To travel to Belgium or Liberia

I am writing this piece when I have just returned from an official, call it business if you will, trip from Lilongwe. I live in Blantyre. Now, this business trip included myself as the main actor (mwinifilimu), an administrative officer, an accounting officer (because at the meeting, money needed to exchange hands) and a driver (because none other than a designated driver can driver an official vehicle.)

So, my entourage comprised four people, the three to support my business. Now, there was no need for me to have guns loaded and ready to fire when they thought my life was in danger. I ordered my own food, no one needed to guard my hotel room when I was away, no one was answering my phones while I was busy in meetings, no one was guarding the vehicle when the driver went to bed and nobody was guarding the elevators to my hotel floor 24/7. Even me had three ‘support’ personnel; what more with the president?

Let me tell you my favourite quote for the month of October 2012. Although I am writing this before the end of the month (of October 2012), I doubt anything else will come up which will supersede this quote I have gotten from my friend Mr Steve Nhlane: “All our development partners (donors) are happy with the way government is handling things. I wonder why is it Malawians who seem not to see government effort.”

Nhlane is right in many respects. The donors, in general, are yet to join criticising the PP government. In fact, when Joyce Banda (JB) went to the US and blew money that would pay fees for 6 000 university students, the US ambassador supported her. After all, JB spent the money in New York and elsewhere there. It would have been suicidal back home for an envoy here to speak as if she was against tourists visiting her country. The US was K308 million richer by hosting JB. Who can complain?

When JB’s Cabinet ministers were accused of hanging on to Mercs, the Germany ambassador came to the rescue. Now Mercs are Germany made. What would Daimler AG back home in Germany have thought about such an envoy if he criticised the use of luxurious vehicles? Similarly, when the trip to Belgium was criticised by the people of Malawi (some, not all), the European Union envoy was handy supporting JB about the need for such a trip.

Personally, I do not take a blanket approach to the President’s travel and categorise them as bad for the country. I do not know every consideration that the President makes for her to accept to go on a trip. However, two trips I can say without fear of contradiction that I was irked about. When the President travelled to Liberia and said that she was wooing investors, I thought that was an overstatement. Secondly, when the President went to Nigeria straight from Liberia, I found that was dishonest or risky, security-wise.

The President said that she only learnt about the Nigerian trip just a few days before and she want. Presidential trips must be accompanied by weeks of intelligence and spying!