By: Lloyd M’bwana
The main opposition Malawi Congress Party (MCP) through its Spokesperson Dr. Jessie Kabwira has asked President Peter Mutharika to step down for accepting that the country was broke in baling out Malawians from social-economic challenges going through.
This comes barely two days after President Mutharika asked MCP to apologise for questioning the large entourage that accompanied him to the just ended two weeks United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) which was held in New York in USA.
An emotionally-charged Peter Mutharika at his news conference on Thursday, October 8, demanded an apology from the party saying it exaggerated President’s entourage to UNGA which government has denied that some delegates were funded by UN agencies.
But through the press briefing held on Saturday, October 10 in the capital Lilongwe, MCP has fired back at President Peter Mutharika saying the party will never apologize to anyone instead its it was him who was supposed to seek forgiveness from the public for the embarrassment he made due to extravagance usage of tax-payers money for summit.
Dr Kabwira accused Mutharika for insulting Malawians that was not in power to steal from them as he has enough cash in his personal bank accounts in the USA where he worked for over 40 years.
“MCP will never apologize to anyone on what it stood for poor that their taxes were used wrongly however, instead its him, Mutharika, needs to say sorry to Malawians for an embarrassment shown to UN Summit due to large entourage accompanied him which surpassing any country’s delegates number.
“With our own findings, records from UN offices in New York revealed that Malawi had large number of delegates with 116 while other African countries including Sierra Leon and Madagascar sent 80 and 70 delegates respectively. Thus, Malawi government must publish the list of people who attended the summit with their sponsors to challenge our claims within five days otherwise we will take what Malawians want us to do if they fail”, demands Dr Kabwira.
The party said Mutharika’ acceptance that his government is broke, was a sign of failure to bail out Malawians from social-economic challenges going through which was enough reasons for the president to resign.
“By accepting that the country don’t have money under his watch while on the other side the President is extravagantly spending huge sums of money meant for the poor, it’s a true reflection that he has failed to rule this nation, therefore, Mutharika must resign to hand over leadership to those who can ably transact the state’s machinery with trust from the general public.
“Surprisingly, he challenged us that he has a lot of money in his personal bank accounts which we believe isn’t the truth because if he indeed had enough cash why did he firstly raised his salary by 80% within three months after he took reins of power? If he is rich
enough, why still clinging to use chartered plane and challenged to do so in future? If the president has money, why can’t he share with Malawians who are unable to access better health care service? Why can he use the money to bail Escom from unstoppable blackouts? This just shows how naïve and desperate the President Mutharika is to mislead the nation.
“MCP won’t stop tracking down impunities the DPP leadership is demonstrating because it’s the only party Malawians have hope for social-economic transformation. It’s in this regards that the party will push for good governance and provision better services. Our
people should have good health care services, roads networks, electricity all day long, portable water and equal access to education”, says Dr. Kabwira.
On Mutharika’s media attack, Dr Kabwira said it was unacceptable for him to single out one particular media house (Zodiak Broadcasting Station) accusing it sensationalizing the chartered plane the President used to UNGA saying such remarks were diminishing the role of the fourth arm of government which plays watchdog functions.
“Attacking the media is uncalled for and unacceptable in this democratic era. This is the same tendency his late brother was doing to the press and the academic freedom. We condemn him in strongest terms for castigating media, civil society that without these grouping the nation is doom”, challenges Dr. Kabwira.
