Written by Shadreck Chaula – MANA
Minister of Civic Education and National Unity, Timothy Mtambo, has challenged youths to be in the forefront in contributing towards the development of the country other than indulging in immoral behaviors and glorifying politicians.
Mtambo was speaking Saturday during the Mkulamchere Celebrations at the headquarters of Senior Chief Mwankhunikira Headquarters in Rumphi.
He said young people have the opportunity to venture into various development and economic activities other than being abused by politicians as has been the case during the past regimes.
“Youth should not be perpetrators of mob justice and other forms of violence but they should focus on education, explore ways of creating jobs for themselves as government continues to create job opportunities.
“Instead of empowering the youth to venture into various development activities, some politicians use them to beat up their rivals. Tonse Alliance administration wants to prepare the youth for leadership positions so that they effectively contribute to the country’s development,” said Mtambo.
Commenting on the celebrations, the minister said cultural events provide platforms through which the old and the young generations discuss issues that affect their daily lives and find ways of contributing to the development of their societies.
“Such events are very important because they bring people from various places thereby promoting unity amongst Malawians.
“For instance, the theme of today’s event is ‘stop early marriages’ and this is one of the platforms through which this massage can be shared with a wide audience at once,” he said.
Senior Chief Mwankhunikira added that they decided to celebrate the event under the theme after noticing rampant cases of child marriages in his area.
“We celebrate the event annually under different themes but this year we are celebrating it under the theme ‘stop early marriages’ because this is becoming a great challenge in our society as many children have gone into marriages especially during the period when schools were closed due to Covid-19.
“Our aim is to end child marriages and we are doing everything possible to ensure that all those who got married under the age of 18 go back to school and our target is that by December there should be no more cases of such nature in my area,” said Mwankhunikira.
