Born on January 15 1929, the Reverend Dr Martin Luther King Jr was: a husband to Corretta Scott King; a father to four children; a clergyman; and a political activist. He is best known for being the inspirational leader of the American Civil Rights Movement, a movement that successfully used the method of non-violence to champion the rights of the oppressed African-American people.

Dr King surrounded himself with able and visionary leaders, such as Ralph Abernathy and, the little known, Baynard Rustin, to found the Southern Christian Leadership Conference by which he was able to leverage the spiritual and social authority of African-American and liberal White churches to mobilise people to join the non-violent civil rights struggle.

Dr King’s inspirational speeches still move audiences today and the success of his efforts and his lasting influence is best illustrated by the fact that Barak Hussein Obama is serving a second term as President of the United States of America.

I was moved to write about Dr Martin Luther King Jr. because of a tweet that I saw a few minutes ago, which highlighted the fact that he was only 39-years-old when he died.

Dr King did not come from a privileged background. His father, Martin Luther King Sr. was a pastor and missionary whilst his mother, Alberta Williams King, gave up her job as a teacher to be a wife and homemaker. Through the hardships that faced African-Americans in the mid 20th Century, Dr. King studied sociology before going on to study theology up to Ph.D level. In 1955 to 1956, at just 26-years-old, whilst he was a pastor in Montgomery, Alabama, Dr King led the Montgomery Bus Boycott, which kicked off his 13-year non-violent civil rights campaign.

Just take a moment to pause and contemplate on this stunning fact. An underprivileged and oppressed young man was able to achieve in just 13 of his 39 years on Earth what the overwhelming majority of us could never contemplate achieving even if God were to gift us a 90-year lifespan.

True, we can’t all be as inspirational or as famous. I will also readily concede that the times were different and that many young men and women have made World-changing achievements since then, especially in the world of information and communication technology. But that is not my point. My point is that Dr. King’s life should serve as an example to all of us that we are never too young to take on the challenges that confront us in our daily lives and that if we have the vision, focus, discipline and dedication, we can make a lasting impact even in a relatively short period of time.

I am sure that when the Montgomery Bus boycott began in 1955, there were plenty of men and women older and more experienced in matters of fighting for African-American rights than the 26-year-old Dr King. I am also certain that even in his age group there must have been other people who were as qualified or perhaps even better qualified than Dr King to take the lead. But Dr King didn’t shirk his generational responsibility. He did not wait for somebody else – older, wiser, richer, or whatever – to come sort this situation out. He rose up and took the mantle himself.

In Uganda today, there is a tendency to believe that the youth are only the leaders of tomorrow and, as we all know, tomorrow never comes. Our leaders, in the political, social and economic spheres, have began to live longer and as they have done so we have witnessed the development of a very curious and self-servingly flexible definition of youth that seems to cover people even up to the age of 55 years.

Sadly, there is also a developing tendency amongst the younger people towards all things trivial and frivolous. It’s all about hanging out, watching sports and endless engagement in sterile pursuits. The youth, perhaps encouraged by their sit-tight elders and populist politicians, are also increasingly prone to leaving things for somebody else to sort out.

There is also a tendency to instant gratification. If anything cannot yield a quick and huge result within a couple of days or months, at the longest, then many youth do not deem it worth pursuing. This is why Uganda is ranked in the top 10 worldwide in alcohol consumption and sports betting shops are the fastest growing business.

But if we all can’t give a rousing speech like Dr King and do not have his charisma or mobilisational skills, then at least let us take some inspiration from quite how visionary, disciplined, dedicated and impactful he was at a relatively young age to do something to change our homes, our neighbourhoods, our places of work, our communities and our country.