My lord,
You have borne witness to the ever-spinning merry-go-round of political fortunes in Nyasaland. One moment, the Cockerel crows triumphantly atop the hill; the next, it’s plucked and tossed into the stew of electoral defeat. Lazaro, once the darling of reformist rhetoric, has now exited stage left, not merely due to economic mismanagement, but thanks in no small part to the toxic meddling of his presidential handlers.
Let us not mince words, my lord. The fall of Lazaro deserves a full autopsy and when the scalpel of scrutiny is applied, the fingerprints of his handlers will be found all over the corpse of his presidency.
From the outset, Lazaro’s tenure was riddled with bizarre decisions and public gaffes that left citizens scratching their heads and economists reaching for aspirin. It became painfully clear that the man entrusted with the highest office was either poorly advised or deliberately kept in the dark. Indeed, by his own admission, as I once argued in a previous letter to your esteemed tribunal — major developments were unfolding without his knowledge or consent, a troubling sign for any leader worth the title “first citizen.”
Take, for instance, the arrest of Marita, the affable Director General of the Nyasaland Bureau of Corporation who was thrown to the wolves without much courtesy. Or the infamous fertiliser deal awarded to a butcher! yes, a butcher, my lord as if the procurement office had mistaken agriculture for abattoir management.
Time and again, Lazaro appeared stunned by events happening under his very nose. His handlers, it seems, were not just gatekeepers but gatecrashers, barging into domains they had no business managing. Either they were feeding him selective information or exploiting his crisis-handling paralysis to push their own agendas.
Truth be told, my lord, Lazaro’s response to crises was nothing short of dismal. And while it’s tempting to heap all blame on the handlers, the man himself must shoulder responsibility for surrounding himself with a chorus of incompetence. Conventional wisdom reminds us: the strength of a leader’s counsel is only as good as the calibre of those he chooses to listen to.
We can only deduce that Lazaro’s infamous flip-flopping on critical issues was the result of handlers viewing national matters through partisan kaleidoscopes; smoky, self-serving prisms that distorted reality and sabotaged sound judgment.
Let us not forget, my lord, that your tribunal once entertained a motion to dismiss these very handlers for tarnishing Lazaro’s reputation. He had ascended to power with the promise of sweeping away the rot left by Mapuya’s reign. Instead, his own team began mopping up with dirty rags, leaving behind a trail of embarrassment and dysfunction.
The Money Bill saga was our first red flag. But the handlers pressed on, dragging the presidency through one scandal after another, all while enjoying the blessings of their boss and the generous purse of the taxpayer.
Now that Lazaro has been shown the exit and Mapuya has returned to the helm, we can only hope that the People’s Demagogic Party has learned from history and will not repeat the tragic comedy of handler mismanagement.
As for why Nyasaland rebooted the system and reinstalled Mapuya after his 2020 ejection. That, my lord, is a tale for next week’s column.
But for today, let the message ring clear: To the victor; beware the virulent handlers. They come cloaked in loyalty but leave behind ruin.
Yours in civic vigilance,
John Citizen
