26/08/2026
THE PEOPLE’S CITIZENSHIP: THE MYSTERY OF THE STATE
You have lived under the authority of the State all your life, but have you ever stopped to ask yourself, “what exactly is the State?” We hear the words everywhere. The State. The State. In court, cases are brought in the name of the State. Government officials speak of the State. Politicians invoke the State. Citizens demand things from the State. Newspapers report that “the State has acted” or “the State has decided”, but who exactly is this State? Where does it live? Who is the State?
The State is one of the strangest creations of human civilisation. You cannot touch it. You cannot point to one building and say, “There is the State.” The President is not the State. Parliament is not the State. The courts are not the State. The military, intelligence services, police and civil service are not individually the State. The State exists through all of them, yet it is greater than any one of them.
This is why a functioning State is extraordinarily difficult for any individual to overpower. A person confronts people. The State responds through systems. Something apparently insignificant can happen in Shang’ombo, Nakonde or Chililabombwe and, depending upon its implications, information can move rapidly through administrative, security, legal and political channels until institutions hundreds of kilometres away are acting upon it. What looked like one small event has touched the nervous system of the Republic.
There is another dimension to the State. Institutions develop memory. Those who aspire to positions of great public responsibility reveal something about themselves through their conduct over time. Moments of national difficulty test judgement, temperament, respect for constitutional order and the ability to distinguish personal ambition from the wider interests of the Republic. There may be no examination paper, but public life itself can become a profound test of leadership.
Even inside the machinery of the State, titles do not tell the whole story. A director may appoint a manager and naturally assume that authority flows simply downwards. However, that manager enters an institutional system governed by law, procedure, professional obligations, reporting structures and responsibilities that transcend the individual who appointed him. People occupy offices temporarily. Institutions endure beyond their occupants. That is one of the deepest sources of State continuity.
This is also why governments can change while the State remains. Administrations come and go. Public officers enter institutions, serve for a time and eventually give way to others. Political leadership changes. Generations of public servants succeed one another, but the fundamental obligations of the State continue. Borders must still be defended. Laws must still be administered. Courts must still function. Public records must still be preserved. National security must still be protected. The Republic must continue beyond the tenure of any individual. Government is temporary stewardship. The State is institutional continuity.
When these systems become incapable of performing their basic functions, we begin speaking about State fragility or State failure. The danger arises when institutions become so weakened or fragmented that the State can no longer exercise effective authority, administer the law or perform its fundamental obligations. The endurance of the State therefore depends upon the strength, professionalism and continuity of its institutions. When institutions endure and perform their functions effectively, the Republic itself acquires resilience across generations.
That is the greatest mystery of the State. Its power does not ultimately reside in one person. It resides in an architecture. The faces change. The offices remain. Information moves. Institutions remember. Authority transfers. The Republic continues. When that architecture works as it should, no individual stands above it, because the State was designed to outlive us all.
Saviour Chishimba
President
United Progressive People (UPP)
