Greed has killed Aford
In the 12 months before elections, strange things happen be it new political parties being born out of old ones or sitting vice presidents resigning to announce their intentions to contest as independent presidential candidates.
This and more has happened in the political history of Malawi such that the happenings in Alliance for Democracy (Aford) this past weekend should shock noone but surely the bones of its founder Chakufwa Chihana must be trembling in the grave.
Aford was the party that laid the foundation for multiparty rule and democracy in Malawi starting out as an underground political movement by exiled Malawians, among them, Chakufwa.
Looking at its history, those who have loved and supported Aford enough to continue sending a representative to the National Assembly albeit one in 2014 must be embarrassed to see what is happening.
Indeed it is not the first time that delegates to an Aford convention have resorted to violence to resolve their differences. Panga knives were wielded at the convention some elections ago and the fist fighting of Tuesday were just a long line of chronic infighting that has beset the party from even before Chihana’s death.
As it has turned out, the bone of contention between the two aspirants for the position of president of Aford, Enoch Chihana and Frank Mwenifumbo is not about wanting to represent the party in the May 21 2019 elections but really about hunger and greed for power.
The scenes of supporters ferried from across the country only to sleep on the floor at the convention venue should have tugged at the hearts of Chihana and Mwenifumbo to resolve the issue once and for all.
The pitiful sight of women with babies on their backs waiting for hours as the Chihana and Mwenifumbo camps held a meaningless shouting match should have made them feel sorry about the impact of their disagreements on innocent supporters whose only crime is poverty.
The two factions would do Malawians and their supporters a favour if they could indicate publicly what the end game to all this is.
What do they hope to achieve really? What is Aford in the scheme of all things politics in this country?
In all the court battles and the endless stream of press conferences by one faction or the other, something tangible is missing and that is what Aford has to offer Malawians if voted into power.
Or perhaps Aford has become so irrelevant that what is stake is personal glory and power more than political relevance.
Where is the pride that was Aford and the victory sign that propelled multiparty politics in this country? A party that went from contributing 36 Members of Parliament to the National Assembly in 1994 to just one in 2014 does not inspire confidence as a government-in-waiting.
The Northern Region is certainly not any political party’s playground and Aford plus the numerous regional parties that have come and gone learnt this the hard way.
This makes one wonder what exactly it is that Chihana and Mwenifumbo are fighting for and the speculations might be true.
That Aford has come to this, a competition between who will sell the party to the highest bidder is shameful and a betrayal of the original ideals of the party.
The shameful acts at the Aford convention notwithstanding, supporters of Aford deserve better than being played around like pawns.
