Our candidates are hopeless cowards

As I am writing this, only UDF presumptive presidential candidate, Atupele Muluzi, has plucked enough courage to tell Malawians who his running mate is and complete the party’s ticket well in advance before this coming week’s presentation of presidential nomination papers to Malawi Electoral Commission (MEC) .

By doing this, Malawians in general and the UDF faithful in particular, have been able to debate the suitability or unsuitability of Dr Godfrey Chapola as Atupele’s running mate in the May 20 poll.

More crucially, the party has been able to parry away any innuendos, lies and gossip about the man, thereby affording the nation a healthy debate on Chapola before the D-Day this coming week.

The social media and other such forums were awash, for example, with discussions that Chapola is a brother to Atupele’s mother, Anne, but the party was able to put this to rest, explaining that it is far away from the truth although both come from Lilongwe.

Contrast this with PP, DPP and MCP candidates in the name of Joyce Banda, Peter Mutharika and Lazarus Chakwera who are all hopeless cowards and are waiting to reveal the names of their running mates on the very same day that they will present their nominations to MEC thereby ambushing Malawians in the process.

But let us put this cowardice in its proper perspective and why the behaviour is bad news for Malawians.

Running mates are potential vice-presidents and, in an event that something happens to the president, they can assume the mantle of the highest office in the land anytime.

We, Malawians, should now know better than be told after what happened 18 months ago when the then much maligned Vice-president Joyce Banda unexpectedly assumed the presidency when the late Bingu wa Mutharika succumbed to heart attack on that fateful Thursday afternoon.

This should have woken us up that potential vice-presidents are not a matter that should be left to party supporters only but all Mala-wians. With this in mind, you would expect Malawians or better still, supporters of that party to be given enough time to have a say when they are chosen.

This is not happening and instead potential vice-presidents are being shoved down the throats of Malawians on the very last day before nomination, thereby making their views redundant.

But this should not surprise anyone and let us face facts. Apart from Atupele at 35 years, our other candidates are all steeped in the old ways of doing things characterised by secrecy and backwardness that have no room in today’s world dominated by the Facebook generation.

I am not naive to even imagine for a second that choosing running-mates is a simple task to party presidents as it has the potential to lead to factionalism, but at the same time I am aware that the earlier it is done, the better.

Actually, conventions are the best forums that should also produce running-mates apart from coming up with the candidates themselves.

But in the event that this is left to the candidates, they should do themselves and Malawians in general a favour by announcing this well in advance. It would go a long way to project the confidence levels of the candidates themselves and their belief in their choices.

By coming up with a running mate well in advance before nominations, for example, Atupele has projected himself as a confident candidate who is not encumbered by useless and pedantic sensitivities that have no room in today’s fast paced world.

The same cannot be said of the other three front runners. They are just a bunch of hopeless cowards who will bid for their time until the last minute.