Dear Zambian Students- A WAKE UP CALL
I have been alive for a while now. I was here when Dr Kaunda had only led Zambia for 11 years. Of his 27year iron fisted rule I witnessed 16 of those years. President Chiluba led me too as a president in very difficult circumstances.
So I have been around the block a few times and I am unplayed by gymnastics nor shenanigans.
I am appealing to you to wake up.
30 years ago companies used to recruit grade twelves while they were in grade nine. Companies used to come to grade twelve graduations ceremonies to recruit. Today graduates can’t find a job. Even PHD holders need a CV now. The University of Zambia graduates over 6,000 people a year. Go figure.
Today security guards are grade twelves. In future waiters will be degree holders. Already some minibus conductors are from CBU. Some Mongu Rice dealers are from CBU (with due respect).
Some of you in University need to quit because you can’t afford to be in university. You are too dependant to be independent. Just walk away for now. You will be back another time. Education never ends. After all, your record will show that you attended university though you did not graduate. President Chiluba graduated in statehouse.
In 2002 I sold a prime plot to go pursue my master’s degree. I just needed a degree. Today that plot is worth 1,000 times more than my degree.
My father died when I was 19. For two years prior I nursed my father driving him to UTH in a Landrover 109 even though I had no license. It was horrible being a man in a boy’s body. I had to grow up quickly. Then he died. I had to educate all my siblings. I had to sponsor my elder sister and situate her. I became a “husband” to my mother and was a man overnight.
At the time it felt like suffering. But now I appreciate my troubled route. I looked poor then. I looked rejected by society. Yet I did not know I was deep in the cracks of life’s auto oven; being baked for leadership. Don’t run away from suffering. Embrace it. It’s the world’s greatest university with a strong alumni. Suffering is a tutor with a counseling background.
Today I am a better man because of pain. I finally did take myself to school. I finally did do what I used to admire others do. Your time will come too. Get an income first.
If you have a choice between class and life take life. If you have a choice between boyhood and manhood please be a man any day.
I struggle about this. But many of you in university are wasting your parents’ money and time because you are not committed to neither education nor life. You need to choose one.
Please note that this is my personal opinion and experience. So don’t catch feelings. But think about it. Even a fool has wisdom. Even a blind man gives direction. Even a dead clock is right at least twice a day.
Michael Sata was not that educated but he died a billionaire and a president. President Chiluba was not that educated. He was a minibus conductor turned ZCTU vuvuzela. President Rupiah was just a farmer with a huge diplomatic heart. President Edgar Lungu came from Chawama.
Success is not in your history nor your qualifications. Success is in your attitude and self-application. Whatever you dedicate your life to will enthrone you one day. Even wood floats on water. Even metal floats when shaped in the right way. Buoyancy is available to all who obey the laws of physics and hard work. There is Archimedes law all around us.
How I wish mandatory ZNS was still around. It would shape some of these college students busy wasting their parents’ money. Some of you your parents have sold everything to educate you and all you do at school is drink, party and fail your papers. What a waste of family effort.
I can stand cadres who are uneducated. But I can’t stand lazy educated failing students who should be out there working and earning a living rather than demanding things from others they can’t even provide for themselves.
If you are offended then good for you. If you are not moved then good for you. If you are touched then it’s still good for you.
Remember God helps those who are ready to be helped. The sun works better on plants with chlorophyll. As in photo-therapy the picture is incomplete without light. Your life is incomplete without inner revelations of your mission, purpose and above all your quintessential divine path.
MCN
Mubita C. Nawa
First Published May 1st 2019. This article is an opinion and an experience. Feel free to consult further before you take action.
