President Muhammadu Buhari has challenged young Africans to champion the fight against corruption, saying their involvement is critical to winning the anti-graft crusade in the continent.

Buhari gave the challenge while declaring open the 2018 Africa Youth Congress Against Corruption (AYCAC) at the presidential villa, Abuja.

He said their involvement will help in reversing the negative trends of corruption and its implications for Africa.

“To the young people of Africa, this fight against corruption is yours to lead and to win in order to reverse the negative trends of corruption and its implications for Africa,” Buhari said on Sunday.

“The youth of Africa must pool their energies to effectively ensure that our natural and mineral resources remain on the continent for value addition, job and wealth creation as well as to create affordable health-care and quality education for our people.

“Winning the fight against corruption is very much in your hands.

“Of particular interest to the youth, as reflected in the Nouakchott Declaration, is the emphasis on the imperative of investing in the demographic dividends through anti-corruption, education and sensitization campaigns, targeting young people as a means of bringing about behavioral change.

“I thereby encourage young Africans to use this declaration as motivation to achieve greater resource investment in developing anti-corruption curricula and anti-graft campaigns in schools, businesses and the general public space.

“African youth must remain the front and centre of restoring traditional African values of probity, integrity, honesty, diligence and hard work.

“It is only when the youth drive this change, that corruption will be eliminated.”

The president, who was appointed by the African Union (AU) in January as the 2018 AU anti-corruption champion, emphasised that the youth must rise up to the occasion in order to check the rising trend of corruption in the continent.