President Lazarus Chakwera has conceded that it has not been easy to deliver on his promises, but urged Malawians to still have hope that better days are coming.
Speaking in Lilongwe yesterday when he presided over the opening of a two-day Global Leadership Summit, the President compared his leadership to that of the biblical Moses who led the Israelites from Egypt toCanaan.
In the run up to the June 23 2020 court-sanctioned fresh presidential election, Chakwera alongside his running mate Saulos Chilima and other Tonse Alliance partners promised to take Malawians to Canaan, an analogy of a better place than the situation in the country at the time.
However, his tenure has been marred by a myriad of challenges, including natural disasters, food shortages and skyrocketing cost of living that has pushed citizens further down the poverty line, forcing the First Citizen to admit that the road to Canaan has not been easy.
Said the President: “The road did not become easy because God has had us travel to Canaan by a longer route than we wanted. And that route has been one paved with the afflictions of hunger, conflict, protests, plagues, and disasters not too dissimilar to those suffered by the Israelites.”
Chakwera said like the Israelites in the wilderness who accused Moses of crimes he never committed and wished him dead, he never imagined such would happen to him until last year.
The President did not elaborate what exactly befell him, but last year he endured ridicule and accusations following the military plane crash on June 10 2024 in Viphya Plantation which killed Vice-President Chilima and eight others.
But despite the challenges, he appealed to Malawians not to return to what he called Egyptians in apparent reference to his predecessor’s regime.
Said the President: “To make matters worse, the Egyptians we escaped from have remained in hot pursuit of us, threatening to take us back into their terrible shackles and agitating and luring the people to return to the days of slavery in exchange for easier times.”
In his remarks, Global Leadership Network Malawi country coordinator Victor Mughogho asked delegates to nurse the hunger for ‘big things’ if they to make impact as leaders.
Making a televised address to the meeting, former United States of America secretary of State in the Condoleeza Rice shared tips of effective leadership which included building trust among the people.
The leadership summit ends today in Lilongwe before the Blantyre leg scheduled for next week.
Nation Publications Limited (NPL) is one of the sponsors of this year’s edition of the summit which also took place in 2023.
