The President His Excellency Dr Lazarus McCarthy Chakwera says time has come for all Malawians to turn the corner and move the country from the rubble and ruins of poverty to a nation basking in prosperity and progress.

The President said this in Lilongwe during his inaugural address also marking Malawi's 56th independence anniversary celebration.

We bring to you an excerpt of the President's address:

Today, I too promise to give this country my best and do my best for you as your servant. More importantly, I promise to set a good example of submitting myself to the constitutional processes, provisions, and institutions that are designed to ensure that the President and Vice President are always at their best.

This means that as required by law, I will make a full declaration of my assets each year; I will go to Parliament to be questioned by the People about my handling of state affairs; I will propose legislation to reduce the powers of the presidency and empower institutions to operate independently, including Parliament and the Anti-Corruption Bureau; I will meet with the Leader of Opposition personally every three months to listen to alternative ways of running government affairs; and I will operationalize the Access to Information Act in order to end the era of government secrecy and usher in the dawn of government accountability.

As I seek to be at my best through these measures, you can also count on me to challenge all of you to be at your best. I will challenge the leadership of the judiciary to do more to root out the culture of corruption and selective justice that has shipwrecked too many of our lowest courts.

I will challenge those who sit in Parliament to act professionally, put away childish ways, and repeal and replace the bad laws that remain on our books.

I will challenge civil society organization to maintain a culture of robust protest, not just against governance institutions, but against any entity that is on the wrong side of justice.

I will challenge our development partners to respect our vision and plans for our own country and to partner with us in ways that respect our dignity and sovereignty, not ways that undermine it.

I will challenge all of you as citizens to work hard, work hard, work hard, work hard, and work hard.

The time of giving free handouts and rewarding noise makers and handclappers who are too lazy to work is past. We have a country to build and not a moment to waste. So, let’s all get to work.