Of APM and 2025 elections
Folks, former president Arthur Peter Mutharika (APM) finally let the cat out of the bag by publicly declaring his desire to bounce back in the 2025 General Elections to address countless problems Malawians are facing under the current regime.
The opposition Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) president declared this during this year’s Mulhako wa Alhomwe cultural festival at Chonde in Mulanje on Sunday, saying most Malawians have become poor under the stewardship of President Lazarus Chakwera due to the continued skyrocketing prices of goods and services in the country.
In his speech, APM—who was the guest of honour—said so many things on politics, the economy and governance, among others, including claims that the current regime wants to take away all the economic activities from the Southern Region to the Central Region to impoverish southerners.
He specifically condemned the government’s relocation of headquarters of some government ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) from Blantyre to Lilongwe and told patrons that he will bring back all those that have been “stolen from Southern Region to Central Region” when he returns to the presidency in 2025.
Mutharika also said since his DPP was booted out of government in the court-sanctioned 2020 fresh presidential elections, prices of goods and services have been on the rise.
His outbursts on Sunday were marked by excessive confidence of his victory in 2025, which makes some of us wonder why the o’l man and his political disciples are firmly trusting that he will win the next elections and return to State House.
It is an open secret that Malawians are suffering now on their way to Canaan under Chakwera’s stewardship, and probably this is why the former president thinks he is a better devil today and can convince Malawians to vote for him again.
If you asked me personally, I would tell you that if APM thinks that he can be an alternative to Chakwera or indeed carry hopes for the majority of Malawians for a better future from 2025 onwards, then he is cheating himself.
Former president Bakili Muluzi once said Malawians forget easily, but I doubt they have already forgotten the pain and suffering they endured under APM’s rule.
We also all know APM’s downfall centred on his administration’s outward tolerance for corruption, nepotism, insecurity and human rights violations amplified by DPP cadets who unleashed beatings, harassment, intimidation and any other kind of violence on those with contrary views.
And dislodging that deeply entrenched ‘system’ was not a walkover for Malawians. It took some divine intervention followed by the formation of Tonse Alliance to kick out Mutharika from office.
So, APM cannot just wake up today and start saying things that will happen or that he will do when he takes over the government in two years’ time as if that will happen on a silver platter. In fact, he has to win at the DPP convention first before he begins his politics for the 2025 presidential race.
The hard part for him is that the DPP is still busy fighting internally as the time ticks towards the next elections.
Folks, I also said the other day that the DPP has no leader currently, that is why it lacks a master who can unify it into one formidable force that should not only participate in the next general election with the hope of forming the next government.
I will say again… APM has done nothing concrete to resolve the fighting in his party and the problem with doing literally nothing about these bloody fights and political bickering is that they are slowly getting out of hand and confusing party followers.
I repeat, it is only Mutharika who holds the keys to DPP’s fate in 2025, but that does not automatically make him a winner in the polls.
