JB come home, please?

Some visitors just don’t know when to leave. The signs might be out there for all to see that the host has grown weary of you but they will hang on. A good visitor should know when to leave before the host is left with no choice but to rudely ask them to hit the road.

There are reasons, of course, why some visitors feel inclined to deliberately ignore that they have overstayed their welcome—might be running away from trouble at home.

Former president Joyce Banda (JB) is one such visitor who seems not to know when to leave. JB left the country soon after her party’s poor showing at the May 20 2014 Tripartite Elections. One year on, JB shows no sign that she will be coming home anytime soon. She left when her People’s Party (PP) was intact, but now it’s barely holding together.

The results of the by-elections held on Tuesday, August 25 2015, are another proof that PP is slowly, but surely sinking. Those who could jump—including Sosten Gwengwe, JB’s blue eyed boy—have already abandoned the sinking ship.

Then there is the constant mention of JB as an accomplice in Cashgate. The latest is by former assistant director of tourism Leonard Kalonga, who has implicated both JB and former budget director Paul Mphwiyo.

If all this does not make JB want to come home to put her house (PP) in order and also clear her name, I guess I won’t be wrong if I say she has never had the welfare of Malawians at heart.

I remember not so long ago JB told Malawi media that she is “busy holding public lectures“ and attending events that she might not be coming home soon. And true to her words, she has been hopping from one event to another. Well, others might have bought that lie, I never did. Now JB claims her life is in danger if she comes home. Really ma’am? Why not come home and let’s see if really your life is in danger?

Politicians have a tendency of trying to run away from the law by hiding behind the “it’s political witch-hunt” rhetoric. Why would you be hunted out of all the people if you are clean? Yes, I know that you might have some personal grudges with President Peter Mutharika but that really doesn’t concern us. What concerns us most is that anyone linked to looting of government money should be brought to book and face the law.

Your PP ma’am has once again performed badly in the by-elections, but that was expected. Your party needs you to steer it in the right direction—that is if you are still interested in the party you abandoned at a time it needed you the most. And, then, there are Malawians who want answers from you on the Cashgate allegations.

JB, come home please? n