Dear friends, my beloved compatriots, hosts and friends of Mali.
Today, September 22, 2022, we celebrate the 62nd anniversary of the Malian people’s accession to independence and sovereignty.
Independence begins with the awakening of consciousness about our own responsibility to dispose of ourselves and to move forward by ourselves while maintaining peaceful and mutually beneficial relations with others. Responsibility is based on truth in all things, multi-faceted respect and a constant commitment to development.
The independence thus constituted on responsibility becomes a reality on the condition of establishing and always enforcing the rule of law, educating and cultivating the people, all the people, creating and maintaining a healthy and vigorous economy, having a strong and modern republican army, governing by virtue and democracy, establishing and maintaining win-win relations on the defense of the interests and aspirations of the people.
Today and even more in the future, independence and sovereignty are combined with constructive interdependence. The peoples of the world are linked, the challenges of humanity have no borders (climate change, migration, emerging epidemics, misinformation, etc.) and everyone must contribute to curb them.
Our country is free and independent, and I pay a vibrant tribute to all those who have invested in this, often at the cost of their lives.
The mission of our generation, for our country, the Republic of Mali, is to develop it and to raise it to the rank of a true political, economic, cultural and military power.
Long live the Malian people, long live the Republic, may God continue to shower his blessing on Mali for a united and strong Africa.