Let Chihana lead us for now—Mwenifumbo

It came as a surprise last Wednesday, when Karonga Central parliamentarian Frank Mwenifumbo announced a ceasefire between him and the party president Enock Chihana after months of bickering over the Alliance for Democracy (Aford) leadership. Each of the two declared himself a president. But, with only six months to the polls, dust seems to be settling in the party. What’s Aford’s next plan? Suzgo Chitete engaged Mwenifumbo…

What neccessitated your decision to give in because the rift in Aford appeared to go on forever?

Yes, you are correct. It had to take some courage on my part to give in because the misunderstanding has gone on for a long time and it is not healthy for our party. After looking at the future of Aford, I thought at the rate we were going, the party would not be able to realise the dream it was founded on.  I felt that since the dispute is between the two of us and almost the whole party is intact I needed to give in for the sake of Aford because the party risked extinction due to this wrangle.

So, after this ceasefire, what next? Have you resolved the leadership disputes?

I know as per our constitution the mandate of the National Executive Committee (NEC) expired long time ago, that is why we needed a convention to have a new NEC. But in this case, I think we must recognise Honourable Enock Chihana as the leader. But I have not given in because Chihana is a president. I think for now we need him as a president until we agree on the next step. Our constitution grants the President a five-year term and that expired but for the sake of moving forward, we may agree to extend the mandate of the NEC until we hold a convention?

Do you think you will have enough time to hold another convention, conduct primaries before your candidates present nomination papers for the polls?

We need a convention. As I said, our tenure of office is five years so we need a convention to renew the mandate of office bearers. But, looking at not only time but resources as well, we may not be able to organise a convention. That is why I suggested, as a personal opinion, to have Chihana and the rest of the team lead us to the next elections. But this is a decision which will have to be agreed upon by NEC. There are so many external forces to consider; so we need to agree on whether we need a convention or not. Where it is clear that it is impossible to hold the convention we may not have it. Mind you the NEC has the mandate to extend the tenure of the president that’s why I personally think it will be wise to extend the term of Hon. Chihana and we hold the convention after election.

Convention aside, is Aford ready to participate in the forth-coming elections and are you partnering anyone or going solo?

Oh! Yes no question about that. We are ready to participate. But we need serious reflections. I for one think we need to focus on local government and parliamentary elections, but this is a personal view. It is up to the NEC to decide. I would also personally love to see Aford going solo, but maybe we need to be practical about what can work for us. We need to look at our priorities and I think to strengthen the party we must focus on councillors and MPs and that we need to have a leader who will take us through the elections. I fear that we may waste more time to argue on who should be the president so we may leave that aside.

I want you to come out in the open, what is your view, should Aford partner with other parties?

I have already said that I would love Aford to go solo and I believe in this that Aford has to measure its strength but the way things are, I don’t know. Mine is just a single opinion. We will wait to hear from NEC. Whatever NEC will decide, we will follow. I would really love us to go solo but is that practical? NEC will decide. I don’t know if we have enough time to galvanise support for the presidency that is why I am saying we better leave this question to NEC.

The bickering in Aford has gone on for some time, has this not cost you the support?

Definitely yes, this is why I even said it during the press conference on Wednesday that the infighting is not good for the party. We are all to blame. I am also a culprit for this state of affairs, which may have cost us the people’s confidence. It is for the same reason that I gave in to give Aford a chance to grow and not to die because if our bickering is killing the party then is the fight worth the time? After my announcement on Wednesday Chihana called me and we all seemed to agree that we need a better start and that we all abide by our constitution.