LILONGWE-(MaraviPost)- President Lazarus Chakwera on Friday, July 4, 2025 inaugurated the first ever Malawi’s Flag Summit at Kamuzu Palace in the capital Lilongwe with calls for citizens to be true patriotes.
Under the theme, “Redefining our culture, revolutionalising and accelerating growth”, the Raise the Flag Summit 2025, encourages everyone Malawian to do things unusual in developing the nation.
Addressing the gathering, President Chakwera said, “Every day, each of us must decide whether we are going to offer our service to our country as a solution to the many things that bedevil her or whether we are going to continue folding our hands from the sidelines to point fingers at what we think is going wrong. And of these choices, choosing to stand on the sidelines pointing fingers is the safest, themost comfortable, and the easiest, but it is also the most useless.
“Seeing a problem and pointing fingers at the problem does not make you a patriot. It only makes you a finger-pointer.Being a patriot involves action. And when I heard that Wealth Magazine was organizing some citizens to celebrate independence by taking action and fix some of the problems you were seeing in the country, I wanted to meet these special citizens”.
The Malawi leader adds, “As President, I am used to seeing citizens pointing out a problem in Malawi and waiting for someone else to fix it, or pointing out a problem in Malawi and offering to fix it only if the Government agrees to pay you.
“What I am not used to is seeing citizens going out into the country and taking action to fix the problems they see in the community, doing it without waiting for anyone to tell them, and doing it for free without waiting for someone to pay them. What I am not used to is seeing citizens taking action and offering service simply because they love Malawi, simply because they want to make Malawi better, simply because they believe that service is a debt we each owe to Malawi, that service to country is how we raise the flag”
He explains further, “So I decided to invite you here so that I could hear your stories of what services you have been rendering to Malawi to raise the flag, and I decided that these are stories the whole country needs to hear, because as we celebrate independence two days from now, I want us all as a country to reflect on the role we will play to serve Malawi.
“But I also wanted to hear your stories because your service to Malawi is an inspiration to me as President, to remember that no matter how tough things get in my service to Malawi, it isworth it because Malawi is worth it. And for that gift of inspiration”.
Wealth Magazine organised the Summit which attracted youths, traditional and religious leaders and entrepreneurers and among others.
During the event, economic experts held a panel discussions on how the initiative will be incorporated into Agenda Malawi 63.
