Reflecting on the message of President Obama to Young African Leaders

As I am reflecting on the message of President Obama to Young African Leaders during the Presidential Town Hall in Washington, 9 key messages stuck with me:
1-

"You do have control over being useful and getting good work done in your communities. So stay focused on that.." 

2-
"if you want to be in politics, my advice to you would be, why? What is it that you want to do?...And whatever it is that you want to do, start doing it...And the experience you get from actually doing these things then will inform the nature of why you might want to go into politics...at the end, you will have not only the experience but also the credibility with the people you want to represent, because they’ve seen you actually do something useful.."

3-
"this isn’t a matter of what America is doing for you, this is us being partners but mainly seeing what you can do yourselves to change, transform, and build your countries....At the end of the day, your vision will have to be won by you and by your fellow countrymen and women."

4-
"too often, in too many countries around the world, the attitude of the people in charge is, I want to shut up the criticism instead of fixing the problem. And that is not good for the people, and in the end, it's not good for the president, the prime minister, those in charge. Because over time, what happens is you get -- you just hear what you want to hear."

5-
"those countries that are investing in human capital, that are training people, are going to do better -- that's the most valuable resource. There are countries that have natural resources, but if their people are not valued as the more important resource, those countries will not succeed."

6-
"it is really important for your current leadership and many of you who will be future leaders to make sure that, first and foremost, that educational infrastructure is in place.And it has be to be provided for everybody -- not just boys, but girls -- and it's got to start early, because you can't leave half of your population behind and expect that you're going to succeed."

7-
" it's not enough just to educate a population... you have to be able to create a private sector, a marketplace, where people who have a new idea, who have a new product or service, they can go out there and they can create something. And if you don't have that, then you're going to frustrate the vision and the ambitions of too many young people in your country."

8-
"I am a strong believer that government -- strong, effective, transparent government -- is a precondition for a market-based economy. You can't have one without the other"

9-
"We know the history of Africa. But now the question is, what’s the new history that we’re going to write? What are the next chapters that we’re going to write? "

I would be happy to hear your thoughts.

You can access the full speech here :

https://www.whitehouse.gov/…/remarks-president-young-africa…