IF I WERE: At long last!
After watching one of Nyasa Big Bullets (then called Big Bullets) training sessions at Kamuzu Stadium a few years back, I overheard their former striker Victor ‘Vibre’ Limbani inviting his then team-mate Dalitso Sailesi for lunch, saying: “Dalitso tiye ku KFC pa bill yanga [let’s go and have lunch at KFC on my bill].” But alas! I was amazed to find them munching chiwaya chips just a stone’s throw away and I learnt that it was one way of concealing the truth about having chiwaya for lunch
Times were a bit hard for the People’s Team then and it was during the same period that they accumulated huge debts, including katapila incurred following their participation in the CAF Champions League. And I remember how their trip to Comoros, which I was part of, gave the social media their meal with some posting that the team had travelled by canoes (mabwato) due to financial constraints.
But the coming in of Nyasa Manufacturing Company (NMC) breathed a new lease of life into the People’s Team and having pre-match meals at upmarket restaurants is no longer a wish as it was with ‘Vibre’ and Sailesi, it is now a reality. They also had their salaries tripled.
No more ‘discs’ (zitumbuwa) for breakfast and no more trips to the market to buy one kilogramme of maize flour, popularly known as ‘walkman’. These days, they proudly walk out of supermarkets with plastic bags full of groceries.
And after months of resistance, it felt so good to learn that the People’s Team extraordinary general meeting (EGM) held in Lilongwe recently, endorsed the proposal for Nyasa takeover. Ironically, the People’s Team turns 50 this year and there could have been no better time to start a new chapter than now.
Hopefully, all those associated with the People’s Team will support Nyasa and other potential investors so that it scales greater heights like Manchester United and Kaizer Chiefs. Uloliwe, uloliwe wayidudula, nen’gesiza hah! (Oh yes, the train is pushing). Glory be to God. n
