YOUTH DAY MESSAGE
By Harry KALABA President of DP
Date: 12th March, 2022
As we commemorate this year’s International Youth Day, I want us to take time to reflect on the life of the 4th Republican President, Rupiah Bwezani Banda, who transitioned to eternity on the eve of International Youth Day.
Like many youths of his time, President Banda made himself available to fight for a just cause of liberating Zambia from years of segregation and minority rule. He along with other youths were part of the movement that would eventually liberate this nation and give birth to Zambia on 24th October, 1964.
I want to call upon all the youths to take time and reflect upon a life well lived. President Banda, has had an illustrious career from being a Diplomat, a Member of Parliament, a CEO, a peace mediator and negotiator, a Presidential emissary, a vice President, a Republican President and more importantly a father to many children.
While all these roles carried with them an aura of prominence that would have demanded of one to move with pomp, President Banda chose to walk with humility and meekness. Such is a life worth emulating.
As we join the rest of the world in commemorating this important day, I encourage you to take some time to reflect on the lifestyle that many freedom fighters like President Banda lived by setting aside personal happiness and satisfaction to focus on the political liberation of their country.
Today you have a choice to make as youths. You have a choice of deciding to bring about economic liberation by ensuring that you take responsibility for building a Zambia that you want to see based on your individual and collective aspirations of making this country a rich and prosperous Zambia.
That Zambia will not be given by those who bask in the comfort of lofty opulence but by those who are ready to walk away from comfort in a quest to raise the standard of their beloved country.
Like the youths of old, who brought us political freedom, I am ready to walk with you shoulder to shoulder in our quest to fight the shackles of poverty as we seek to bring about economic freedom. You are the resource that this nation needs to transform itself into a food basket of the region. It is not empty political rhetoric and promises that will bring about transformation of this nation into its deserved image and awaited position of an African economic giant.
Indeed, true to the theme of the just ended Indaba, youth participation in all levels of national development is key and in the DP participation by youths means giving youths the opportunity to lead. With its youthful population, Zambia has the greatest potential to enhance its productive capacity. And yet this youthful resource capable of bringing economic transformation has been relegated to being a tool for political expedience.
Let us take that collective responsibility of co-creating a Zambia that our forefathers envisioned as they sought to wrestle for political freedom in the 1960’s.
May we remember our forefathers with a renewed resolve and passion to take back the nation from those who seek public office to embellish their insatiable appetite for ill-gotten wealth in the name of providing public service. Let us champion the cause of an equitable and just Zambia for all.
Let’s Believe Again!!! Happy Youth Day and God Bless you.
Harry Kalaba
DP President