order. And
06:39yesterday, over 200 demonstrators were arrested by the police. So if we are quoting the right of people to demonstrate, their leaders have to ensure that the
07:02demonstrations do not degenerate into violence, that they can control the demonstrators and prevent it from being hijacked. But the government also has the responsibility to provide for law and order.
07:28And this includes protecting the right of people to demonstrate. But the demonstrators must not think that the government must clear the streets for them of police and let them do whatever they want to do.
07:58We are in a stage in Africa, where we need to seriously address the issues that we are faced with. However, there's a problem. When you have a movement without visible
08:24leadership. If you look at the way in which he dealt with the question of minimum wage, finally, he himself called in the leaders of the labor movement, sat down with them, and his ministers and
08:54they finally reached an agreement. I'm sure that he himself has learned a lesson from that, that there are some issues that he has to become personally involved. But in a situation where there are no visible
09:13leaders, like again, answers, no visible leaders. In the case of Kenya, even after President Roto says, I'm prepared to sit down and meet with you, they say we have no leaders. Our demands are on social media.
09:39Now, you can't negotiate with a faceless movement. And in the case of the Nigerian one, so far, as of now that we are speaking, people who are organizing the proposed demonstrations have not stepped forward
10:06to say, okay, we are the leaders. And we'll be prepared to talk with the government. I think that is a lacuna that the organizers of the proposed demonstrators should feel. Because it's dangerous. We should learn our lessons from history.
10:37This is what happened with the anti-SARS movement. Nobody to talk to. Nobody to negotiate with. And so you don't know. I mean, when the governor of Ligos said there's a curfew, what you got was a reply on social media saying, we will not obey the curfew. Now, you cannot negotiate with social media.
11:05If there were leaders, then these leaders could have been called in. And then they could say, okay, give us a bit, two days, and, you know, we will clear the streets. But when there are no visible leaders, negotiation becomes difficult.