BY DAVIE DAN MCHINGA

President Lazarus Chakwera hired inarguably Malawi’s best television talkshow host Brian Banda after winning the Fresh Presidential Election in 2020 to be State House spokesperson.

Mr. Banda had previously served in this capacity during the Joyce Banda administration that spanned from 2012-2014 when President Bingu wa Mutharika died while serving his last term of office.

Just like most Malawians, Mr. Banda was critical against the Peter Mutharika led administration and that was branded as an enemy to the government.

Now his hiring to serve in the Office of The President as a public information handler, gave hope to Malawians that things would be better given his track record and the rosy promises the President had made.

Credit should be given to him and the communication team who made sure that State House opened its doors not only to the media houses but also to citizenry through Weekly Briefings.

This gave a rare opportunity to journalists to ask candid, unscripted as well as hard hard-hitting questions on how the President was managing the affairs of the State.

However, there were some incidences where Mr. Banda would plunge himself in some controversy.

In May 2021, Mr. Banda told Malawians that President Chakwera would appoint a new cabinet at the end of the month but it just went in vain.

In one of the briefings in July 2021, Mr. Banda openly defended President Chakwera on his appointment of his daughter Violet, as a diplomat but President contradicted with him later in a BBC Hard Talk interview.

Mr. Banda said the President had made over 2,000 appointments and it was unfair for people to make such a conclusion based on a single appointment.

In what may be called Mr. Banda’s last briefing when he was leaving for studies in China last year, he called on journalists in Malawi to be accurate in their reporting.

Certainly, he made these sentiments following a backlash at his public announcements which blatantly contradicted the President’s own remarks.

This week, Mr. Banda’s former employer, Times Group, fervently welcomed him back. The public has also welcomed with mixed reactions as well.

In Thursday’s Times TV’s Kwagwanji, Mr. Banda took a swipe at his former employer, Malawi Government under the Tonse Alliance. This has reminded viewers of Mr. Banda’s straight-talking journalism.

This however, would sound hypocritical to a rational thinking individual by looking at the sudden change of mind and heart of Mr. Banda towards his former employer.

One wonders as to when Mr. Banda has realized that Malawians are suffering at the hands of his former employer when he was in the forefront defending it?

Again, it begs a question that: did it take him leave State to realize that the cost of living is skyrocketing? Should we take such pronouncements as done in good faith or ill-will?

Sympathizing with Malawians is not wrong. But it would have made more sense if Mr. Banda had done that when he was right within the achelons of power.

In the USA, Sean Spicer, White House press secretary resigned from his position in 2017 after disagreeing with his boss President Donald Trump on certain administrative issues.

This symbolized courage that an individual can forgo all the goodies at the expense of protecting ones own integrity as well as professional values.

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