Lungu calls for more Zambian authors
By Staff Reporter
President Edgar Lungu has challenged all learned Zambians to offload their knowledge and experience in books so that others can learn from them.
And President Lungu says it is shameful that Zambians can be referred to as a people that do not read.
Officiating at the launch of a new book title: ‘Zambian Civil Service Procedure Commentary And Cases’ authored by National Assembly Speaker Patrick Matibini, President Lungu bemoaned a lack of investment in authoring books.
“We should all be inspired by our colleague and emulate his good works so that long after we leave service, our experiences, knowledge and thinking should be immortalised in books and articles we have written. This will enable the people of Zambia in various sectors to continue to benefit from our documented experiences,” President Lungu said at Lusaka’s Pamodzi Hotel on Friday evening.
“I, therefore, appeal to otherZambians to emulate Dr Justice Matibini. This challenge especially goes to all the senior lawyers to ensure that they make their contribution to the development of the justice system in Zambia by writing books and articles in various journals. My appeal is not only to those in the legal profession, but it is also to tother citizens of Zambia with vast experience to reduce their knowledge in books for the benefit of future generations.”
He said Dr Matibini’s book deserved to be celebrated because few people had managed to reduce their knowledge and experiences on to paper.
“So much knowledge and experience has been invested in a number of Zambians, yet, unfortunately very few people have reduced this wealth of knowledge and experience on paper in a manner that Hon Mr Justice Dr. Matibini has done,” he said.
“I am convinced that if people from various walks of life take it upon themselves to document and produce books derived from their life experiences and even fiction stories of their imaginative world, our libraries would be complete with Zambian authored books.”
And President Lungu has bemoaned the poor reading culture in the country.
He said it was a shame that people chose to believe malicious material, especially from social media, instead of looking for credible information from credible sources.
“It is with considerable shame that in this age of monumental connectivity, we still see evidence of a poor reading culture in the ever-increasing cases of examination malpractices; rampant fake news broadcasts and other media reports, and generally poor standards of workmanship among some of our people,” President Lungu lamented.
“We need to stop this retrogressive behaviour and language that seems to be taking root that ‘Zambians do not read’. This mindset is worrisome and indicative of the erosion of good reading habits. The culture of reading developmental information needs to be inculcated in both the young and older Zambians; I know most people rely on commentaries on social media, I would like to advise that we must invest more time in reading earnest materials. In this way we will be feeding our mind with progressive ideas that will sharpen our thinking and outputs.”
President Lungu has since called for a complete transformation of mindset among people.
He said there could be no better investment than in knowledge in any given society.
“Reading is an important spect of life because this leads to self-learning and development. Reading is the best form of self-education and there are no limits to what you can learn and become in life. My government would like to see human development which encompasses people upgrading their knowledge. I want to see schools at all levels to strengthen their reading programmes,” said President Lungu.
“All institutions should also invest in research and information centers, to enable them respond to various aspects they are working on effectively. But not all is lost. Transformation of mindset is a process. To execute this transformation, government is addressing the impediments to more people authoring books and more importantly reading them. The transformation is not for government alone, it must be embraced by all Zambians at personal and institutional level. We have no excuse not to undertake this journey of reading and authoring books in all vocations, because the benefits are beyond what we can envisage.”
