A modern and seemingly progressive sermon is being preached every day—that young people pursuing their education in institutions of higher learning should seriously think about venturing into entrepreneurship.
There is nothing wrong with that. Jobs in government or the private sector will never be enough, so to beat the shortage, others must employ themselves and, in the process, create jobs for others.
But it becomes interesting to hear people who have been employed for years persistently asking young people to employ themselves.
Some of them do not even want to retire to pave the way for others to take up the positions they are holding.
They are clinging to their jobs even when it is clear they have grown tired and can no longer perform to the best of their abilities.
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Of course, in certain positions, wisdom comes with age and experience matters a lot. Yet, we all know there are other positions which would rather be taken up by young people.
Now, a group of retired principal secretaries (PSs) has teamed up to form an association through which they apparently seek to offer expertise to government in various areas.
Well, there is nothing wrong with retired PSs offering their support to government, because it is a fact that these people have experience.
In fact, it is not PSs alone who have the potential of helping government operate efficiently. They can simply play advisory roles, especially in areas where they have expertise and experience.
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They should not return to the public service for employment.
But it appears that is what they are essentially seeking and government is willing to accommodate them—typical of a nation with very twisted priorities.
At the launch of the retired PSs’ association, Deputy Secretary to the President and Cabinet Janet Banda indicated the retired officers will be considered for roles such as those of ambassadors.
That does not seem very far from what has already been happening before.
Malawi has a lot of talented and intelligent young people who would ably perform in crucial capacities.
But that penchant for recalling retired and tired individuals to take up positions which should have been reserved for skilled young people seems to be deep in the DNA of this administration.
We have seen people being recalled from retirement to take up crucial public positions because they are cronies of some big shots in government.
It is difficult to appreciate why someone who has reached retirement age should return to take up a position that should have been occupied by up-and-coming officers.
After all, while experience matters, everyone starts from a low level and accumulates it along the way.
So instead of picking people who already retired and did their part in terms of contributing to national development, government should think about giving those jobs to young people with fresh ideas, who are also equipped to do their part in contributing to national development.
It is even not easy for the young people to venture into entrepreneurship because access to finance is complicated.
Banks have overly strict conditions, which makes it difficult for the young people to venture into entrepreneurship because they lack capital.
Of course, there are young people who are doing their best to venture into entrepreneurship and employ others.
But that does not mean that every young person who has graduated from college should employ themselves.
This is also not to deflate those with the potential to do business from engaging in that.
Those who can get jobs must do so.
Instead of recalling retired officers to fill up positions which should have been taken up by young people who are being trained for those jobs, government should urge the retirees to use their pension money to open businesses where they can also employ young people.
The insistence that young people should venture into entrepreneurship should only make sense if it does not exclude older people.
It is possible to even retire early or simply resign midway if you feel you can make a bigger impact by doing your own business.
The push for young people to venture into entrepreneurship must be complemented with the resistance to recall people who attained retirement age to take up public positions.
