October 12 2022

As I am writing, a fuel crisis is before us. As I write, President Lazarus Chakwera is in the Lower Shire where he is touring several projects.

Just yesterday, the President opened the Phalombe District Hospital. And, just yesterday, the Parliamentary Committee on Agriculture expressed worry that Chakwera is saying nothing on the Agriculture Inputs Programme (AIP) for this year.

These are the contradictions that take away our beloved leader’s saintly glow that he exudes every time he talks.

Here is why: It is a contradiction that with long lines of cars queuing to fill up at gas station, the President gets on trips that are a drain on resources. These are important projects, but it is quite an insult to make such trips when people are suffering.

Where ever the President goes, there is a whole entourage travelling with him. These friends and technocrats obviously need food, accommodation and fuel as they go about disserving the nation. For that matter, one rests assured that the cars they use are guzzlers.

Get it right there; it’s not that the fuel that has been consumed by the President and his men could have been sold to one or two Malawians who are now feeling as great achievers every time they manage to get fuel. The thing is, Chakwera has often advocated for austerity measures and this doesn’t scent like it.

Speaking after the agriculture committee failed to meet Ministry of Agriculture officials, chairperson Sameer Suleman expressed worry on the AIP issue. The ministry’s public relations officer Gracian Lungu said the ministry could not talk on the issue now. Minister Lobin Lowe could not be reached on the phone, while Information Minister Gospel Kazako said he had to consult Lowe.

This led to Suleman say as government officials chose to dilly-dally on an important matter of checks and balances, the committee was left with nothing but believe, for now, the rumours doing rounds that K30 billion of the K109 billion set aside for the AIP has grown wings.

The matter is complicated further because the money that has allegedly vanished is the same amount that has been used to build the 250-bed Phalombe hospital. To compound matters further, Chakwera said when he opened the hospital, that development is failing to take off because of theft and corruption. Bundle of contradictions.

Eyebrows must be raised on the AIP this year. The rain clouds are gathering and the farmers are out in the field to prepare the land, yet there is no AIP fertiliser in near site.

With the fuel crisis, it is surprising how that fertiliser is going to be transported to the areas where people need it. Without fuel shortages, it was a hustle to get fertilisers into the villages, what more with the scarcity on our heads?

The bundle of contradictions is not over yet. Distribution of fertiliser was mostly done by the Agricultural Development and Marketing Corporation (Admarc). The Chakwera administration has since stalled Admarc operations. This is just as strange as strange can be.

That people’s trust in the system is being eroded by the day is self-evident. With all these contradictions, how are we expected to respect a leadership that fails to compute how much was spent on the trip to the United Nations General Assembly? Time is a vagrant in so much of a hurry that the spirit of the Tonse Alliance has come out in the open that it is nothing but caring and accountable for the people of Malawi.

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