By William Gobede

The Office of the Vice President is a constitutional office grounded under section 79 of Malawi

A lot has been said about the entourage of the Vice President Dr Saulos Chilima trip to USA where the President has delegated him on his behalf.

The borne of the contention and the hullabaloo has been the security personnel that has been lined up to accompany him to the USA.

My fellow Malawians, the Office of the Vice President is a constitutional office grounded under section 79 of Malawi.

For purposes of the enlightening each other, am forced to bring the proviso of that section here and it reads:

79. THE VICE-PRESIDENT

There shall be a First Vice-President and, subject to section 80 (5), a Second Vice-President both of whom shall assist the President and who shall exercise the powers and functions conferred on the First Vice-President or the Second Vice-President, as the case may be, by this Constitution or by any Act of Parliament and by the President.

From the above constitutional perspective, one could easily understand that the office was established to assist the President to function properly.

It was therefore, important as well to provide the office with necessary tools.

The Vice President is the principal assistant of the President and he deputises the President in many aspects like chairing the Cabinet when the President is away ; thereby he is execution of the President’s functions. The Vice President performs the functions conferred by the Constitution and any other functions of the President as the Head of State may assign.To provide the President with the support that he needs to govern effectively, the Office of the Vice President was established in the Constitution and other Acts of Parliament so that it gets full support from the people of Malawi.

Matters of Security are of paramount in terms of Presidency in any country. No country in the world has at any point played around with Presidency security detail. Infact I have to blame those who announced the names of the security personnel that is to accompany the Vice President on this important trip. That is being insensitive and putting the life of the Vice President at risk. If it is about politics happening in Tonse Alliance, then we have reached at very bad level. Its stupid politics. I have never seen the security of President Chakwera been published in the papers or being floated on social media platforms.

According to the Presidents’ Salaries and Benefits Act, the Vice President is entitled to one personal bodyguard, one head of security guard, six security guards, two chauffeurs, two cooks and two personal assistants.

Reading the above section, it does not say that whenever the Vice President is traveling outside the country he or she must leave his security team behind. The security of any top government official is paramount. The Act provides for that number. Malawians thought it wise that since the Vice President is a second in command of this country, the office must be assigned with full military forces.

Other offices included on the list are from other government agencies and the President has approved them and someone wakes up in the morning to blame the person who has been delegated to perform the duties of someone. In fact the Vice President is just leading the delegation which the President understands it is wise to do so.

I therefore see no harm in all this. Let the Vice President do the job as conferred by the constitution and Act of Parliament.

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