Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - PRESIDENT OBAMA & THE YALI

William Bangura is NOT Yusuf Bangura!!!

On Thu, Jul 31, 2014 at 11:27 AM, Okey Iheduru <okeyiheduru@gmail.com> wrote:
> Dear Yusuf Bangura:
>
> I was privileged to be a member of the panel that reviewed the applications
> for the inaugural President Barak Obama's Young African Leaders Initiative
> fellowship. Therefore, I can claim to know a thing or two about the
> fellowship and the process by which the fellows were chosen.
>
> Contrary to your insinuations, each of the nearly 100 panelists reviewed
> about 40 applications from one country divided into the following categories
> of applicants:
>
> Business and Entrepreneurship: aspiring entrepreneurs who hope to take on
> leadership roles within the private sector or start their own business
> ventures on the continent.
>
> Civic Leadership: young Africans who are civically engaged and serve the
> public through non-governmental organizations, and/or volunteer or
> community-based organizations.
>
> Public Management: young Africans who work or aspire to work in all levels
> of government, regional organizations such as the African Union,
> international bodies such as the United Nations, or other publicly-minded
> entities or think tanks.
>
> Following their three-day July 2014 summit/meeting with Pres. Obama in
> Washington, DC, these leaders will attend U.S. universities for a six-week
> academic institute in one of three areas: business and entrepreneurship;
> civic leadership; and public management. Coursework and training in each of
> these sectors will focus on the skills these young African leaders need to
> run better ministries, start and grow businesses, and serve their
> communities.
>
> Thereafter, about 100 Fellows will participate in high-level eight-week
> professional development experiences or internships at U.S. businesses,
> non-profits, NGOs, and government offices.
>
> The jury is still out on Obama's Africa policy, but I can assure you that
> the US Embassy in Freetown indeed considered "class-economic status--school
> grades" and actually had applicants write "a composition where they opine
> about the political problems and solutions before making their selections."
> You could also easily have visited their website for more information about
> the program before launching your needless attack against Pres. Obama. There
> are lots of problems in Sierra Leone you could think of solving. Start small
> and don't wait for Obama and the African blood in his veins.
>
> Peace as always!
>
>
> On Wed, Jul 30, 2014 at 2:18 PM, william bangura
> <william.bangura17@gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>> I am not privy to the selection process to the Young Africans Leaders
>> Initiative (YALI) but most of them were well-fed and are not a reflection of
>> the socio-economic and political groups of sub-Saharan Africa.
>>
>> I would have preferred that YALI included kids between the ages of 15 and
>> 17 and recent university graduates. Referencing my paternal country Sierra
>> Leone majority of those between the ages of 25 to 35 had already been
>> corrupted socio-economically and politically.
>>
>> I am uncertain about the amount of YALI's per country, but I would have
>> preferred that there is a representative each for the social, economical and
>> political components.
>>
>> The political component should have been represented from one of the
>> schools in Freetown, Sierra Leone who is from a family of five, whose father
>> is a custodian who either works at the Connaught Hospital, is a trash
>> collector for the Ministry of Health or a laborer for the Public Works
>> Department and whose mother is a housewife, and they are both uneducated.
>> Because of his dad's salary they live in a two bedroom tin-shack, with no
>> electricity and they procure water from the street tap, and they can only
>> eat dinner once a day and not throughout each month.
>>
>> But this YALI is very obedient, diligent and respectful at home and at
>> school, is always in the top five in each class and is also very politically
>> conscious.
>>
>> He continuously visits the rural areas to be in contact with his
>> matrilineal and patrilineal relatives who are from different provinces and
>> also toils in the agricultural sector to procure some revenues to pay for
>> his school fees, buy books, uniforms, and shoes, and buy lunch.
>>
>> The US Embassy in Freetown should have considered class—economic
>> status—school grades, and they should have penned a composition where they
>> opine about the political problems and solutions before making their
>> selections.
>>
>> Inviting entrepreneurs between the ages of 25 and 35 is a novel idea, but
>> without the "socio-political" there will never be a viable economical state.
>>
>> To quote the latte President Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana, " Seek ye first a
>> political kingdom and all else shall be added unto you."
>>
>> As is prevalent with President Obama he has done more for Arabs and
>> Europeans than the sub-Africans whose blood he has "running through his
>> veins."
>>
>> --
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>
>
>
>
> --
> Okey Iheduru, PhD
> You can access some of my papers on the Social Science Research Network
> (SSRN) at: http://ssrn.com/author=2131462.
>
> --
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> For previous archives, visit
> http://www.utexas.edu/conferences/africa/ads/index.html
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