Opposition political parties in Parliament have described President Lazarus Chakwera’s State of the Nation Address (Sona) as a missed opportunity, stating that it portrayed the President as detached from reality.
In separate interviews, the parties note that the President missed an opportunity to address issues of persistent forex and fuel shortages, hunger and the skyrocketing cost of living and outline his administration’s strategies to resolve the problems.
Leader of Opposition in Parliament George Chaponda described the Sona as a campaign speech that has failed to tackle national issues.
He said Malawi is hard-hit by hunger and people are suffering, but the President missed the opportunity to address the issue of hunger.
Said Chaponda: “At the forefront now is the issue of hunger. Admarc depots do not have maize and the price of maize is skyrocketing. People in the villages are suffering, they don’t have maize.
“During this lean season is when you expect government to intensify relief distribution. In the Democratic Progressive Party [DPP] administration, this is the time that people were being given maize, rice, cooking oil in their villages, but we have not seen this. People were doing food for work projects, which is not the case now.”
He said the Sona was an opportunity for the President to address the worsening forex shortage and inflation as Malawians are experiencing the skyrocketing of prices of goods.
“People cannot access forex in the banks and they have resorted to seeking forex on the black market. The black market is now controlling the economy and leading to the rise in prices of commodities,” said Chaponda.
In a separate interview, United Democratic Front (UDF) leader in Parliament Ned Poya described the Sona as “a constituency statement” that is out of touch with developments in constituencies.
He said the President should have utilised the space to inform Malawians about the status of fuel, hunger and forex shortage and what his government is doing to resolve such problems.
Said Poya: “There is no way the President could avoid commenting on the status of the economy at this point in time.
“To say the truth, this was a missed opportunity by the President. This is a space provided for presidents to articulate issues that the country is facing, the economic status of the country and this is in the Constitution, there is a provision, Section 89(3).”
He wondered if the President has dumped the Agriculture, Tourism and Mining (ATM) strategy to drive economic growth and recovery, noting that there was no mention of progress being made in the megafarms and how much the country is able to export.
Poya also observed that the nation expected an update on the progress in the mining sector, including the Kasiya Rutile Project and what the country is expected to benefit as a means of generating forex.
“But what he has done is like he is at an interview for people to re-employ him instead of showing Malawians that he is employed and he is supposed to deliver,” he said.
On his part, People’s Party (PP) secretary general Ben Chakhame said the President has failed to provide solutions to the persistent forex shortage, persistent hunger and skyrocketing of prices for items in the country.
He said PP is worried about whether the President is indeed in control and know the state of affairs in the country. He said the president does not deserve another term.
UTM Party, in a statement issued yesterday, described the Sona as a desperate attempt to mask incompetence, mismanagement and a trail of broken promises with empty rhetoric.
The statement noted that the Sona shows that the President is disconnected from the suffering of Malawians, adding Malawi is in a worse situation than when Chakwera took over presidency in 2020.
Reads in part the statement: “For over 1 684 days, President Dr Chakwera and his government have failed to lead. Instead of making life better for Malawians, they have excelled in making excuses—blaming Covid-19, the war in Ukraine, past administrations, and even labelling critics as enemies.
“It is time for the President to honour his promise in which he vowed to step down if he fails to fix the country in the first two years of his rule.”
Political analyst George Chaima, an expert in government, public planning and international policy, shared the opposition parties’ sentiments that the President missed an opportunity.
He said the President failed to side with Malawians on the economic challenges that they are going through but also providing a roadmap on addressing the challenges.
Chaima alleged that the President is often misled by people he trusts.
He said: “The fact that those people he relies upon have brought a lie before his table then definitely his eyes are blind because he cannot see exactly what is on the ground.
“If the President does not actually know what is on the ground, it might be difficult for him to offer a solution to the challenges Malawians are facing. If a president receives a lie on the table, it is the same lie he will bring to the nation and as result, this will bring unnecessary embarrassment to the president.”
The President on Friday delivered the Sona in which he mostly focused on projects that his administration has done in districts across the country. The projects ranged from education, health, agriculture, security to telecommunications.
