So, Second Vice-President Enoch Chihana has been tasked to champion the completion of Mombera University in Mzimba District. Congratulations are in order for Mr Chihana for this assignment. But let us call a spade by its name, not a big spoon. Your brief is not to complete the project because less than 0.1 percent of the work has been done at the site.
You may, however, benefit f rom some important background information about where we have come from as a country on the proposed university.
Mombera University has, at best been used as a campaign tool for each successive government since it was mooted in 2008 by the late president Bingu wa Mutharika. Bingu ‘dreamt’ about this project one year to his re-election bid. He went on to win the elections in 2009 with 65 percent of the votes.
Bingu envisioned the facility to be one of five universities to achieve equitable provision of higher education in the country. The proposed universities were aimed to enable government to abolish the controversial quota system that allocated entry into higher learning institutions not on merit but on one’s place of origin. But Bingu died four years later on April 5 (officially on April 7 2012).
Other proposed universities were: the Malawi University of Science and Technology (Must) and the Lilongwe University of Agriculture and Natural Resources, (Luanar). The latter was not built from scratch as a completely new institution. Bunda College was delinked from University of Malawi to form Luanar which became a separate operational public university.
Other planned universities were: University of Bangula (for cotton research and water resources management), the University of Marine Biology (in Mangochi) and the University of Nkhotakota. These ‘dream’ projects were abandoned after Bingu’s sudden death due to lack of political will by successive administrations. So out of five only Must has materialised.
While the dream for establishing University of Bangula and Marine Biology died, that of Mombera University has kept resurfacing. Wakhate osamunamiza nsapato. And so on March 23 2015 the then president Peter Mutharika even laid a foundation stone on the project’s site in Mzimba. A concrete pillar and a road leading to the site were constructed.
Elections were only three years away.
DPP’s main campaign issue during the court-sanctioned presidential election in June 2020 in the North was construction of the Mombera University. This was the third time government was promising construction of the facility. Earlier, on June 16 2018, during the 19th congregation of Mzuzu University, Mutharika disputed claims that the university project was a white elephant promising there was progress towards construction of the institution.
“We have started with the road network and soon we will move to the construction of the actual university buildings,” he assured the nation.
Said Mutharika: “Some people are saying the North is neglected. I’m very surprised. I’m really surprised. Mombera University, by the end of this month, we will start constructing the buildings, the administration block, lecture rooms and others.”
The then minister of Education Bright Msaka had also assured Parliament at that time that a contractor had been identified and was on site working on the K72 billion project.
A year later, on March 8 2019, the then minister of Finance Goodall Gondwe, now late, told The Nation in an interview that government had set aside K5 billion for the construction of the university.
But Mutharika left office in June 2020 with no single building at the site constructed. Where the K5 billion went is a story for another day.
Fast forward to February 18 2023, the then president Lazarus Chakwera told Parliament in his State of the Nation address that his administration would commence construction of the university during the 2023/24 fiscal year. The MCP administration renamed the facility M’mbelwa University. Construction of two hostels by DEC Construction and Paramount Holdings Limited was underway with the first phase projected to have been completed by June this year. The university was scheduled to open in August 2025, just a month before elections. We all know the story. Construction stalled.
But the only work done so far on the project is a road leading to the site and the leveling of surfaces for the two hostels.
This is where Chihana begins. There have been many false starts for the project and a lot of hot air. Chihana’s brief is to work with the ministries of Education, Public Works and Finance, among others, to ensure the project moves forward.
Ma y b e t h e D P P administration, which mooted the project in the first place, has now come in earnest to execute it. Through the project, Chihana must prove his relevance in the Mutharika’s second-tenure administration. The work is cut out for him. But he should sweat blood not just to ensure the project, now estimated to cost a dizzying K450 billion from K72 billion at inception, is done, he must also push government to ensure the Anti-Corruption Bureau probes previous allegations of funds misappropriation
snhlane@mwnation.com; Cell: 0888833906
