No, not again Madam President!

Honourable Folks, so JB is to be the patron of some sort of “mulhako” for her Yao tribe! What’s wrong with this country that its leaders can slavishly ascribe to the Machiavellian thinking that in politics the end justifies the means?

Great nationalists of the pre-independence days, including Yaos such as Frederick Sangala and Ellerton Mposa, would be turning in their graves now that for sheer political expediency or lack of historical perspective, the one strong native tribe of Nyasas they worked so hard to build—and which was the envy of settlers in Rhodesia and other natives in the entire southern African region—is being destroyed by latter day politicians.

Mulhako was so divisive and we all, including JB, know that. In fact, some of the hasty and costly dismissals from key positions in the public sector made by the JB administration were meant to purge the system of staff perceived to be so partisan that their loyalty to the new government could be questionable. Why burden us with another equally bankrupt system?

Malawi is one country and it belongs to all of us, Malawians. As such, our leader must rise above tribal affinities—whatever their merit—and be seen to equally belong to all Malawians, including those who voted for the opposition.

The isolated cases we’ve so far seen of people agitating for greater regional autonomy or a federal system of government should serve as a reminder that even without politicising tribal groupings, some people already feel frustrated with a system that seems to give presidential candidates from the more populous regions an unfair advantage over others.

Institutionalising tribalism can only make things worse. The former president Bingu wa Mutharika aligned himself more with the Lhomwe in the name of embracing his cultural heritage, but we all can learn from his reign the lesson that celebrating one’s ethnic affiliations is a pastime best enjoyed when one hasn’t worn the presidential coat.

The other day, MP Bofomo Nyirenda surprised even some traditional leaders in his home district when he sought recourse to history and argued in Parliament that Mzimba and Malawi are partners in development, implying that Mzimba and Malawi are separate entities. What provoked that weird thinking is a bill which states that all land belongs to the State, a statement some chiefs fear will erode their authority.

To help Nyirenda calm down, the President must lead the rest of us in proving that we are one nation with one president, one flag, one anthem and that every inch of our country belongs to all of us equally and is worth dying for. Actions that promote tribal sentiments militate against the interest of being united as one nation.

In 1994 the people of Malawi voted along the tribal/regional lines. The South identified with UDF’s Bakili Muluzi from Machinga, the Centre with MCP’s Kamuzu Banda from Kasungu, and the North with Aford’s Chakufwa Chihana from Rumphi.

In 2009, DPP with a Lhomwe from Thyolo as its president and a Yao from Zomba as a running-mate managed to cut across regional and tribal lines, amassing votes across the length and width of the country. Unfortunately, instead of building on the gains, Mutharika betrayed the trust of many voters by favouring his tribe.

Should she copy Mutharika’s warped model of stronghold based on ethnic allegiance, JB would not only be denigrating a voter initiative to ditch wakumangwetu syndrome that catapulted her to power but would also be rendering herself vulnerable to unnecessary blackmail.

Her predecessor may have yielded blind loyalty from Mulhako wa Alhomwe but at what price? To give the loyalists a feel that government belonged to the tribe, Mutharika ensured that the Lhomwe dominated in his Cabinet, civil service and statutory corporations.

Some without capital were helped to beat the system and acquire foreign exchange in millions of US dollars to import fertiliser and sell it to government for the subsidy programme. Others were helped to get huge unsecured bank loans for the procurement of goods and service which they, in turn, sold to the same government.

You have to be a foreigner from Mars to fail to see the damage the perception that Mutharika favoured Mulhako caused to the interest of nation building.