Make Malawi first
When President Donald Trump came into power as the President of the United States of America, he openly declared that his presidency was about making America first.
Even at one of the African leaders’ forum, some of African presidents agreed with Trump’s idea. President Paul Kagame of Rwanda, who is doing very well in his country, compared to other African leaders, commented that Trump’s statement was a reminder to those leaders, mostly in Africa, who seem to have nothing much to do for their countries to wake up and do the needful by taking charge of their countries and people.
Obviously, some of the African leaders who rely on aid from the United States of America (USA) might have not liked what Trump said. These might have wrongly thought that even bilateral relationship between their countries and America would be stopped.
It is high time the leadership in Malawi took Malawi first. This can even stop the problem of abject poverty from escalating. In fact, when looking at the worsening poverty in the country, one wonders whether the leadership takes Malawi first.
Honestly, Malawi has lost direction as if there is no leader. There is violence at each and every corner of the country. Police officers, though they are law enforcers, seem to have joined the violence band wagon. In the process, people have lost trust in the police. Imagine that recently social media was full of stories of policemen allegedly raping women and girls [at Msundwe in Lilongwe] and recently it has been alleged that a policeman sodomised a taxi driver.
With such stories and many more out there, it will take a miracle for the police to be trusted again. At the moment, the Malawi Defence Force (MDF) is being used to ensure security in the country. This is a temporary solution, which even makes the police look irrelevant. Honestly speaking, there is total disorder when it comes to security and people are living in fear all the time.
For the first time in the history of independent Malawi, people are publicly being hacked to death just for being suspected to be practising witchcraft. Just imagine, public institutions of higher of learning are being set on fire, leading to their indefinite closure.
As if the above is not bad enough, hunger is taking its toll in some parts of the country. This happens every year, with due respect, this is a typical example of the leadership not taking Malawi first. Most people in Malawi are too poor to even afford to buy 20 kilogrammes of staple food, maize. The much talked-about fertiliser/seed coupons for cheap supplies is just a mockery. Sometimes one household gets a bag of fertiliser. It is impossible for one bag of fertiliser to produce enough maize for the whole year. In fact, provision of this so-called cheap fertiliser is just a political gimmick.
Once the present and future leadership take Malawi as their number one priority the problems stated above will be a thing of the past. The first thing the President must do is to learn to listen to the people of Malawi and to show that he is listening—he must be able to come up with solutions as soon as possible. Failing which, Malawi will continue to degenerate into total chaos.
