Chakwera faults Unima alumni on conduct

President Lazarus Chakwera has faulted some of his fellow University of Malawi (Unima) alumni for portraying a bad picture through their dubious conduct in pursuit of accumulating wealth quickly.

The President said such graduates exploit poor Malawians and have created a deep-rooted culture of “just taking” without giving back to their communities.

He made the remarks yesterday during Unima’s 99th congregation at the Great Hall in Zomba where he also rebuked the tendency for some individuals to talk ill of their own “beautiful country”.

Said the President: “Anyone graduating from the University of Malawi has a responsibility to model excellence. All graduates must uphold high standards and ethics, no shortcuts, no shoddy work. We must maintain our standards as products of this place.”

Chakwera, who is Unima Chancellor, further condemned the spirit of negativity among some people.

He said: “I challenge pessimism, let us promote what is beautiful about Malawi. To you the graduating students count yourselves as ambassadors of Malawi, set high bars because a graduate of Unima simunthu wamba [Unima graduates are not ordinary persons].”

The President’s remarks comes against a background of the country witnessing cases of public servants, some of them graduates of public universities, involved in dirty deals, including the infamous Cashgate scandal in 2013.

In his remarks, Unima Council chairperson George Partridge hailed the Chakwera administration for allowing the university to smoothly implement its infrastructure projects, recalling that in the past, “most of our projects were abandoned and they had less efficiency”.

He also acknowledged the support that the university continues to get through the Ministry of Education, describing it as “unprecedented.”

Unima Vice-Chancellor Professor Samson Sajidu said the impact of the projects has been enormous and has improved the learning environment.

“We have also managed to increase the intake now to 11 000 students from around 2 000 a decade ago,” he said.

Earlier, Chakwera inspected some of the new infrastructure at the college, which Partridge said have been completed on time because of government support.

The projects included the expanded and modernised Economics Department building, a new administration block and a modern chemistry laboratory.

He also toured the hostel he used to sleep in as a student at Chancellor College, then a constituent college of the now unbundled Unima.

During the congregation, Chakwera conferred 297 bachelor’s degrees, 51 master’s degrees and two PhDs.

From Zomba, the President proceeded to Mangochi District where he is expected to undertake other official engagements, including the commissioning of a K16 billion Southern Region Water Board’s Mangochi Water Supply Project in Nkhudzi Bay.