Malawi President Lazarus Chakwera, was as usual, at his best, when he was given the opportunity to speak during the the golden and silver jubilee celebrations of the Mangochi diocese which took place at Mangochi Stadium on Saturday.
Chakwera began his speech by outlining a reason why he attends such church functions as the one he attended today.
He argued:
“One of the reasons I make it a point to attend functions such as this one is to affirm the critical and indispensable role that others who are not public officials have in the development of our country. If the vision of an inclusively wealthy self-reliant industrialized upper middle-income economy as spelled out in Malawi 2063 is going to be achieved, we must have every hand to the plow, whether in Government, or the Church, or the Private Sector. We must move away from the popular mindset that some people are producers of our national wealth and others are only beneficiaries thereof. We must insist that everyone who wants to enjoy and be included in the prosperity of Malawi must contribute to it by their hard work, their industry, and their innovation. And that includes those entering the priestly service of the church. No one should be looked down upon as irrelevant to the progress of our nation. Every citizen matters, including those who disagree with us.”
Chakwera continued with his theme of lecturing Malawians never to tolerate the dismissal of our relevance, the disgracing of our character, the disregard of duty, and the disuse of our gifts. On never allowing to disgrace our character as Malawians, the President said the people of Malawi must replace the “Bola Anzathu” mindset with a “Bola Zathu” mindset.
Typical of a nationalist and a Patriot, the President said that “we need to remember what it means to be Malawian and never allow that Malawian standard and character to be compromised or disgraced.”
He added:
“To be Malawian is to be humble, not arrogant. To be Malawian is to share with others, not hoard things to ourselves. To be Malawian is to be hospitable and treat strangers as family, not to be unkind to outsiders. To be Malawian is to abandon our self-interests in order to be together in times of celebration and suffering, not to watch idly as our neighbours suffer. This is our character as a nation, and we must practice it and protect it as a credible reflection of our values.”
