Peter’s survival instinct

Changes sometimes happen quickly, like yesterday morning.

They happened fast for two people—Professor Arthur Peter Mutharika and Saulos Klaus Chilima—and changed their lives for forever.

In one instance!

Wild celebrations had already engulfed Blantyre and other parts of the country on Friday night and yesterday morning as people learned that the Malawi Electoral Commission (MEC) had finally named Mutharika as the winner of the presidential elections held on May 20 2014. The climax was the swearing in ceremony that invested authority in them.

Within hours of announcing the result, Mutharika and his deputy Chilima, drove in style in the thick forests of their adoring supporters, to the Judiciary Complex in Blantyre for a swift, but simple swearing-in ceremony.

It was a great achievement for Mutharika, who spent most of his formative years—like most average Malawians—in the village.

His is at Kamoto Village, located in the flowing savannahs of Chief Chimaliro in Thyolo, one of the tea growing districts of southern Malawi.

Today, Mutharika is a widower for 30 years following the death of his beloved Christophine, a woman from the Caribbean; and a proud father of three children—two girls and a boy—Monique, Moyenda and Mahopela: all of them prominent lawyers in the United States of America.

Prior to joining politics, Mutharika’s professional life has been in academia.

He had been a professor of law at University of Dar es Salaam (Tanzania), Haile Selassie University (Ethiopia), Rutgers University (USA), the United Nations Institute for Training and Research Programme for Foreign Service Officers from Africa and Asia at Makerere University (Uganda) and Washington University (USA).

The politician who entered mainstream politics only five years ago in 2009 as parliamentarian for Thyolo East Constituency and in between 2009 and 2012, held positions of Minister of Justice, Minister for Education, Science and Technology and Minister of Foreign Affairs between, has fought his way to the top—literally.

His determination paid off—spectacularly, if not controversially.

Yesterday, after asking his God to help him at the conclusion of his oath of office, he became the fifth President of the Republic of Malawi and earned himself yet another prefix to his already long name: His Excellency the State President.

On his right hand is the much younger Chilima, a well regarded business executive for decades.

Only two months ago, he was managing director of a $ 160 million (around K62 billion) turnover and a 231-employee company—Airtel Malawi.

With one of the shortest stints in mainstream and top drawer politics before hitting the jack pot yesterday, Chilima, with a wealthy background in Ntcheu and Lilongwe, also became the fifth Vice-President of the Republic and the youngest ever in that position.

Declared winners of one of the closest presidential elections to remember only 12- hours earlier, when they were ordinary politicians and party leaders, suddenly Mutharika and Chilima were men possessing the title deeds of State power—it happened with lightning speed.

They did not succeed to shroud it in the modesty of the airs they put on at the swearing in ceremony, held in the Judicature Complex in Blantyre, nor by the personal transport that they used to the event.

The motorcade of police motor bikes, complete with the heaviness of security presence, that sandwiched their private cars, accompanied by the wailing of sirens and flickering of lights, confirmed the shift that power had taken.

It marked the end of the road for the second female President on the African continent and one Noel Masangwi, a member of the DPP politburo, might be thumping the air with a sense of vindication that he was probably right when he made one of the most controversial remarks of the time: that Malawi was not ready for a female President.

Having benefitted from the former president Bingu wa Mutharika’s death to ascend to power, Joyce Banda failed to defend her “chance” presidency at the polls.

The wild partying by the DPP supporters attest to the relief they may be feeling that probably the weight of their troubles in the opposition has been lifted.

But the challenges besetting the nation are just lurking at the corner. Now, there lies real leadership.