Malawi Parliament hails Bingu for university dream

Opposition United Democratic Front (UDF) chief whip Clement Chiwaya on Tuesday hailed Malawi’s late president Bingu wa Mutharika for several development projects in the country.

Chiwaya told Malawi Parliament that Mutharika’s name should not be deleted from the history of the country because of such development projects as the Malawi University of Science and Technology (Must).

Chiwaya said although Mutharika failed on governance and lacked respect for human rights, he tried to develop the country through infrastructure development.

“I may not agree with his poor record on governance and human rights issues, but he deserves respect for his vision and focus on developing the country,” he said.

Chiwaya was contributing to the Must Bill which was tabled in Parliament on Monday.

He also said it is time leaders stopped being arrogant to develop the nation.

Ntchisi South MP Wictor Songazaudzu Sajeni called the project, alongside other planned five universities, as Mutharika’s revolutionary solution to the shortage of space in institutions of high learning in the country.

“This is a masterpiece project of this visionary leadership. The late president was trying to bring a paradigm shift in the way we look at higher education,” he said.

Lilongwe Central MP Louis Lowe said Must is one of the projects that differentiate politicians, who only think about elections, from statesmen.

MCP spokesperson Alekeni Menyani, however, said government should first improve the quality of public primary and secondary education since only children of the rich have access to quality education.

Meanwhile, Parliament on Wednesday passed the bill to operationalise Must.