Africa-Press – Malawi. As a political analyst, I am obliged to offer free pieces of advice to our state president, Dr. Lazarus Chakwera. As a bonafide citizen of Malawi, I am also perturbed with rampant corruption, rising cost of living, nepotism, and unfulfilled campaign promises among my fellow Malawians.
It is only the state President Dr. Lazarus Chakwera who holds a key to unlock all the mysteries of solutions to these incessant predicaments troubling Malawians. At this juncture, if I were President Chakwera, I would have resolved to pursue the following course of action without fear or favour forthwith:
Cabinet ministers are there to provide advice to the president pertaining to the sense of policy direction and implementation in their line ministries. Unfortunately, the conduct, performance and public utterances of some cabinet ministers leave a lot to be desired.
A comprehensive performance analysis exercises for cabinet ministers needs to be conducted and those who are performing dismally poor must be replaced. It is logical to conclude that Chakwera’s appeasement policy in appointing party sycophants into public positions is backfiring.
It is said that a tree that does not bear fruits should be cut off and incarcerated. As cabinet ministers are by default advisors to the president in their line ministries, duplication of special presidential advisors is just a drain on our government purse.
For instance, what is the point of having a presidential advisor on campaign promises when most of such campaign promises have not been fulfilled two years down the line? What is the special presidential advisor on youth doing when the youth are grappling with joblessness, teen pregnancy, substance abuse and rampant suicide incidents .
There is currently no meaningful stride in the fight against corruption. Since Martha Chizuma assumed the position of Director of ACB, no tangible corruption case has been logically concluded.
If I were President Chakwera, I would direct Parliamentary public appointments committee (PAC) to independently assess the competence of Miss Martha Chizuma. Appropriate action would then be taken after PAC’s report.
As I articulated in my previous write-ups, much as the Malawi Constitution provides the independence and separation of powers of three arms of government in sections 8 and 9, these institutions are empowered to provide checks and balances on each other. It is a pathetic situation that there are allegations that judges who preside over corruption cases are themselves implicated in corruption.
Recently, we saw prominent Judge Kenyatta Nyirenda violating basic principles of natural justice by assuming the role of a judge over his own case in which he was being asked to recuse himself. Obviously, he quashed the application with some debatable reasons.
If I were President Chakwera, I would direct the Parliamentary legal committee to summon the Chief justice, Rezine Mzikamanda, along with the judicial officers alleged in corruption so as to clear the mist of judicial tourism, injustice, corruption and partiality in the judiciary.
The public sector reform report belongs to Malawians. Tax payer’s money was used by the taskforce committee to come up with the report. Besides that, this country does not belong to the state president only. Malawians are therefore entitled to read the contents of that report and make appropriate comments. It is mind boggling for President Chakwera to keep the public sector reform report under the carpet for months now.
Chakwera’s regime thinks that Malawians are pathetic buffoons. This regime promised Malawians that it would implement tough economic austerity measures to address over expenditure amid the economy meltdown.
Recently, we witnessed the Chakwera government chartering a private jet to the United Nations assembly with a large number of delegates including chiefs. As if the bloated number of delegates was not enough, their international travel allowances were either increased or doubled. Was this part of the economic austerity measures?
There was also a public outcry on the exorbitant expenses for the vice president Chilima’s wife who was referred to seek medical attention in South Africa. Others cried foul that his wife was not entitled for such expenses. This is also a wake up call that government needs to invest in improving our public healthcare delivery.
If I were President Chakwera, I would come in the open to inform my fellow Malawians on the extent to which the social economic recovery plan inaugurated some months ago has progressed. If I were President Chakwera, I would deliver a state of nation address in a few days time.
In this address, I would articulate a number of pertinent issues which include but not limited to cabinet reshuffle , a bill on devolving presidential powers such as a president should not be the chancellor of a public university and a bill on making ACB fully independent. Fortunately, Rick will remain Rick Dzida. He will never be Reverend Lazarus McCarthy Chakwera. However, wisdom is only discerned by the wise.
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