By Dickson Kashoti

President Professor Arthur Peter Mutharika is not a man who governs by ultimatums, threats, or political blackmail.

He remains unshaken, resolute, and firmly in control—despite a hollow 48-hour ultimatum issued by officials from the Malawi Congress Party yesterday.

Let it be stated without apology: Malawi is in crisis. But this crisis is not new—and it did not fall from the sky.

It is the direct consequence of reckless governance, economic vandalism, and systemic looting under the MCP administration.

The same Malawi Congress Party that is today pretending to be a voice of concern is the very architect of the collapse they now seek to politicise.

Malawians are not fools.
They remember the fuel queues.
They remember the darkness from endless blackouts.
They remember dry taps.
They remember the empty shelves, the suffocating cost of living, and the humiliation of a nation brought to its knees—not by external forces, but by its own leaders.

Nothing captures this betrayal more brutally than the scandal of the missing 27 million litres of fuel donated by the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Thirty million litres were given to Malawi as a lifeline. Only 2.3 million litres can be accounted for. The rest—27 million litres—disappeared into thin air.

This was not incompetence. This was not mismanagement. This was organised plunder.

This was theft on an industrial scale—an unforgivable act of economic sabotage carried out while ordinary Malawians slept in fuel queues for days.
While citizens suffered, a cartel of politically connected elites allegedly turned humanitarian aid into a private cash machine.

And today, those same individuals—or their political sponsors—have the audacity to issue ultimatums?
They should be answering questions—not issuing threats.

On foreign exchange, the situation is equally damning. President Mutharika inherited an economy on life support, with depleted reserves at the central bank—a problem worsened catastrophically under Lazarus Chakwera.

Instead of stabilising the economy, the Chakwera administration drove it deeper into crisis through incompetence, poor judgment, and reckless experimentation.

The appointment of an unqualified and incompetent Finance Minister was not just an error—it was an act of economic negligence.

The disastrous 44 percent devaluation of the Kwacha—undertaken under the watch of the International Monetary Fund programme—crippled households overnight, sending prices soaring and crushing already struggling families.

And when the IMF walked away, citing fiscal indiscipline and uncontrolled spending, the truth became undeniable: the government had completely lost control.
Let us be clear—this is not leadership. This is failure.
Total failure.

Now, having presided over one of the most painful economic declines in recent history, the MCP wants to posture as saviours?
They want to shout from the rooftops and pretend they have answers?
Malawi deserves better than this hypocrisy.

If the MCP has solutions, let them present them.
If they have ideas, let them debate them.
But they must stop insulting the intelligence of Malawians with empty ultimatums and recycled rhetoric.
Leadership is not noise. Leadership is responsibility.

In contrast, President Mutharika is doing the real work—quietly, deliberately, and decisively.
No theatrics. No empty slogans. No desperate attempts to score political points.

His administration has already moved into action—tightening fiscal discipline, restructuring debt, and implementing pragmatic economic measures to stabilise the Kwacha and restore confidence.

These are not campaign slogans. These are hard decisions.
This is leadership.

Even in opposition, voices such as Dalitso Kabambe and Atupele Muluzi have demonstrated maturity—criticising where necessary, but also offering alternatives.
That is what responsible politics looks like.
Not threats. Not ultimatums. Not propaganda.

Malawi stands at a critical crossroads.
This is not a time for political games.
This is not a time for those who broke the system to pretend they can fix it.
This is a time for steady leadership, difficult decisions, and national unity.
President Mutharika will not be distracted.
He will not be intimidated.
And he will not be lectured by those who drove this country into the ground.

Malawi will recover—not through noise, but through discipline, leadership, and accountability.

And history will judge—very harshly—those who chose greed over country when Malawi needed them most.

Ndiope ndani?