Chakwera is guilty of handouts, too
On Wednesday last week, President Lazarus Chakwera, finally came out in the open and condemned the habit of relying on subsidies which he said has made many Malawians fail to graduate from poverty. In his speech in Chikwawa, Chakwera said the subsidies such as the Affordable Inputs Programme (AIP) are not meant to be dished out forever, rather, they are meant to act as a springboard that helps the beneficiaries move out of poverty.
Chakwera also rued the habit of relying on handouts. I wouldn’t agree more with the President on this. It is quite disappointing that as a country, we continue to rely not only on subsidies but also on donors, even for something that can easily and quickly be sourced within.
On the issue of handouts, there is no bigger culprit of this than the politicians themselves. President Chakwera, too, is guilty of dishing out handouts at every opportunity he gets. It is these handouts that sometimes make people feel entitled and lazy. Politicians are canny when it comes to handouts. Handouts have been used as bets for votes and to manipulate the poor. Handouts make bad leaders look good or as if they are doing something when in an actual sense, handouts are mere temporal relief from bigger problems.
Take, for instance, the AIP. Even President Chakwera knows that Malawi will not achieve food security because of AIP. While the intention for AIP is really good, this highly politicised programme whose sole reason it still exists to this day is for political reasons, has not achieved its intended goal. While AIP is meant to subsidise the production and in return achieve food security, the country, year in and year out, continues to also subsidise consumption. The perennial hunger that Malawi faces, should by now jilt any sober leader to rethink whether AIP is a programme that government should continue to spend billions of money on or it should be stopped while devising better ways of ensuring food security.
I am glad that finally, President Chakwera agrees with those that have said that the country needs to find an exit strategy for subsidies.
As a country, at 58 years of independence, Malawi also relies on handouts with very little to show for that all it gets. Indeed, handouts, cannot take anyone or the country anywhere. Malawi is the state it is now because the leaders fail to find ways of getting out of overreliance on donors. The aid that Malawi has received since time immemorial has not translated into much tangible development of the country. Just like the subsidies are supposed to help one move out of the present predicament, donor aid should also help a country spring out of poverty. Aid is not meant to be such a permanent occurrence to the extent that the country sits on its laurels waiting for well-wishers to bail it out of every tiny predicament.
If indeed President Chakwera is serious about handouts, let the President lead by example. Stop handing out “free stuff ”.
