“No more lamentations,” Nyusi urges young Mozambicans

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“No more lamentations,” Nyusi urges young Mozambicans

5:41 CAT | 16 Aug 2019

Picture: RM

Mozambican President Filipe Nyusi on Thursday urged young Mozambicans to free themselves from “the culture of lamentations”.

Speaking at the opening of the Fourth National Youth Meeting, in the southern city of Matola, Nyusi encouraged the participants “to centre your discussions on seeking solutions to the real and concrete problems that still plague Mozambican society. During the debates try to answer questions that constitute real problems, based on the specific realities that young people are living through”.

He thought, for example, that they should debate the ways of using Mozambique’s natural resources, and how young people can intervene in these matters. “Discuss this, and put everything on the table”, he urged. “Also put on the table what young people have been doing well, and how it can be replicated, as well as what is not going according to plan, so that it can be corrected”.

The meeting, said Nyusi, was taking place at a historic moment marked by advances in the consolidation of peace, referring to the peace accord that he signed last week with Ossufo Momade, leader of the former rebel movement Renamo.

But he also warned of the threats posed by the insurgency in parts of the northern province of Cabo Delgado. “There are young people who are being deceived in order to kill or be killed”, he said. “There are signs that some of the people pulling the strings are Mozambicans. They’re living well in Maputo, in Beira. We cannot be used. We’ve had enough”.

He encouraged young participants at the meeting from the Cabo Delgado districts of Mocimboa da Praia, Palma and Nangade, to speak of that they had lived through during the insurgent attacks.

Nyusi encouraged young people to use their imaginations positively, and to fight against teenage pregnancies, alcohol abuse and drug consumption, among the other problems that damage the nation’s social fabric and mental health.

Turning to the general elections scheduled for 15 October, Nyusi stressed that the occasion should be a festive one. “No violence!”, he declared, “we want a clean game and elections that are credible nationally and internationally”.

The meeting has been organised by the Ministry of Youth and Sport, and by the National Youth Council (CNJ), whose chairperson, Manuel Formiga, declared that it was an opportunity for young people to reflect on the contribution they can make to the country’s development.

The meeting is attended, not only by government supporters, but also by youths from the main opposition parties, Renamo and the Mozambique Democratic Movement (MDM). Nyusi regarded their presence as “a sign of our cohesion, inclusion and national unity”.

The population of Mozambique consists mostly of young people, said the President, “and so we must prepare today for a not very distant future. We need actions and not words. We need a platform of effective unity, and not one of political and ideological rhetoric”.

Source: AIM