Once a wolf, always a wolf

A wolf had been prowling around a flock of sheep for a long time, and the shepherd watched anxiously to prevent it from carrying off a lamb.
But the wolf did not try to do any harm. Instead, it seemed to be helping the shepherd take care of the sheep.

At last, the shepherd got so used to seeing the wolf about that he forgot how wicked it could be.
One day, he even went so far as to leave his flock in the wolf’s care while he went on an errand.
But when he came back and saw how many of the flock had been killed and carried off, he knew how foolish to trust a wolf.
Awhile, the populace celebrated after President Peter Mutharika and Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) took the reins of power from former president Joyce Banda (JB).
The sentiment across the sweeping ranks was that Mutharika and DPP second-coming would see Malawi sever its romance with mediocre leadership flourishing in the post-one-party years with some of the country’s heads of State shamelessly wearing on their foreheads titles earned from honorary papers.
It was thought Mutharika would know that one reason Malawi is a world leader in poverty for countries that have been relatively stable and peaceful is mediocrity that has culminated into leadership promoting political-affiliate and one’s-home-area morons in both public and private institutions.
It was thought Mutharika, having lengthily walked the corridors of an institution of higher education, would know that academic qualification and professional track record are a priority for recruitment and promotion in public service.
But news that Mutharika’s press secretary Gerald Viola ordered government ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) and private entities to give business to the Mutharika-owned radio station, Galaxy FM, confirms that the circle of mediocrity that characterised the President’s predecessors’ regimes has resurfaced.
The news confirms that Malawian leaders have no vision for the nation; only personal selfish ambitions to ascend to positions of political influence and enrich themselves on the backs of millions of the poor.
Unfortunately, Mutharika’s administration is following that path and insanely so amid plenty of precedent in recent history, including DPP’s.
Bingu, for example, died an unpopular president because during his second term of office nepotism and clientelism had increasingly become a decisive factor in who got what in terms of public goods and positions.
The majority of key positions in the Cabinet, public service, statutory corporations and foreign missions went to his own kith and kin, creating a typical political-affiliate and ethnic network that just made looting easy but public service execution almost absent.
Although his sudden death interrupted the syndicate, during JB’s regime—spanning merely two years—a quick replacement took place even with a more subtle, determined and highly motivated cadre leading into Cashgate.
As a result, the bulk of Malawian voters kicked JB out of the highest office of the land.
Moses Michael Coady said: “A man who has ceased to learn ought not to be allowed to wander around loose.”
It seems the President and his so-called new DPP have ceased to learn.
And that Mutharika’s DPP still harbours around it the likes of Viola spread in all MDAs not only negates the public service reforms government has engaged in but justifies the moral that a wolf will remain a wolf, and biblical wisdom in James 3:11: “No spring of water pours sweet water and bitter water from the same opening.”
Thus, it is impossible for a superficial political entity to produce serious leaders, or an unjust and broken system to produce just characteristics. 