Adongo was next to be measured for his height as he walked over to the dried up millet stalk. "Sorry too tall, you can't play" said Mr. Wise, the Namoo Junior Secondary School (JSS), sports master. Adongo protested briefly and eventually walked away disappointed. The measuring of height was part of the selection process of allowing young boys to participate in a village wide under-12 football tournament called "Unity is Power". The reason for using a dried up millet stalk, was that, most of the kids did not have birth certificates, and did not know their age, so the best we could do is find someone who looked 12 years old, measure him and then bring a stalk, break it to match his height, if you were below or same height you played otherwise like Adongo you were out!! This football tournament held in year 2000, was one of its first kind held in that part of Ghana. The purpose was to teach the young men, leadership, responsibility, organizational skills, unity and collaboration, respect and most importantly give the pre-youth and the youth an avenue to express themselves.
Most of the players came from the Namoo primary school. We gave the Namoo older middle school students, the responsibility to form the teams, name them, make their own uniform and be the managers of the teams. Each team found a creative way to make their own uniforms and write their names on it.
The week-long tournament brought out the best in this often divided village, the young and the old, men and women each participated in this activity whether as players, managers, referees, financier of teams, or just spectators.
That tournament became the stepping stone in the development of the game in Namoo, and though just a rural community, it was able to compete in the higher level tournaments in the Upper East Region (the most northern region in Ghana).
But the real story was the participation of the pre-youth and youth in an activity that build life-skills and allowed them to express themselves. This group is often forgotten and it is this population that are the first recruits and victims of vices and extremist voices.
Today millions and millions of youth around the globe are at risk. Risk of the usual issues of gangs, drugs, violence and the like and now more than ever, recruitment in insurgency and extremist groups. This challenge is not restricted to a particular economic group or a nation or society but everyone is being effected by it. The youth in Nigeria who is recruited by Boko Haram to carry out a terrorist attack on a school to the young American girl who is manipulated to join in the blood-letting of Syria and Iraq , from all four corners of this planet the youth are under constant pressure and are being pulled towards the darker side of life, innocence taken by recruiters of death.
Nations around the world must prioritize the youth population not just with a slogan that the "youth are our future", that slogan is too old and frankly the future is too late!!! Unprecedented focus must be put on this vulnerable population and resources dedicated to them for their development. The unfortunate truth is that, the extremists, have done effective programming to win the youth on their side. We see that in Syria, Iraq and Nigeria, where its the youth who are carrying out the goals of their leaders and the mission of their organization. Sadly the governments and nations around the world have a long way to catch up.
Fourteen years after that football tournament in Namoo, I ran into Adongo in Accra! He still remembered that day when he was not allowed to participate in our football tournament!!! Fortunately, he had forgiven me but most importantly he had grown to be a mature young man who works hard and looks after his family.
Millions like the young Adongo fourteen years ago in Namoo stand at the cross road of a choice. Which way will they go...That will depend on our guidance and the resources which we will or won't allocate for their future.
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