So I had the pleasure of attending yesterday’s State of the Nation address for the youth hosted by our President Dr Lazarus Chakwera at Kamuzu Palace.
I pretty much had the best seat in the room, directly in front of the president and I was fired up to have an opportunity to talk about what problems we as the youth are facing and more especially myself as a creative on behalf of my fellow creatives.
As the SONA progressed it was pretty much clear on my fellow youths faces present in the room that we weren’t happy with the line of questions being presented to the president and quite frankly by the end of it the whole room said we have way more pressing questions than that which has been presented towards his excellency the president.
You can also tell from people’s comments on the live feeds that were aired yesterday that young people have more pressing matters than what was being chosen online by the moderator.
For us present in the room we felt the same of the questions “our fellow youth” posed in the room almost as if “they” aren’t seeing the situation on the ground for us young people to be able to ask directly of things that benefit us and how the president is trying to address what we as young people are going through.
I wish that microphone was tossed to me and be given a chance to speak and not just have these pictures of me smiling on social media giving the impression I left that room satisfied that our issues have been addressed which I feel they haven’t So contrary to these selected joyful pictures of us young people that were present circulating on social media, Mr. President, I can say for my fellow young creatives we left the SONA unsatisfied and felt no REAL questions and REAL matters being faced by young people were addressed in yesterday’s meeting.
We would like REAL QUESTIONS AND REAL CONVERSATIONS to be had with you sir and I look forward to actually having these conversations if given the chance with the 2 southern and northern region SONAs coming up- Praise Umali
