So there is no love lost between Rev. Dr. Lazarus Chakwera and Chief Justice (emeritus) Lovemore Munlo.
The cleric-turned-politician got a ringing endorsement to lead the oldest party in the land last August but the former head of the bench gave him a run for his money.
When the convention gave the newly-elected president and his elected executive free hand to fill the vacant posts in the National Executive Committee one would have thought Munlo, coming a strong second, would have been earmarked for a big post.
But, by offering him nothing, Chakwera displayed vindictive traits, not a good attribute for a man who has just traded the pulpit for the podium.
Munlo was right to reject Chakwera’s latter overtures because it was an insult to treat someone who came a strong second as an ‘afterthought’.
Chakwera was faulted publicly by the likes of Joseph Njobvuyalema for his failure to mix the old and the new when he hired his NEC. In fact his failure to keep the whole Secretary General in his fold showed Abusa still has to learn his ropes in politics.
That Chakwera is a rookie to politics is in no doubt. But he could have risen on the crest of the frustrations people have with our traditional politicians to book his one-way ticket to Kamuzu Palace.
But he seems not to have a winning strategy. I mean, Abusa should have been cognizant of the fact that he leads a party weighed down by chequered history. He should have tried to cut a figure that he is indeed the harbinger for change.
Failing to read the politics by ignoring the likes of Munlo and other old hands in the MCP shows he is not ready for big league politics.
His opponents had a life-time to get it right in politics; he only has less than five months.
