His Excellency Mr. Peter Gregory Obi (left) and Rev. Father Canice Chinyeaka Enyiaka (right) speak during the Ubuntu Africa Youth Assembly Series inaugural webinar.
The Global Peace Foundation (GPF) hosted its inaugural Ubuntu Africa Youth Assembly Series webinar as part of the organization’s African Renaissance Initiative on October 5, 2025. With the theme Ethical Leadership and Empowering Youth, Rev. Father Canice Chinyeaka Enyiaka, GPF’s Director of the African Peace Initiative and Engagement, moderated a discussion on Ubuntu as a foundational principle of ethical leadership and policy development. Also discussed was the importance of engaging young people in governance and creating positive change in Africa. As the guest speaker, His Excellency Mr. Peter Gregory Obi, CON, offered his views on how Ubuntu supports ethical leadership and empowers Africa’s large youth population in their pursuit of sustainable development and credible governance.
Understanding Ubuntu and the Role of Youth in the African Renaissance
Fr. Enyiaka opened the webinar with a thoughtful reflection on Ubuntu, expressing it as a strong sense of community grounded in the phrase, “I am because we are.” He commented on the role of young people in the African Renaissance, noting that there are “More than 400 million young people across 54 countries of Africa—what a gift that should be harnessed, what a gift that should be promoted.” Fr. Enyiaka emphasized the importance of affirming young people’s dignity and addressing their questions regarding good governance, ethical leadership, corruption, and accountability, reiterating that “If we ignore these questions, we are not being true to ourselves.”
According to Fr. Enyiaka, Africa’s transformation can be achieved, but “this is not going to happen without collective effort from different areas of our engagement across the continent, from the civil society to the diaspora, to religious traditions, to community leaders, to government agencies. All of us have to work together to rebuild Africa.” He further noted that the answers lie within the African people.
Ethical Leadership and Human Dignity
Following his opening remarks, Fr. Enyiaka posed a series of questions to Mr. Obi, a successful businessman, politician, public servant, and philanthropist, related to Ubuntu, ethical leadership, and youth engagement across Africa. Responding to a question on how Africa’s leaders can apply human dignity to young people when they ask agitating questions, Mr. Obi remarked that dignity can be found in first recognizing human capital, or human beings, as a nation’s greatest asset and properly valuing and developing them. He stated, “In all this is how you’re going to achieve human dignity because you’re seeing these as your greatest assets.”
Regarding how the values of Ubuntu can be applied to public policy to respect and promote the inalienable dignity of Africans, especially young people, as they grapple with conflict and corruption, Mr. Obi reiterated that human beings are the greatest asset of any nation. He further noted that we all need each other to live in a better society. “So, we all need to care for each other, we all need to show love for each other, and if we care for each other and love each other, that means we don’t need to be selfish. And selfishness is what drives corruption.”
Fr. Enyiaka then asked how the largest youth population in the world can be turned into a dividend. Mr. Obi responded that you need to turn today’s focus on consumption into production, remarking, “The more productive you are, the more engaged your youth and everybody is.” Fr. Enyiaka agreed that we need to understand how to make Africa’s young people more productive; however, due to high unemployment, young people are leaving the continent in large numbers.
To give young people the hope and confidence to stay and create productive lives in Africa, Mr. Obi asserted that “Africa needs competent leaders with capacity, character, compassion, and commitment to turn around Africa. That’s what Africa is lacking.” Additionally, he stated that micro, small, and medium-sized businesses need to be encouraged and incentivized. “The youths need to be properly engaged, supported by the system, and then you have an energy. That’s when you have youthful energy for productivity, innovation, and everything. It’s just invest in them.”
Key Areas for Youth Empowerment
To achieve this, Mr. Obi identified three key areas of investment: health, education, and poverty alleviation through entrepreneurship, with leadership valuing and supporting its greatest asset. “You lift them up, you lift yourself up. That’s the Ubuntu spirit. The Ubuntu spirit can grow. So, you can’t look down on anybody unless you’re trying to lift the person up. You’re lifting the person up, you’re lifting yourself higher.” It was agreed that young people need to come together in a peaceful and nonviolent manner to form a coalition and demand good leadership.
Next, several young panelists across Africa, including Uganda, Tanzania, Kenya, and Nigeria, asked Mr. Obi insightful questions related to the webinar’s theme. For example, a panelist from Uganda questioned how dignity can be restored to young people in a society where poverty, identity cards, and marginalization are used against them. Mr. Obi answered, “A good leader sees the youths for what they are, the future assets of the nation.” He underscored the role of young people as positive change agents and the need to invest in them with good education and policies that support their productivity, asserting, “The youths in Africa must change the bad leadership in Africa.”
Youth as Partners for an Innovative Africa
Other panelists focused their questions on the role of entrepreneurship and innovation rooted in solidarity in creating jobs for young Africans, the role of ethical and transparent government in restoring young people’s hope for the future, the role of ethical integrity in good governance, engaging young people as partners and not just beneficiaries in shaping the development of Africa and co-creating its future, and how Ubuntu can guide young leaders. Mr. Obi again emphasized the importance of entrepreneurship as a key factor in a country’s success, where young people possess the knowledge and skills necessary for productivity, with competent and trustworthy leaders who support them. He noted that when young people are productive, they become partners, and the values of Ubuntu create a path to a society where caring for each other becomes the norm. “So, Ubuntu is about productiveness and living together, and working together, and valuing each other, loving, caring for each other.”
In closing, Mr. Obi emphasized the importance of Ubuntu in fostering a society where human beings care for one another. Fr. Enyiaka echoed this sentiment, thanked the participants for their engagement, and emphasized the importance of leaders who genuinely care. He concluded, “I’m sure you learned a lot from His Excellency, Mr. Peter Obi, today. We need leaders who recognize and promote the dignity of every human being. We need leaders who are passionate about the true meaning of sustainable development. And the Global Peace Foundation is all in as far as promoting this type of engagement is concerned.”
Fr. Enyiaka assured the participants that the youth segment of the African Renaissance Initiative is robust. GPF is developing an African Renaissance Initiative Resource Center, where young people across Africa can connect and engage to advance real solutions and participate in meaningful conversations with a common purpose—the transformation of Africa.
Learn more about the Ubuntu Africa Youth Assembly Series: Ethical Leadership and Empowering Youth
