What happens in April lives after some men

Dear judge Mbadwa,

What an Easter of sorts is this one, My Lord! I know you are not used to the judicial lockdowns and self-imposed quarantines during this season, but Covid-19 has shaken the societal foundations of Umunthu to the core so much that man has become an enemy of his own in Nyasaland.

In the sombre mood of Easter, we cadaverously escape from a sneezing neighbour and run away from a coughing visitor, regardless of the history of their asthmatic condition.

My Lord, it is no longer a symbol of status to claim that you recently went abroad because doing so would invite some stigma. Social media has slowed down on those bragging selfies showing people boarding flights to or from abroad. It doesn’t look good at all.

Having said that, my Lord, your colleague of the bench justice Can-Matter was absolutely spot-on that Covid-19 has caught the establishment pants down and the worrying thing is that those whose pants were found down are yet to pull them up.

There is this Nyasaland Cabinet Committee on coronavirus whose members have been melodramatic in trying to show that they are on top of their game, when it is so clear that they are bungling through the whole crisis.

Should we say that they have not taken time to read that epoch-making judgement of honourable Can-Matter?

My Lord, what are the terms of reference for this committee that seems to have a penchant for the camera?

I don’t know whether it is something to do with April, but I have seen vestiges of the infamous Midnight Six overzealousness that is well-etched in history in the current committee.

Take, for instance, the ill-informed and illegal declarations the committee has been making. The willy-nilly stopping of voter registration comes to mind.

The committee poked fun at the process that came into being after the constitutional court’s ruling ordered that a fresh prudential election be held within 150 days.

My Lord, didn’t these esteemed members in their wisdom know that courts are moved, and you don’t usurp their power just like that?

My Lord, we have a very big problem when you have people in authority overstepping their mandate under the guise of managing a crisis.

This blatant disregard of the rule of law is not only unacceptable, but is also retrogressive.

Then there was this other permanent secretary whose name appears on record to have been there during the April debacle of the Midnight Six nature.

Where did he get the courage to start telling government not to prioritise on elections? Why couldn’t he be making a plausible case for increasing allocations to his ministry, without waddling in waters that he is no so familiar with?

My lord, I am waiting to hear whether the committee has truthfully been serving an agenda of saving the nation during this crisis, not their imagined cause.

My Lord, based on the foregoing, I am satisfied to have established a prima facie case against this cabinet committee. My Lord, I, therefore, move that this committee should be dismantled forthwith for making illegal pronouncements that may cost this country.

I forgot there is a movie, Sometimes in April about the Rwandan Genocide. Very few wear their thinking caps this time.

I remain

John Citizen.