Dear Judge Mbadwa,
My Lord, with fuel queues once again snaking along our roads like restless spirits, I see that the cycle of misery has completed its full rotation. I remember very well how this month in 2011 Nyasaland faced an acute shortage of fuel and I am sure Jonah Kapita and his team must be feeling a strange sense of déjà vu.
It wasn’t long ago, my Lord, they were shouting at the Tokha Are Liars’ failings, but now the faces in the high offices have changed back to the ‘old reliables’.
Yes, My Lord, the Mapuya era is back upon us, and with it, the People’s Demagogic Party (PDP). They promised us a return to the glory days, but it seems the only thing that has returned from the past is the fuel crisis and we are celebrating a 15th anniversary with it.
It is a curious thing, My Lord. The PDP logic seems to be that as long as a bag of maize is cheap, the citizen should remain silent. They have given us affordable nsima, but they have removed our ability to travel to the pot. What is the use of cheap maize if the cost of transporting it to the mill, or the cost of the charcoal to cook it, has ascended into the heavens?
As I speak, we have endured two fuel price hikes in a mere seven months. If this is the stability we were promised, then I fear we have mistaken a rollercoaster for a park bench.
Not long ago, water and electricity tariffs were hiked beyond the reach of the urban poor. I fail to fathom the rationale, yet we have regulators whose job seems to be dancing to the sad tunes of utilities while the taps hiss with dry air.
And when it comes to dealing with the shortage, the PDP experts flatter to deceive. They hide in a maze of excuses such as forex, global wars, planetary alignments and anything but their own failure to plan just as it were in the days of Lazaro. If it is not your job to ensure the lifeblood of the economy flows, My Lord, then why are we paying for your salary?
I don’t expect Mapuya to be the only person trying to make things work because honestly his officers seem not to be doing much.
I have a feeling that some officers are abdicating because they find the chaos profitable. It reminds me of the old days when hunger figures were inflated to justify humanitarian billions that eventually grew wings.
My Lord, I am looking for a new generation of altruistic leaders, not the type that is not learning anything but is forgetting everything.
Does this note sound cryptic? Sometimes there is more clarity in the dark during a blackout than in the bright lights of vehicles on a fuel queue.
The citizens deserve better,
Regards,
John Citizen
