PRESS RELEASE
Today, tributes pour for a global icon
and a man who is credited for reconciling White and Black South African after
the brutal apartheid era that saw the black majority suffering hideous human
rights abuses under successive white minority regimes.
From world leaders, music icons, sport
legends, the academia and the media, Nelson Mandela has been described as an
institution known for consistency. An enigma, a model, the peoples conscience
and a philosopher whose life brought a new definition to leadership and service
to humanity.
The All Progressives Youth Forum, APYF
joins the world in mourning this great icon whose life will remain the theme of
discourse in most parts of the world for a long time to come.
Beyond the tributes however, it is
imperative for everyone to learn a lesson or two from this man whose heart,
soul and spirit could not be contained or restrained by racial and economic
injustices. The legacies he left behind is a challenge to the human race,
particularly youths in Africa and Nigeria.
With youths in the African continent
where corruption, poverty, conflict and bad governance has become the order of
the day, the example Nelson Mandela has set with his immense spirit, his
towering heroism, and exemplary character is one that must be emulated.
Nelson Mandela was in his youth when
he began the struggle to liberate the people of Africa. Mandela was barely 25
when he became actively involved in the anti-apartheid movement, joining the
African National Congress, ANC within which he banded together a small group of
young Africans calling themselves the African National Congress Youth League
with the goal of transforming the ANC into a mass grassroots movement, deriving
strength from millions of rural peasants and working people who had no voice
under the apartheid regime.
Mandela didn't sit down in his comfort
and demanded the leaders of the ANC to make things happen for him. He didn't join the ANC to become an errand
boy to be used at will. He believed, dreamt and struggled for South Africa. His
participation in ANC as the leader of the African National Congress Youth
League led the ANC into officially adopting the Youth League’s methods of
boycott, strike, civil disobedience and non-cooperation, with policy goals of
full citizenship, redistribution of land, trade union rights, and free
compulsory education for all children. Today, that involvement has paid off for
the people of South Africa.
For us in the All Progressives Youth
Forum, this is a model we have adopted and a challenge Nelson Mandela has left
for us to surmount.
What we are witnessing in Nigeria
today can be be likened to the apartheid in South Africa, except that ours is
an apartheid of the elite against the masses, the rulers against the ruled,
those in government against those who are being governed. Good governance is at
its lowest, corruption and impunity dominates public life, the hope for a
brighter future is getting bleaker, the poor are getting poorer, politics is
polluted with manifest criminality and inconsistency. Are we going to sit and
watch this decay trap the future of Nigeria?
Like Madiba himself said, “what counts
in life is not the mere fact that we have lived. It is what difference we have
made to the lives of others that will determine the significance of the life we
lead.”. Today, Madiba is no more, but his legacies will remain with us for a
life time. What are you willing to live for?
We call on Nigerian youths to take up
the challenge that has been thrown to us by the exemplary life and words of
Madiba.
Let’s take part to take charge of our
country and destiny.
May the amiable soul of Madiba rest in
perfect peace.
Signed.
Abubakar Usman
Communications Director,
All Progressives Youth Forum (APYF)
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