It is what it is, failed leadership in Malawi under President Mutharika

President Mutharika

 

Due to the numerous problems that Malawians are facing under the Peter Mutharika administration, it can easily be concluded that the leadership has failed. In fact the government seems to have thrown in a tower and no longer cares to come up with solutions to the suffering.

Instead, the government and the ruling party completely disassociate themselves from the notion that the leadership has failed to run the country. They are in complete denial that the leadership has created a fertile ground for corruption which is the bottom line for the hardships in Malawi.

Meanwhile President Mutharika and his government should know better that if they want to decisively deal with corruption and other problems in the country, their first step must be acceptance. They must accept that so far they have failed the people of Malawi and are willing to turn the bad situation around by listening to other people’s suggestions. Finger pointing and passing the blame to others is no solution at all.

For example, at the recent John Chilembwe memorial service, the President blamed journalists for exaggerating when reporting about corruption. In the same vein, on another occasion the President was quoted as saying that corruption in the country is not growing but it is people’s perception of corruption which is growing. What is said here is in contradiction with what he said sometime back. He conceded that corruption is getting worse.

In addition to the above, the President also once blamed people who talk so much about Malawi being a poor country. He said that this is like glorifying poverty which portrays a negative picture of the country.

These examples stated above and many more out there show that the President is in denial. With such denial it is assumed that corruption is imaginary and that Malawi is not poor as such. It goes without saying that the leadership can afford to be in such denial because he is in the comfort zone.

After being in denial about the real level of suffering, government dwells so much on highlighting that the country is doing well because the inflation has gone down. This is just for academic purposes. It means nothing to the suffering people. Politics aside, it is very difficult to accept that the Mutharika government is successful. It is true that they introduced ‘Reforms’ to improve systems of governance. But so far, the results of the reforms are very obscure.

Since Mutharika came into power in 2014 there has been so much talk about improving the lives of the youths by creating jobs for them through training at community colleges which would give them a chance of self employment.

A number of youths have graduated from these colleges and self employment seems to be an empty dream. One wonders if at all government follows up on such youths. But what is seen is that they are back in the already flooded streets with job seekers. In fact it goes without saying that self employment needs starting capital which is not available.

To say the truth, youths in this country are very pathetic. This is why some of them think that they can make a living by dancing for politicians. It does not need a genius to know that setting up factories can really offer jobs to many people including the youths.

At the moment, it is very difficult to know where Malawi is heading. But what is clear is that the leadership seem to have failed.