First Lady promises to invite Namadingo to State House

The team for Patience Namadingo’s on-going cancer initiative is pregnant with anticipation for an invitation to the State House following an encounter the musician had with First Lady Gertrude Mutharika.            

Mutharika met Namadingo last week at Parliament where the musician performed but she refused to sign his guitar, saying she will organise something better and then sign.

The move, which stunned both parliamentary supporters and Namadingo team, happened on Thursday last week when the artist took his charity fundraiser there and performed before members of Parliament (MPs), including the First Lady.

As a requirement, Namadingo asks supporters of his initiative to sign his guitar at the end of every performance. And at this particular performance, the First Lady was strategically calculated to put her signature on behalf of the MPs. However, in a dramatic turn of events, the First Lady decided not to sign the guitar, indicating that she would invite Namadingo to the State House.  She also promised to make some undisclosed contributions towards Namadingo’s initiative.

Namadingo raised K520 000 from the MPs during his performance.

Speaking in Blantyre during the cancer initiative executive meeting on Tuesday, Namadingo said the First Lady’s gesture has created great anticipation on his part.

“Honestly, we were stunned by the First Lady’s move in which she decided to withhold her signature on the guitar as one of the supporters of the children’s cancer initiative. On many occasions, the master of ceremonies [MC] tried to call her to sign the guitar but the First Lady dodged it.

“But we are confident that her action was deliberate since she promised her support towards the initiative as well as inviting me to the State House,” said Namadingo.

Namadingo’s guitar has been filled with numerous signatures of representatives of different institutions but he reserved its front view for President Peter Mutharika, whom Namadingo targets to become a patron of the fight against cancer in the country.

 “In fact, we have already written his office about this and we are patiently waiting for the response,” he said.

Meanwhile, the cancer initiative has raised K11 520 000 and set May 24 for the handover ceremony of the dummy cheque to Queen Elizabeth Central Hospital (QECH).

The event is being designed as an awareness campaign where the public and supporters of Namadingo’s initiative will hold a big walk from Independence Arc to QECH to present their contribution. n