Saulos Chilima is highly skilled — at saying so much that is nothing. He is a master of empty statements.
He does raise public expectations. Ahead of his statement this evening, some Malawians waited with expectation.
But after his statement, they walked away asking why they wasted time watching or listening to him as he gave a statement that has been described as “full of nothingness”.
His empty statement tonight should remind Malawians of many other momentous occasions where expectation was huge but where he disappointed more hugely by giving people nothing.
Two of those occasions come to mind:
JUNE 2018
He holds what is expected to be probably a press conference of the year. He invites almost every media house in the country to the conference. The nation stands still that morning, literally.
He is to announce his stand on DPP presidential candidacy whose campaign he built up for three months.
At the briefing, he fails to impress that he has the political acumen.
He announces he will not contest at the DPP convention. He announces he has resigned from DPP; but he also says he is still in DPP as he is yet to deliver his letter of resignation from the party.
The nation laughs at him for being true to what he had been described to be: “a baby”: Clueless and time wasting.
For the record, to date, he has not yet submitted that letter of resignation from DPP.
AUGUST 2018
His operatives organize for him an interview on the globally rated BBC’s Hardtalk. They want him to market himself to the world.
They world sits to watch, expecting him to demonstrate why he thinks he is better than APM.
The interview turns out to be a colossal failure. He shows ignorance on issues and fails to provide proper answers to the combative and well-, informed Zainab Badawi’s questions.
In an interview of just under 30 minutes, he produces 34 “First and foremost…” phrases as he struggles through his answers.
Top media experts in South Africa call him a charlatan.
Briefly speaking, Chilima has some mental and competence problem. He craves for publicity. But he gives the public nothing.
Aa