Namibian faces intergenerational crisis

Home Letters Namibian faces intergenerational crisis

“O Lord help us who roam about. Help us who have been placed in Africa and have no dwelling place of our own. Give us back our home,” reads an excerpt from a prayer that Chief Hosea Kutako wrote to the United Nations with Rev. Michael Scott in 1945.
What world are we leaving for our children? 
Young Namibians have the right to be angry. 

They must push to sit in parliament and at every table to stop and repair the catastrophe of intergenerational crime and inequity. 

A serious crisis between generations in our country is about to become inevitable. 
An intergenerational crisis between Namibian youth and the old generation is increasingly on the rise. 
The Namibian government has created a system that disproportionately rewards the happy few at the expense of the Namibian majority. 

Young Namibians who suffered under the apartheid dispensation are deeply hurt and angry. They see this policy as betrayal of their future. 

Our country is moving in the direction of ungovernability phase. 
Underfunding of health, education, social security and infrastructure, climate change and phosphate mining and the destruction of our forests in the Zambezi and Kavango regions are issues of serious concern to all Namibians and the international community. 

The challenge that is facing us, is how must we try to resolve this problem? Let us integrate the Namibian youth’s involvement at every level of decision-making from 25 years of age to enable the voice of the intergenerational parity to be a strong factor in governance. 

This must take into consideration the challenge of diversity and gender balance. 
Let us also investigate the possibility of transferring the second house of parliament – National Council  – to Omuthiya in the Oshikoto region. 

This will provide the young generation with employment to prevent them from flocking to urban areas. 
I appeal to our president to convene the two houses of parliament to adopt a sustainable development plan of action to promote peaceful and inclusive societies for development and further to provide access to justice for all for the building of effective accountable institutions at all levels in our country.