You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. These words, which I am commanding you today, shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your sons and shall talk of them when you sit in your house and when you walk by the way and when you lie down and when you rise up. – Deuteronomy 6:5-7
And He gave their land as a heritage, a heritage to Israel His people. – Psalm 135:12
Happy 59th Anniversary of Independence to Malawi, oh my Malawi! Oh, How I love Thee! After 31 years of our country’s independent status, I congratulate President Chakwera, all our leaders, and my countrymen and countrywomen. At this time, I salute our leaders and generally reminisce to take stock of our journey to this place on July 6, 2023. I appreciate this year that our celebrations have as the guest of honor, the President of Tanzania, President Samia Suluhu, the third female president on the continent of Africa. It was great that, escorted by the Vice President, Dr. Chilima, the Tanzanian leader, Madame Suluhu visited and laid a wreath at the Mausoleum of our first president, Ngwazi Dr. H. Kamuzu Banda.
Of all the presidents that Malawi has had ruling over this now 18 million plus populated nation in southern Africa, I like the most His Excellency Ngwazi Dr. H. Kamuzu Banda, His Excellency Dr. Bakili Muluzi, His Excellency Professor Bingu wa Mutharika, Her Excellency Dr. Joyce Banda, His Excellency Professor Peter Mutharika, and His Excellency Dr. Lazarus Chakwera. Equally in my heart is the liking I have for all our current and former vice presidents. Truth be told, I am a proud Malawian, I love my country, I love my people, and I am hugely proud of what Malawi has stood for these past 59 years.
I have heard many Malawians, some in the country, many more outside the country, deride our homeland, and some have joined bandwagons of people (foreigners and a few citizens – the scoundrels) calling our country “one of the poorest of countries in the world,” that is corrupt, backward, and hugely underdeveloped.
All around Malawi, there have been prophets of doom since 1964, and the prophets continue to crowd the information highway whereby they are currently continuing to forecast a gloomy outlook for this 59-year-old county.
Among these prophecies is the political and economic outlook gleaned from Economist Intelligence June 2023 Country outlook, which puts Malawi as being on a cruise ship to failure:
The president, Lazarus Chakwera, who has been in office since mid-2020, will remain in power until the next parliamentary and presidential elections, which are due in September 2025, but faces increasing friction within the ruling nine-party Tonse Alliance. The coalition is likely to split in the future, and in-fighting will undermine governability.
Malawi registered sluggish growth in 2022, of an estimated 1.1%, owing to intensifying power cuts and tropical Cyclone Freddy, alongside a rise in interest rates and limited funding. Real GDP growth will slow further in 2023, to just 0.7%, as domestic headwinds intensify. The current-account deficit will average 12.4% of GDP in 2023-27. Without sizeable capital inflows, which we expect to remain low, Malawi will remain dependent on foreign aid inflows to meet financing needs in the medium term, exposing the currency to volatility. Malawi faces more significant food shortages than its regional peers Zambia, Tanzania, and Mozambique. About 20% of Malawians will be food insecure in the 2023 lean season (October-April). Malawi was the first country to receive IMF emergency food funding.
To top this, Selective arrests of senior government officials are a harbinger of continued public unrest. The arrest of the vice-president, Saulos Chilima, in mid2022 and of the Anti–Corruption Bureau Director, Martha Chizuma, later in that year are notable examples. –Economist Intelligence, June 28th, 2023.
All this gloom and doom for Malawi, the report prophesizes that the 2023-27 outlook for Malawi, “will remain generally secure but politically unstable, with a highly fractured political landscape.
Malawi on Thursday, July 6, 2023, marked its 59th year of independence from British colonial rule. Happy birthday Malawi! From the standpoint of a deeply-rooted patriot, trained by the best, the crème de la crème in the genre of citizenship, Malawi is, under all the circumstances – including all the bad apples and the good apples, the great fishes and the rotten ones, Malawi can and must stand tall, extremely tall in the corridors of international existence and also on the home front. Malawi has done well.
Malawi is still a peace and calm, with law and order, and no interference in other nations’ internal affairs, sort of a country. We are a good people, and still “the Warm Heart of Africa!” Malawi may not have gold, diamonds, or uranium (last I looked, the precious little that the country had in precious stones, was stolen from the belly of our nation in the guise of “we are taking samples!” Malawi has not and is not declaring war on another country, Malawians are not fighting each other (civil war), Malawi has successfully held presidential elections, and Malawi successfully challenged and caused a changing of the presidency when things were determined to have gone wrong in an election (2019, 2020). Most important of all, is that Malawi is still Malawi, with hardworking and friendly people, and most sincere leaders – themselves having learned from the crème de la crème of political leadership, the 31-year rule of iron-fisted man called Hastings Kamuzu Banda – Boma lathu.
To my fellow 18 million Malawians, I, an analyst that has lived near and far my homeland, near and now far again, I salute you! You are mostly a great listening crop of citizens that have learned to live within the meager circumstances endowed upon the nation by the Creator. In saluting the country, permit me to make a few statements about the six wonderful and powerful presidents Malawi has had the privilege to have these 59 years of our independent status. I salute and celebrate the imprint they have left with us, left on me, and assuredly left on Malawi.
The former presidents are, namely Kamuzu Banda, Bakili Muluzi, Bingu wa Mutharika, Joyce Banda, Peter Mutharika, and incumbent President Lazarus Chakwera.