Defending a failed government
If what Malawians are currently going through are not the results of failed leadership and, by extension, a failed government, then what is it? Indeed, in this country nothing seems to work. The trust most people had in government and its leadership is eroding fast.
It is appreciated that every country has its own problems. Having problems is one thing and it is another when the government seems not willing to solve such problems. This is the current situation in Malawi. The media is awash with problems Malawians are facing on a daily basis and what is missing is a listening government. Imagine no day passes without hearing about fraud in government or any of its parastatals. Finance control systems are not working and nobody seems to care anymore.
One thing to take note of is that Malawians have been as open as possible when narrating problems to President Peter Mutharika. Unfortunately, the President is not ready to listen because he seems to think that all the complaints are the voice of opposition party members who he claims are bent on discrediting him and his government. Honestly, this is a lame excuse. In fact who cannot see that things are falling apart in Malawi? This is not an exaggeration because every Malawian can feel the after effects. On the other hand, the State President should realise that he is supposed to serve all Malawians regardless of their party affiliations. Furthermore, every Malawian has every right to complain to him about poor service delivery.
Meanwhile, it is not a secret that the current government has scored poorly on service delivery. Imagine, several times President Mutharika has vowed that in this country no one will die of hunger because his government has bought a lot of maize. Despite such positive news, the President should be well aware by now that the poor majority in Malawi can hardly access maize from Admarc depots because of the prohibitive price. In fact, it is this highly priced maize which has triggered various investigations and enquiries to find out how the maize was procured especially that from Zambia. Listening to interviews by parliamentary committees with various stakeholders, one gets the feeling that the government has no laws on procedures for procuring foodstuffs from other countries. This encourages corruption as there can be so many players most of whom would just be fortune seekers. This is the case with the Zambia maizegate that the country is presently battling with.
Needless to say that in this country corruption has taken its toll due to lack of binding laws. This has been worsened by the perceived selective prosecution based on whether one is in the corridors of power or not. Those with power seem to get limitless protection from government. Most Malawians are aware that President Mutharika denies the notion that his government is very corrupt. The anomaly is that he also admits that corruption in Malawi is getting worse. One wonders which is which with President Mutharika. Meanwhile, it is common knowledge that corruption is synonymous with the abuse of power.
It does not need a genius to know that corruption is the root cause for having a failed government in Malawi. But as long as the leadership continues to be perceived protecting alleged corrupt people, registering a failed government is eminent. Defending this state of affairs might be difficult in the absence of solutions to corruption.n
