By Sylvester Ayuba James
Last time, during the right of opposition Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), when Nicolas Dausi was quizzed about the President lying to the nation on development projects, his answer was that the President does not lie, but he just commits an error of linguistic exactitude.
The whole presidency cannot lie. To him, ‘lying’ is too offensive and demeaning a word to use against the presidency.
Well, whether the whole President can lie or not, where he claims to have achieved something that is not there it must upset us all.
We must be worried. And it must no longer be blasphemous to say the President lied.
So as turns out, President Chakwera said a lot of things which are not there. For me, whatever it is, whether a lie or an error of linguistic exactitude, it is embarrassing. And I refuse to believe that it is accidental. That long recount of premeditated lies can never be anything accidental.
The only question to which I have no answer is whether or not President Chakwera was also consciously aware that some of those projects he spoke so proudly about are either non-existent or unaccomplished. If he was, that is a grave mistake. It is, to say the very least, one unpresidential thing to do.
But if the President says he was not aware and was just, purposefully or mistakenly, made to feast on lies and fabrications, we can only believe him if certain individuals that he hired around him are fired by him for dragging his otherwise holy house into this dung.
There are just no two ways about it. The President cannot disown this and still owns the architects of it.
In my private conversations about quality of leadership, I have always maintained that the quality of any leader is reflected in the people he appoints to surround him and in how much he tolerates their mischievous adventures that have a bearing on the integrity of his office.
This far, President Chakwera is known for being afraid of disappointing his friends by firing them, with only one exception.
It seems the President is so loyal to his errant men and women that he would rather have the whole ship list and take in water with everyone on board than relieve it of the burden of the appointed few.
However the President deals with this scandal, it is very embarrassing. It’s not something we must all frown at.
The President should have minded taking us back to the days of Peter Mutharika when he repeatedly lied to the nation that DPP had built 15, 000 security agents’ houses when none of them had been erected, despite the National Assembly constantly funding the project for some years.
He cannot sink so low to the level of DPP and Mutharika. It’s sad. It is disgusting.
Disclaimer: The views expressed in the article are those of the author not necessarily of The Maravi Post or Editor
