The Head of State and Government, His Excellency Dr. Lazarus McCarthy Chakwera answered his call of duty as the Chancellor of the University of Malawi (Unima) when he attended the 99th Congregation of the University of Malawi in Zomba.
In his official speech that demonstrated his tint of philosophy in communicating ideas, President Chakwera related with the students recalling his academic journey which involved the corridors of the Unima. He said;
“As you all know, I am the 6th citizen of Malawi to be elected President of our great and beautiful country. However, I am the first to have received a University education from a Malawian academic institution, thanks to the opportunity I had to read Philosophy at this University. It is therefore a fact of history that the University of Malawi is the only University in Malawi to have ever produced a President, not to say anything of the fact that it is also the only University in Malawi to have both a sitting President and his Vice among its graduates at the same time.”
Through his speech, the nation was made aware that the current personnel reigning at the top of all three branches of Government namely the Executive, Judiciary and the Legislature are products of Unima.
“It also so happens that the current Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, His Lordship Rizine Mzikamanda, SC, who is the head of the Judiciary, is also a graduate of the University of Malawi, having earned his first degree here six years after I earned mine. And if you are wondering where the Speaker of the National Assembly, Rt. Honourable Catherine Gotani Hara, who heads the Legislature, got her first degree, you need look no farther than this University, for it was here that she earned her Bachelor’s degree in Political Science”.
“And so it turns out that by a stroke of divine providence and serendipity, and for the first time in Malawi’s history, all three branches of the Malawi Government are now headed by individuals who received their first degrees from the same University, and this University is the only one that enjoys that boast”, said the president igniting the enduring pride that Chanco dwellers cultivate and manifest.
Chakwera, who enjoyed fond and warm welcome at the gala event stated that “I impress all of this upon you who are students here and who are graduating today for two reasons. I do not see myself as one standing before my juniors, but as one standing before my siblings and members of my academic family. As such, I am grateful for your warm welcome home, and I congratulate all of you who are graduating today on the milestone of completing your studies at the college God still loves most”.
In his parting statements, the President called upon the graduating scholars to discharge honour in their service and set themselves apart through excellence. “You should set a high bar in all your endeavors to show those around you that a graduate of the University of Malawi is not only a true specimen of what it means to be Malawian, but to also show the world that a graduate of the University of Malawi simunthu wamba”.
