Which ‘well-wisher’ is footing the President’s endless flights?

Honourable folks, I was one of the millions of people across the world glued to their TV sets on Tuesday to watch the Nelson Mandela memorial. It took no effort to spot President Joyce Banda as she made her entry to be among the over 70 world leaders and more than 95 000 people from all walks of life who gathered at the FNB Stadium to pay tribute to the first South African black president.

The world came to a standstill to celebrate the life and times of one of the greatest Africans in this day and age. Or, as fellow anti-apartheid devotee Archbishop Desmond Tutu would have it, a great global icon.

While words from the touching eulogies by leaders such as Barrack Obama, who called Mandela a ‘giant of history’, were sinking in our hearts, we heard the news that JB would not be catching the next flight home, as she was on her way to Kenya to attend that country’s independence. From Kenya, we were told, she would step a foot in Malawi, before flying back to South Africa for Mandela’s burial tomorrow.

When State House was asked to justify such an exuberant itinerary, the spin doctors told the rest of us not to fret, as JB’s trip was fully-funded by well-wishers.

Mandela was a colossal global icon. His relentless fight against the evils of apartheid, the pain and torture he suffered under his persecutors from Robin Island for 27 solid years, his becoming president in 1994 and opting not to seek re-election when his term in office expired in 1999, his working with his oppressors for reconciliation are written on the solid rock of world history for all to see. It is no wonder, then, that presidents like JB would try everything in their book to go and witness the burial.

The mind-bogging question though is: Who is this well-wisher bank-rolling JB’s globe-trotting?

At the moment, Malawi is going through real hard economic patch. As we are talking, most civil servants have not yet got their November perks and from some corner of the world, JB told them she was giving them a Christmas package—three weeks’ leave. She did not say, however, how she would ensure the civil servants would have food on their tables during the festive season.

While JB is gallivanting, Malawians are still waiting for answers on why there are no drugs in the hospital, why the taps are forever dry, why power supply is highly erratic yet exorbitant, why nobody seems to show any political clout that they are in control. Indeed, we are still asking what really happened for millions of kwacha to be found stashed in car boots at Capital Hill when Malawians are sinking in the mire of poverty.

What kind of a well-wisher, then, is this who pays for JB’s trips abroad when her people need her in her office at Capital Hill to solve problems the country is facing?

I have no doubt this so-called well-wisher does not wish JB well. Neither does he wish Malawi well. If at all they wished JB or the republic well, they would have been part of the solutions to the quandary we are in, not aggravating it.

What are Malawians getting from these trips? How much is going into the chartering of planes, paying for expensive presidential suites and sumptuous food for JB and her entourage?

As we await the answers, we hear Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he was not attending Mandela’s funeral as he would need US$2 million to do so. That is, in spite of his country’s economy being one of the world’s largest.

It is leaders like JB who make us shed heavy tears for Mandela, that giant of history, a secular saint who stood on the side of justice not just in his fierce fighting times but even when he was at the zenith of power, which has corrupted many.