Africa-Press – Malawi. In general, the big lesson we can learn from history is that man has dismally failed to learn from the very same history. It is common knowledge that kings, rulers, presidents and leaders rise and fall. Fortunately, nature provides us with signs and indicators for such significant events.
Dr. Hastings Kamuzu Banda ruled this country with an iron fist for over 30 years. Even some Malawi Congress Party (MCP) demagogues decorated him with the accolade of the life president of Malawi. Unfortunately, Kamuzu did not die in office as he was defeated by his erstwhile secretary general, Mr. Elson Bakili Muluzi. But what led to the unprecedented fall of the fearful man, Dr. Hastings Kamuzu Banda?
Two root causes contributed to the downfall of the much revered strongman, Kamuzu Banda. First, Kamuzu became too old such that he was no longer in control of state affairs. The ‘chola boys’ who surrounded him began cooking for themselves a succession plan and this did not go down well with other MCP presidential aspirants. In fact, it was alleged that Mama Cecelia Kadzamira and John Tembo were calling the shots on behalf of Kamuzu.
Second, Malawians got tired of Kamuzu’s dictatorial tendencies including the killing of political opponents and muzzling of freedom of speech and expression. The pastoral letter by catholic bishops in 1992 triggered a series of demonstrations from the citizens and condemnations from the international community at large. Dr. Banda was later coerced to call for a national referendum in which Malawians voted for multiparty system of government. In 1994, Dr. Banda finally conceded defeat to Bakili Muluzi in a highly contested multiparty system general election.
Bakili Muluzi successfully finished his two maximum constitutional terms from 1994 to 2004. However, he is not revered as a great statesman as he made two major political blunders which partly eventually forced the once mighty United Democratic Front (UDF) to fall out of power.
The first blunder is that he failed to manage a succession plan in which he wanted to cling to power by changing the Malawi Constitution. His bid to incorporate the third term in our constitution failed. He did not stop there but he further wanted the constitution to accommodate open terms for all presidents. This did not succeed either. Muluzi later discovered that it was the internal UDF members who conspired to have his ambitions fail. Disgruntled, he hand-picked Bingu Mutharika, an outsider, as his successor who would later dump UDF to form his ruling party, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP).
The second blunder is that Muluzi is still answering charges of corruption and abuse of office. Despite the fact that Muluzi had previously served jail for abuse of office and embezzlement of public funds, Malawians still voted him into power in 1994. It is not surprising that Muluzi took advantage of his position to amass wealth from the public purse. Dr. Kalonga Stambuli, a renowned economist and Muluzi’s financial adviser who mysterious died, spilled beans on Muluzi’s cunning financial deals.
Again two major causes contributed to the fall of the much revered, action-oriented and visionary leader, Dr. Bingu wa Mutharika. Corruption and death.
During the first term of Dr. Bungu wa Mutharika, Malawi was registered as one of the fastest growing economies in the world. Kwacha was stable. Inflation rate was a single digit. Malawi was food secure as it also became a feeding basket to other countries.
However, power corrupted Bingu during the first years of his second term. He began to amass a lot of wealth from the public purse. As poor as Malawi, he bought for himself a private jet which later attracted lots of condemnation from the donors who later pulled out their budgetary support. Scarcity of fuel and forex followed. Inflation rate rose. Bingu became so egocentric in such a way that any criticism was retaliated with disdain. Malawians can recall that Bingu deported the British high commissioner for criticizing him that he was growing more autocratic.
Unfortunately, Bingu died of cardiac arrest while holding an interface with a female parliamentarian, Agness Penemulungu. It was not clear what induced the cardiac arrest. However, speculations are that he might have taken a phosphodiesterase inhibitor before the meeting with an aim of increasing the lifespan of the vasodilator nitric oxide in his corpus cavernosum.
Only two major reasons are attributable to the fall of Joyce Banda’s regime. First, it was during Joyce Banda’s regime when money was discovered in car boots of government officials. The epitome of the scandal was when the Budget Director, Paul Mphwiyo was shot as it was alleged that he was singlehandedly benefitting from government looting. Surprisingly, Joyce Banda went into the public vindicating Paul Mphwiyo of any wrong doing. However, Paul Mphwiyo is currently answering charges of abuse of office. Malawians can also recall that it was during Joyce Banda’s regime that the controversial presidential jet was sold and the proceeds of that transaction vanished into the thin air.
In my view, apart from being involved in corruption, Joyce Banda lost the 2014 general elections simply because she was a woman. It would appear as a lame excuse but in a country where women comprise 52% of the population, a female candidate’s victory may be guaranteed. Nay!! Malawians were not prepared to vote a woman into power. The 50-50 women representation campaign is still a fallacy when it comes to a presidential race. If Joyce Banda managed to get a meagre 20.2% of the cast votes, obviously more women voted for Peter Mutharika who got a 36.4%. Usually, in situations like these, women don’t support each other .
The constitutional court did not find any evidence that Peter Mutharika rigged the 2019 presidential elections. The court further found no evidence that massive irregularities affected any presidential candidate’s votes. Why did Prof. Peter Mutharika fall.out of power after he was legitimately sworn in as the president of Malawi? Two major reasons can be gleaned here.
First, Prof. Peter Mutharika failed to assert himself as the president of this country after being sworn in. Human rights activist, Timothy Mtambo took advantage of this weakness to intimidate him further by holding massive violent demonstrations.
In Zimbabwe, when the opposition started staging riots and demonstrations after the elections, President Mnangagwa asserted his powers to deploy the police and the army that quelled off the situation. As you are reading this article, peace prevailed in Zimbabwe and Mr. Emmerson Dambudzo Mnangagwa is the incumbent president of Zimbabwe.
The second avenue as to how Peter Mutharika is out of power was through a judicial coup. Massive violent nationwide demonstrations had a domino effect in such a way that it influenced the decision of the court on the presidential elections case. In addition, the demos influenced the voters. Most voters voted for Chakwera because all they wanted was tranquility and peace as demos were disrupting their normal life.
The aforementioned history should be a point of departure to teach us signals of the Impending fall of Chakwera’s regime. a) Just as Joyce Banda was voted out because of corruption dubbed cash gate, the rampant corruption scandals in the Chakwera government are reminiscent of a political suicide.
b) Autopilot style of Chakwera’s leadership will cost him dearly. As Kamuzu was aging, the decisions made by his trusted confidants backfired on him. Chakwera seems not to be in control of issues and he relies on his subordinates to make decisions on his behalf.
c) You can fool some people sometime but you can’t fool all the people all the time. Kamuzu Banda was a tough man but there was a point when the citizens said, enough is enough!! Chakwera and Chilima can be clever to fool some Malawians now by offering them empty promises. Time will come when some Malawians will say vehemently enough is enough!!!
d) After transforming this country during his first term, Bingu Mutharika fell out with Malawians when scarcity of forex, fuel and essential drugs in public hospitals erupted. These incidences exhibit dire signs of a failed state. Unfortunately, Chakwera is sitting back while casually watching at these events and they will cost his political career dearly.
e) Much as there is leadership crisis, failing to exhibit crisis leadership at this critical time is politically suicidal. Prof. Peter Mutharika failed to show crisis leadership during massive nation wide violent demonstrations and this made him lose his presidency.
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