Give us a chance

It is a great paradox when you look at some realities in life. There are certain ages in life that are called prime. At that age, people perform their best. For example, in soccer you hardly find soccer stars who are above 35. In the army the real combat troops are hardly over 30. The same goes for many disciplines where physical fitness and acute sharpness are required.

A whole nation of millions of people will sit comfortably and trust this group of young people to deal with their national defence. Millions will rally behind their national soccer team – just a group of boys –and count on them to successfully protect their pride! This is very interesting especially when looked at in the context of leadership and professional responsibilities.

All of a sudden when it comes to leadership and professional responsibilities, the young ones are not good enough anymore. Be it in politics and in business, be it in government or companies the trend is the same. The older generation dominates all positions. Some companies in Malawi even have the audacity to advertise a minimum age of 50 in their vacancy announcements.

Is it true that before you are 50 you cannot become a chief executive officer (CEO) or director of a company? Is it true that you cannot be a minister or president if you are but 40? We at the Young Professionals Forum beg to differ. If young people can represent a nation in defence or sports, they can be good enough for anything if given a chance.

Recently, Press Corporation Limited (PCL) – Malawi’s biggest private company, advertised the position of company secretary. They wanted someone at least 45 years of age, and all they wanted was a law degree as a qualification – really?

Malawi has recently gone through a period of change. Obviously as a result of the change, more change came. The Cabinet changed. Numerous public appointments were also made.

There is one problem with all these appointments – it’s the same old people we have seen before. It’s the same old ideas we have tried before elsewhere. There are hardly new ideas at all. We, therefore, expect little in terms of change. Aren’t there young professionals that can be tried? Really? If young people manage to represent and defend a nation, surely they can be given some of these responsibilities.

Now turn and look at the CEOs and boards of companies. We took time to look at just the listed companies. The average age of all the CEOs in listed companies is above 50. We also looked at the boards of all the listed companies. No single board had an average age of less than 50.

Wisdom surely comes by age, but a good mix would also be healthy. There are so many brilliant young people out here. They just need to be given a chance. We request President Joyce Banda to lead in this. Please make really surprising appointments of some brilliant young people who will offer new hope to Malawians!