BLANTYRE—(MaraviPost)—Former ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) publicity secretary and National Intelligence Bureau (NIB) director general, Nicholous Dausi has said he is excited and ready to serve as Minister of Information and Communication Technology.
President Peter Mutharika on Monday appointed Dausi into his 20-member cabinet and effectively made him government spokesman after firing Malison Ndau.
Accepting the new role in an interview with MBCtv, Dausi said he is happy with the appointment and that he will live to the expectations of his appointing authority and the media which he will interact with mostly.
“I am delighted to have been appointed. I am available for the service to the nation,” said Dausi.
He added: “There will be entente cordiale with the media.”
“When the President appoints you, he wants somebody who he can trust with various issues as regards issues of statecraft and I will do that to the best of my ability,” he said.
Dausi, a former deputy minister in the DPP administration, was one of the security officers for the country’s first president Hastings Kamuzu Banda.
He formerly served in Malawi Congress Party (MCP) which led the nation to one party dictatorship and rose up to the position of vice president.
Dausi is amongst politicians of the one party dictatorship who left MCP and is now in DPP. They include Hetherwick Ntaba.
Meanwhile, President Peter Mutharika has come under criticism from University of Malawi’s Chancellor College political lecturer Boniface Dulani and an authoritative daily newspaper on his decision to appoint the chief spy as information minister.
Dulani queried Mutharika on the appointment of spy chief Dausi as Minister of Information and Communication.
“So someone, who is apparently knowledgeable in intelligence now he is at the core of communication? If we recall, at the beginning of his term when the President was appointing ministers [he] requested for CVs.
“He promised to be appointing people based on their expertise. Now, it seems that has fallen down the road because if you look at the recent reshuffles, it moved people into ministries that they certainly are not expertise in,” said Dulani.