Barack Obama Speaks At YALI Presidential Summit 2015

USPA NEWS - Olusola Samuel Owonikoko asked President Barack Obama an excellent question at the 2015 Young African Leaders Initiative Summit which took place in Washington DC, White House - Town Hall on August 3, 2015.

Olusola Samuel Owonikoko Question:

I want to say we appreciate all the great work that the United States is doing with Nigeria and many other African countries, especially as it concerns infrastructure development policies and all of those. But I´m of the opinion that if we do not make investment in education more than any other sector of the economy, then we are not building a sustainable partnership. And I´m saying that with respect to the fact that we are all of the intellectual dream that Africa is experiencing. Due to the fact the grass seemed green on this side and then the United States attracts so many intellectuals, we should have stayed to development and grown these programs.

For example, recently, when you were in Kenya, you launched a project around power and energy. I´m of the opinion that if that program is going to be successful and sustainable, then all of those programs should include the partnership of universities.Because through that, we can build the capacity of universities, and then those countries can go around in other African countries replicating that. So in that case, we can control the dream that is moving from Africa to the West, or to any other part of the country.

So I want to ask, what is the United States doing to control this intellectual dream to the Western world? And what are you doing to increase, more than others, the investment in education so that our partnership and development can be truly sustainable? Thank you.

The President: Okay, good. That was good. That was an excellent question.

Now, many of you have friends who study overseas, they study in the West, and then they decide to stay instead of going back home. Now, the United States, we are partnering with every country here. I guarantee you there are programs to invest in education in your country.

There are programs to work with the universities in your countries. I think you make an excellent point that on big projects like Power Africa, we should make sure that there is a capacity-building component. And in fact, one of the things that´s been done with our development assistance that we´re providing is to emphasize capacity-building.

But ultimately, why is it that you have so many talented, well-educated young Africans leaving instead of staying?

After explaining the reason for such move. Obama encourage young African's to gain the knowledge and skills in the west and go back to Africa to develop their home country which it is very important that young African practice that for they are the next generation of African leaders.