‘I am not Jesus’

President Bingu Mutharika said he was not Jesus. One thing, however, that Mutharika has shared with the Lord is that when things turned out bad for either of them, trusted disciples betrayed them. Jesus was denied by Simon Peter while Mutharika was denied by various manner of politicians and DPP bigwigs.

I am among the millions of Malawians that wish President Joyce Banda all the best as she leads the nation to great heights. I wish Her Excellency a long life and guidance from the Lord. I am soothed to note that she is a prayerful woman. I would still encourage her to lead this country as a secular nation. As a nation, we are not a Christian nation and we are not an Islamic state, neither are we an atheist or agnostic nation. Many of our people believe in God. We will, however, recognise the freedom for those who choose not to believe in the Lord.

I do recognise the urgency for President Banda to get a handle on the Malawi Broadcasting Corporation and Treasury. I also recognise the need to replace the old guard at Malawi Savings Bank (MSB). There will be more such government entities such as MSB and parastatals such as MBC that need cleaning up and filling the posts with the right people. I was just wondering, though, whether it would have been better if when a vacancy was created, there would not be a national advertisement where people could apply and compete for the posts? Maybe before we even reached this stage, I am wondering whether it would have served the nation well if the former director general of MBC Bright Malopa and former secretary to the Treasury Joseph Mwanamvekha would have been encouraged to resign.

This should not have been that difficult. You get these people to a discussion, they bring their lawyer and the government brings in their lawyer. The people discuss and like civilised people, a severance package is arrived at. Then the officers submit their resignation and a pay-out is made. In that way, legal challenges for illegal dismissals are prevented.

I read from a newspaper article that Information Minister Moses Kunkuyu only learnt that he had been appointed minister from a radio announcement. This he said when he was asked about his reaction on being appointed as such. That he didn’t know about the appointment prior to the radio announcement worries me. That he accepted to be minister without having had a discussion with the President worries me even more. That it is possible he had been informed prior but chose to be not truthful worries me even further. I am sure we can forgive the two protagonists. This was a crisis period.

I would like to join other Malawians and others that a postmortem of the events leading up to and following the death of Mutharika be carried out without fail. What happened? What did not happen? This is the only way I can remain sober if I knew that my current President is in safe hands. It is not about individuals, but systems. What systems failed?