President Lazarus Chakwera, yesterday, used the State of the Nation Address (Sona) to validate himself before voters on how much his administration has achieved since taking office in 2020.
But some analysts have expressed mixed reactions towards the Sona with others criticising the President for ignoring in his Sona “the gravity of the country’s challenges”.
The presentation style of the Sona departed from tradition as it provided accounts of major developments delivered in all the districts, an approach some commentators say “demonstrates accountability in use of public funds”.
Reading between the lines of the statement titled ‘Taking our development forward to continue the progress we have delivered’ it was clear the President was not just trying to be accountable but also persuading voters his way ahead of the September 16 General Election.
In his closing statement, the President justified the new approach of the presentation of the Sona, saying he wanted to put the record straight.
Said Chakwera: “Madam Speaker, I have taken long deliberately because this is a House of records and I want it to be on record that this is what I have delivered for the Malawian people in the four years that I have been President, and I believe that I am at peace with God and I have enough trust in the Malawian people that they are fair-minded enough to judge my performance as President by what I have done, not by what other politicians say about me…”
After highlighting the developments, in more than one occasion, the President did not shy away from seeking votes, even without saying so.
“So, to the 86 000 registered voters in Chitipa, I say this: Be ready to hear other parties this year offering to take Chitipa backward, but remember that the reason I am here is to continue taking your development forward,” said Chakwera after outlining his deliverables in Chitipa, which include infrastructure developments, increased recruitment of public officers to enhance service delivery, access to affordable farm inputs, loans and his plan to turn the district into a city which connects three nations; the other two being Zambia and Tanzania.
This was the tone throughout the 104-page address which some analysts say fell short of spelling out what lies ahead and how the administration intends to resolve the current economic quagmire facing the country.
Contrary to popular opinion that this administration is not doing enough to fight corruption, Chakwera boasted about how he has granted the Anti-Corruption Bureau more money, staff and autonomy.
He said as a sign of commitment to fight corruption, he has confronted and dismissed some members of his own party and administration on allegations of corruption.
“…it is the opposition party seated on my left, not my party or Cabinet seated on my right that is keeping individuals in its top leadership who are answering corruption charges,” charged the President, who did not only use the platform to promote his name but also campaigned against his rivals.
Touting himself as an anti-corruption crusader, Chakwera said immediately after taking office, he ordered an audit at the Reserve Bank of Malawi which revealed that under the DPP administration, figures were doctored to prevent Malawians and International Monitory Fund (IMF) from knowing how loans were abused.
He also alleged that just hours before he was declared winner of the court-sanctioned presidential election, leaders of the Central Bank transferred K4 billion into some local bank accounts.
In an interview after Chakwera delivered his Sona, Leader of the House Richard Chimwendo Banda justified the President’s approach to the Sona, saying there was need to provide a detailed account of how government has used public funds.
Asked whether it was not abuse of the platform to campaign for himself, Chimwendo Banda said there was nothing wrong, “after all, the President is a politician and what he stated were matters of fact that he has delivered as promised in 2020”.
Mixed reactions
In an interview Economists Association of Malawi (Ecama) president Bertha Bangara-Chikadza and director general of the National Planning Commission Thomas Munthali, hailed the style of delivering the Sona, saying it makes it easy to follow through on how government has used public funds.
Bangara-Chikadza, who rated the address seven out of 10, said she was impressed to note that the Sona gave a detailed impression of implementation of projects in the districts.
She, however, said she would have loved to hear more on how the Malawi Congress Party-led administration intends to tackle current economic challenges and how government plans to sustain the highlighted gains.
“Since this is the Sona, we hope the budget statement will be clearer in terms of how government responds to prevailing issues and what it will do differently to grow the economy,” said Bangara-Chikadza.
According to Munthali, the Sona brings some fresh air as it highlighted many positive developments.
“Often times we tend to look at the negatives, forgetting that this is a collective effort,” observed Munthali who stressed the need for the upcoming national budget to build on these achievements.
However, he pointed out that Chakwera fell short of outlining how to sustain these gains or provide concrete solutions, possibly because the national budget has yet to be tabled.
On his part, Centre for Human Rights and Rehabilitation executive director Michael Kaiyatsa expressed disappointment, saying: “I was expecting the President to articulate solutions to the social and economic hardships that Malawians are grappling with, but I did not hear about any solutions.”
Kaiyatsa also raised concerns about the Government-to-Government (G2G) arrangement on fuel procurement, which Chakwera did not address in his speech in detail.
There are fears that the G2G arrangement may fuel corruption as more powers have been given to the Ministry of Energy to buy fuel without oversight from PPDA or Parliament,” he added.
Centre for Social Accountability and Transparency executive director Willy Kambwandira was even more critical.
“The Sona has failed to live up to the expectations of Malawians given all the serious problems the country is facing,” Kambwandira said.
He described the current state of the nation as “undeniably gloomy and desperate”, and criticised President Chakwera for ignoring the gravity of the country’s challenges.
“He has delivered a political statement. The reality is that the country is in deep crisis,” he said
In contrast, Malawi Confederation of Chambers of Commerce and Industry chief executive officer Daisy Kambalame found Chakwera’s focus on districts reflective.
“It gave a moment of reflection to see what has been done and the magnitude of what is to be delivered,” she said.
She acknowledged that Chakwera’s speech recognised the pain that Malawians are experiencing.
“It will be interesting to see resolutions on issues such as forex management and how to facilitate manufacturing. She also cautioned government against crowding out the private sector with the G2G fuel procurement arrangement.
