Former President John Agyekum Kufuor has said his generation has a responsibility to share its experiences with young people to help them navigate a world changing rapidly through technology and artificial intelligence.
The former president said young people today may not have the same opportunity for gradual learning and professional development that shaped his own journey, making it necessary for older generations to help them learn from past experiences.
Speaking to Joy News’ Evans Mensah, Kufuor said he wanted to leave a legacy that would prepare young people to build on the achievements of previous generations.
“I came to what I eventually ended in through long apprenticeship,” he said.
He explained that the pace of modern life and technological advancement had changed how people acquire knowledge and develop their careers.
“They may not be privileged to undergo such an apprenticeship with time,” he said.
Kufuor believes his generation must therefore find ways to package its experiences and make them accessible to younger people, including through a foundation that can support mentorship.
“My generation should feel a responsibility to sort of package the experiences we’ve had to go through to get to where we are,” he said.
He added that he believed in the intergenerational evolution of society, where younger people build on the lessons and achievements of those who came before them.
Kufuor also acknowledged that today’s young people have advantages that previous generations did not enjoy, particularly in education and access to technology.
He recalled that in the 1950s and 1960s, even a city such as Kumasi had very few telephones, unlike the present day, when mobile phones allow people to access information quickly.
“With them, the modern science and tech preparation and the vista with the mobile, for instance, you press a button,” he said.
Kufuor said combining the experience of older generations with the educational and technological advantages of young people could help them achieve even more.
“If we put our experiences in such a package before them, I would expect them to quickly get insights into how we did it so they can do it even better,” he said.
