It was not a stress-free boulevard, there were a lot of miseries, political blockages from the DPP competitors which made the bid so coarse, marred with dogmatic persecution, elusive centred politics directed at filibustering his bid, and surely, it was a tit for tat election and strongly contested ever in the history of Malawi.
Accord, adoration, sacrifice, congruence, emphasis and harmonized efforts can better label how the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) hoisted in solidarity with one common objective; bouncing back into power to claim the lost splendour and liberate Malawi from the wicked regime it was with Joyce Banda.
There had been on numerous occurrences attempts to stop Mutharika either by arresting him or using the green card issue which just surfaced over sudden but to no effect.
Even when votes were casted, there were efforts to nullify the results when those that were in power sensed that the election after-effects were hardly t in their favour. The Nation waited tolerantly to see who their next President was, even though the period was sensationalized by Joyce Banda with her cohorts , trying one trick after the other as well as quoting wrong brackets from the same constitution she was supposed to protect and defend at all times.
Tactlessly, JB was not that shrewd as she miscarried to rape the constitution and pickpocket the triumph which was for Arthur Peter Mutharika and Democratic Progressive Party.
When the day came that APM was to take control and handled over the sword of power. We all know that the political heavyweights gathered at Kamuzu Stadium to congratulate Arthur Peter Mutharika, unexpectedly, the woman who suffered the election fate than anyone else and was the holder of the sword was nowhere to be seen.
Since this day, Joyce Banda has being living in abjuration. As for the President Peter Mutharika, on numerous occasions he has articulated to have extended his olive branch to her but she has failed to accept it.
On the other side of the coin, the bid was successful for DPP but for a start. It was not an unpretentious task for President Peter Mutharika to take over headship from a regime which had blustered away billions of tax payers’ and donors money in cash gate scandal, a development which forced the donor community to desert Malawi from the budgetary support she was enjoying from them.
This meant two things for Mutharika and his administration. Either to adopt a zero aid budget he promised and progress or have nothing and fail. It was such a difficult litmus test to start his presidency from.
Mutharika’s administration introduced several reforms to deal with excessive cost which were avoidable. Some of them included having a lean cabinet, withdrawing some vehicles from cabinet ministers, reducing the number of staff that accompanies him when he is travelling from his plot number one. This worked but still a commoner faced some challenges just as the government did to meet ends.
At this same time, the donor community was rigid to start disbursing funds to Malawi, as they were not so sure if their money would be used prudently or wasted like manna and never help to improve the living standard of the rural masses which are hugely affected by poverty levels.
Despite the fact that the opposition parties and the CSO’s were aware of the glitches that this country was going through parsimoniously, some of them started escalating pressure on Mutharika to step down when the civil service demanded a pay rise which saw strikes in some government departments and other arms of government.
Everyone knew that this country had lost its major donors and it was not that easy for our needs to be met in a space of few months when the Mutharika leadership was trying to put the house in order and setting aside financial reforms which would give confidence in our development partners that cash gate would never happen and the levels of corruption slowed down.
The president pleaded with Malawians that his government was doing everything to put things back on track, the Minister of Finance on the other hand assured the masses that with what government had put in place, he was sure that donors would resume aid as the confidence they were looking for was restored back.
Within his one year of office, Mutharika has managed to fulfil some of his promises such as the launch of community colleges, the public service reform, lean cabinet, and grand breaking ceremony for some infrastructure development, dealing with cash gate related cases, restoring the donors confidence, the launching of Decent and Affordable Housing scheme as well as being the office man as he promised.
As Mutharika is entering in his second year of presidency, his government must make sure that it delivers and stick to what it promised. If the donors resume aid, fiscal discipline must be exercised. The president must also make sure that his party is strengthened at grassroots level and his partnership with the private sector must be maintained as these are the major economic players.
Otherwise, kudos to the president for the spending performance in his first year of office despite few challenges that needs to be addressed as well.