Its worth to be called a journey of a blind man leading a magnitude of thousands if not a million of other blind men.Its a big procession and the end result will be that these people will definately fall into the ditch,and a number of them especially the leader will sustain serious injuries and without good medication life threatening injuries will be sustained.
This is a journey of the once popular 'United' Democratic Front on its way to the May general election in a bid to form the next government but the worrying thing is the reasoning of the man who is leading this procession, as he looks like he is lacking the sixth sence.
Former president and National chairman Bakili Muluzi claims to be allowed by the Malawi Consititution to run again after a five year break an opinion which has divided the people of Malawi with others claiming its possible.
Section 83 states that the President and vice president may serve in their capacities for a mximum of two consecutive terms, and it seems Bakili Muluzi is trying to capitalise on the wording of the said section, which will unlikely work as i feel that laws on their own can't work without reasoning.
If Muluzi think that the laws do allow him,why did the framers of the constitution based on two maximum consecutive terms?Why did they come up with the idea of specifying the number of two terms?Can he points some other sections which backs him to come back as a retired president?Why did the third and open terms failed when he was in power with all the resources at his mercy?What will happen to his pension if he will be re-elected?
If he cant give satisfying explanations on these questions ,am afraid he wont make it and he is taking a huge risk which may cost his party more and will soon follow the path taken by AFORD!
The other problem with UDF is that they are failing to notice that things move with time.Most of the voters in the coming election are those who were seven years or so in 1993 and the party is still busy using the old slogan 'zinthu zitani'?which i feel is meaningless to the youth of today who have their own special needs rather than us who were there when it was a must, to buy a party card to go inside Lilongwe market.
I suggest that Muluzi be forced to go and do a risk management course before its too late as the gods are against him and if his UDF got 49 seats in 2004 election he should expect to get almost half of those seats on 19 May,2009.
Friday, 6 March 2009
Monday, 2 February 2009
'MADEYA'SYNDROME STILL HAUNTING UDF
UDF's National chairman and former President, Bakili Muluzi is a bitter and frustrated man.He looks confused and desperate. Desperate for power and revenge to his handpicked successor Bingu Mutharika which will unlikely work out as the Malawians he is dealing with now are not the same people who danced to his tune after being brutalised by the Malawi Congress party for thirty years.
Confused for failing to read from Bingu's face that he was not one of them,though he was putting on a yellow shirt throughout the 2004 campaign period but deep down inside he wasn't.Muluzi is indeed a bitter confused man.Imagine the millions he invested in Bingu's campaign which some UDF senior officials pegged at k200million, and in the process dislocating his spine.
However Dr Bingu Mutharika had his own plans for Malawi and himself and though he played second fiddle to Muluzi thoughout the campaign he knew what he was doing and just after swearing in as the third head of state for Malawi on that May 2004 chilly morning ,at the half empty Kamuzu Stadium,he showed his true colours.
As people of Zingwangwa,Chimwankhunda and Chilobwe townships were enganged in running battles with the police, protesting the results of the election ,Bingu immediately started bitting the hand of Muluzi silently by the way he addressed Malawians present and those who were listening at home from their radios when he stressed that he will deal with corrupt officials which was just lip service during Muluzi tenure of office,thereby bringing hope to those people who thought that Muluzi's system of corruption will continue.
Afew months after Bingu's swearing in as the President, rumours started circulating as it is common in Malawi, that Mutharika was plannning to resurrect his killed United Party but rumour mongers were wrong as he came up with a different baby,Democratic People's Party(DPP)which came with a storm across Malawi and to test the waters the baby passed its test by winning all the six seats on Dececember 6 2006 bye elections thus putting more misery on Muluzi's face.
What interested me most that time was the reaction of Muluzi in the Nation Newspaper as he only said he can't believe that Bingu's party has won all the seats as DPP had no structures on the ground,but the writing was on the wall for all to see.To me i saw that as an acknowledgement of defeat by a man who claims to be a political engineer.
Instead of of sitting down with his men in the excecutive committee of the party to plan the way forwad after Bingu's depature and the mass exodus of senior members who went with him to form his DPP, Muluzi chose a wrong path again.Romours again started circulating that Muluzi was planning a come back to wrestle power from Mutharika through a third term fine tuned after noticing what he thinks is a loophole in the Malawi Consitution.
My comrade John Mbali who was then working at Lozi in Nkhotakota tipped me that Campaign Director for UDF Clement Sitambuli was having meetings with people there encouraging them to vote for Muluzi at the party's convention.That was in 2006 and looking at Sitambuli i believed what i heard as he was the one who led campaign for the failed third and open terms and am not even suprised that he has been picked as Muluzi's running mate for he has been a good boy to him.
I guess that Muluzi want to run himself because he doesn't trust anyone else in the party and that ,he still believes that all executive members remaining in the UDF were 'madeya'maize bram according to the late UDF governor of the South Davis Kapito.I felt that the situation is still like that in the party as no new faces faces have joined since Bingu and senior leaders like Ken Lipenga,Henry Chimunthu Banda,Patricia Kaliati,Henry Mussa,and several others dumped it.I mean faces who can add credibility to the party heirachy.
People like Brown James Mpinganjira who just rejoined the UDF just after the elections, to be in government cannot be trusted by Bakili Muluzi as he first run away from UDF the same way Bingu did and he has already pulled a trigger by claiming openly that Muluzi can't be allowed to stand as the laws doesn't allow him in an interview with the Daily Times reporter recently.
In a twist of events Brown Mpinganjira has already joined Tembo's MCP as a running mate while claiming to be still a member of UDF and the party has resorted to fire him and replacing him as its candidate for Mulanje Central in the coming general elections with Ruth Lemani.
What is more confusing is that BJ claims to have been sent to MCP by Muluzi himself and John Tembo is also claiming the same while UDF as a party is disassociating itself from the arrangement and most people are now suprised with the new twist of events.It's very unlikely for these two parties to work together as they have two different ideologies with UDF mostly interested in getting rid of Mutharika without even offering Malawians good plans for the nation .
Muluzi himself is to blame for accepting back Mpinganjira in UDF as he knows him very well as a very clever politician .He would have remembered that Mpinganjira has been eyeing the presidency and that's why he formed his disbanded National Democratic Alliance to fight Muluzi's attempts to come back to power.
All these things happening in Udf show that there are big cracks in the Party and once the Electoral Commission comes up with the decision that Muluzi will not stand there will be mass exodus from UDF as the party will go without a candidate and Muluzi's prophecy that some parties will finish like cutains(zitha ngati makatani)will be fullfilled on his own beloved UDF.
I dont know what else Muluzi will do once he will be barred and my collegue Chikadzakuwani wrote me an email claiming that Muluzi is planning to feature his wife Nadzimbiri in 2014 General Elections.I dont know if thats true but you never know as in Malawi it's all rumours throughout the year.
Confused for failing to read from Bingu's face that he was not one of them,though he was putting on a yellow shirt throughout the 2004 campaign period but deep down inside he wasn't.Muluzi is indeed a bitter confused man.Imagine the millions he invested in Bingu's campaign which some UDF senior officials pegged at k200million, and in the process dislocating his spine.
However Dr Bingu Mutharika had his own plans for Malawi and himself and though he played second fiddle to Muluzi thoughout the campaign he knew what he was doing and just after swearing in as the third head of state for Malawi on that May 2004 chilly morning ,at the half empty Kamuzu Stadium,he showed his true colours.
As people of Zingwangwa,Chimwankhunda and Chilobwe townships were enganged in running battles with the police, protesting the results of the election ,Bingu immediately started bitting the hand of Muluzi silently by the way he addressed Malawians present and those who were listening at home from their radios when he stressed that he will deal with corrupt officials which was just lip service during Muluzi tenure of office,thereby bringing hope to those people who thought that Muluzi's system of corruption will continue.
Afew months after Bingu's swearing in as the President, rumours started circulating as it is common in Malawi, that Mutharika was plannning to resurrect his killed United Party but rumour mongers were wrong as he came up with a different baby,Democratic People's Party(DPP)which came with a storm across Malawi and to test the waters the baby passed its test by winning all the six seats on Dececember 6 2006 bye elections thus putting more misery on Muluzi's face.
What interested me most that time was the reaction of Muluzi in the Nation Newspaper as he only said he can't believe that Bingu's party has won all the seats as DPP had no structures on the ground,but the writing was on the wall for all to see.To me i saw that as an acknowledgement of defeat by a man who claims to be a political engineer.
Instead of of sitting down with his men in the excecutive committee of the party to plan the way forwad after Bingu's depature and the mass exodus of senior members who went with him to form his DPP, Muluzi chose a wrong path again.Romours again started circulating that Muluzi was planning a come back to wrestle power from Mutharika through a third term fine tuned after noticing what he thinks is a loophole in the Malawi Consitution.
My comrade John Mbali who was then working at Lozi in Nkhotakota tipped me that Campaign Director for UDF Clement Sitambuli was having meetings with people there encouraging them to vote for Muluzi at the party's convention.That was in 2006 and looking at Sitambuli i believed what i heard as he was the one who led campaign for the failed third and open terms and am not even suprised that he has been picked as Muluzi's running mate for he has been a good boy to him.
I guess that Muluzi want to run himself because he doesn't trust anyone else in the party and that ,he still believes that all executive members remaining in the UDF were 'madeya'maize bram according to the late UDF governor of the South Davis Kapito.I felt that the situation is still like that in the party as no new faces faces have joined since Bingu and senior leaders like Ken Lipenga,Henry Chimunthu Banda,Patricia Kaliati,Henry Mussa,and several others dumped it.I mean faces who can add credibility to the party heirachy.
People like Brown James Mpinganjira who just rejoined the UDF just after the elections, to be in government cannot be trusted by Bakili Muluzi as he first run away from UDF the same way Bingu did and he has already pulled a trigger by claiming openly that Muluzi can't be allowed to stand as the laws doesn't allow him in an interview with the Daily Times reporter recently.
In a twist of events Brown Mpinganjira has already joined Tembo's MCP as a running mate while claiming to be still a member of UDF and the party has resorted to fire him and replacing him as its candidate for Mulanje Central in the coming general elections with Ruth Lemani.
What is more confusing is that BJ claims to have been sent to MCP by Muluzi himself and John Tembo is also claiming the same while UDF as a party is disassociating itself from the arrangement and most people are now suprised with the new twist of events.It's very unlikely for these two parties to work together as they have two different ideologies with UDF mostly interested in getting rid of Mutharika without even offering Malawians good plans for the nation .
Muluzi himself is to blame for accepting back Mpinganjira in UDF as he knows him very well as a very clever politician .He would have remembered that Mpinganjira has been eyeing the presidency and that's why he formed his disbanded National Democratic Alliance to fight Muluzi's attempts to come back to power.
All these things happening in Udf show that there are big cracks in the Party and once the Electoral Commission comes up with the decision that Muluzi will not stand there will be mass exodus from UDF as the party will go without a candidate and Muluzi's prophecy that some parties will finish like cutains(zitha ngati makatani)will be fullfilled on his own beloved UDF.
I dont know what else Muluzi will do once he will be barred and my collegue Chikadzakuwani wrote me an email claiming that Muluzi is planning to feature his wife Nadzimbiri in 2014 General Elections.I dont know if thats true but you never know as in Malawi it's all rumours throughout the year.
Tuesday, 16 September 2008
REV. NICHOLAS HENDERSON THE REJECTED STONE.
Former Vice President in the Bakili Muluzi UDF administration Justin Malewezi, after being fed up with the political bickering both in Parliament and outside, stunned the Malawi nation when he openly declared without shame that as a nation we have all failed to solve our problems.
That was really straight talk from a man who rarely comments on the political situation in the country and though other quarters dismissed him, those words really proved that things are really falling apart in Malawi.
The situation is not conducive as both the government and the opposition are leaving no stone unturned as they are exchanging bitter words both in the house of law and on the podium and as usual the common man is the victim of the situation as all bills benefiting the masses are either turned down or left untouched.
As the politicians are taking centre stage, on the other side the men of God also don’t want to lag behind and are also busy smearing mud at each other to the surprise of the flock which have nowhere to flee to as the Church is the only place where troubled people find solace.
Examples of problems rocking the prayer houses are so many and a few of them are; churches running parallel prayer houses after failing to agree on the boundaries of their synods. A priest being fired after he failed to agree on one thing or another and refusing to be outdone by his bosses he rushes to the high court where he is awarded thousands of kwacha’s in compensation thereby contradicting the teaching of the founder of Christian faith, Jesus Christ who taught his followers that if anyone slaps you on the right cheek give him the left as well.
Lots of funny things being done by men in white collars are so many and I feel I can’t list them all but do agree that we are now living in a sick society and its not strange now to hear that some men are ending up having sexual intercourse with goats as their priests have deserted them and there is no one to teach them good and Christian morals.
One man who has been smeared dirty by the church politics is a Briton, Nicholas Henderson the Vicar of All Saints and St Martins Anglican churches in Ealing Common, South East of London who was elected the Bishop of Lake Malawi Diocese to succeed the late Bishop Peter Nathaniel Nyanja who succumbed to cancer.
Nicholas’ election stormed controversy in the Diocese as the court of confirmation refused to endorse him after others alleged that he supports gay movement in the church.
Two factions are there for all to see especially at the former headquaters of the Diocese,All Saints Church in Nkhotakota where the two factions dont see eye to eye.As there have been two services at the church since time in memorial,the other one has been turned to be for the group which are fighting for Nicholus to be the Bishop while the others who dont want him do attend the second service.
From my point of view i think the issue of racism has also taken center stage as the factions in the parish are called 'WA MZUNGU'meaning anyone supporting Nick and 'WA WAKUDA'refering anyone who supports a Malawian to takeover as the Bishop of the Diocese.
The relationship between these two factions is worse as at one point they fought right at the church and it took the police to stop the fight and some people ended up in custody and right now they were convicted by the Magistrate Court in Nkhotakota.
“I feel sorry for the situation back home and imagine people are divided to the extent that whenever there are funerals, weddings or remembrance mass people choose the priests to preside over according to the group they belong to. It’s really a crisis and embarrassing to us as christians”. Said John Kachipepa who is from the district but now based in Lilongwe in an interview.
But what does Nicholas Henderson say about the situation in the Diocese he was elected to head?
In an interview at his Parish offices in London, where at the time he was hosting his Christians to a monthly tea party Nicholas, who looked calm and composed blamed the court of confirmation for not following the canon law. The Provincial court was supposed to form an independent inquiry to investigate what happened but none of that sort happened.
“I was amazed to learn that I had been accused of being ‘pro-gay’ .I can conclude that it is a very easy, but completely disingenuous way of smearing people .I have never been involved in any ‘gay’ campaigning or anything to do with the issue. Nevertheless, the court of confirmation made no effort to ask me or what I was or believed and simply accused me of being of ‘ unsound faith’ even though I was not allowed to be there” Said Nicholas.
He added on that” The Modern Church Union” an organisation within Anglican church which he was Secretary General between 1994 and 2003 doesn’t campaign for same sex marriage but touches all social issues affecting Christians like ethics and theology and in it’s council there are three Bishops.
He also feels that it was unanimous decision and some of the Bishops were very unhappy with what happened and now the victims are the ordinary people who are staying without the head as the solution is not yet in sight as some concerned people have taken the issue to the civil court of law which Nicholas claims would have been avoided at all costs had all the laws of the church were followed properly.
Nicholas added that he felt honoured and humbled to be elected the Bishop of Lake Malawi the diocese he first came into contact through the late Peter Nyanja whom he knew for 22years and since then there were contacts with the people of the diocese including providing sabbatical study leave at his vicarage for Lake Malawi clergy, fundraising, solar panel projects and several other things.
He hopes that the solution will be found soon and all the factions of the church be healed so that all the projects which have been stalled should start once a trusted Bishop is elected and the gospel be preached taking the diocese to greater heights.
Random interview among the people gathered at the tea party found that the people there don’t even understand how the issue started as most of them claim to have known Nick as they call him, for some years but they have never heard that he is gay and that he supports same sex marriage in the church. They say the don’t even know if they are to laugh or cry with the allegations levelled against their Vicar who has been with them for over 20years.
Retired Reverend Dr John Sweet of Cambridge who claims to have known Nick for over 50 years first as his student and then as a friend in Christ also rubbished the claims and just said “he is a straight guy and its unfair to say he is gay for I knew him as an intelligent guy in the upper school and I keep on corresponding with him up to this date”.
But who is this Nicholas Henderson?
Nicholas was born Nicholas Paul in 1948 at a place called Leamington Spa in Uk and he was ordained as a priest in 1975 at St Albans Cathedral in 1975 by Rt .Rev. Robert Runcie.
He first enrolled at Cirencester Grammar school in 1959 and he spent 5years there and he later went for his B.A.Theology at Selwyn College in Cambridge University where he spent three years and moved to Ripon Hall College in Oxford between 1973 and 1975.
He is currently doing his PhD ‘World Anglican Ecclesiology from a Lay perspective’ at the University of Wales, Lampeter
due for a completion this year which he enrolled in 2002.His studies is based on the research he is conducting in the diocese’s of Tohoku,Sendai,Japan,Virginia in USA,Namirembe in Uganda and BrasÃlia and Sao Paulo, Brazil.
Nicholas has also organised several conferences and has served the Anglican Church in different positions as Chaplain, Dean and Vicar in several churches around London Diocese.
Nicholus is single and has never married and says he chose to be like that so that he should dedicate all his life to serving the Lord Jesus Christ the same way Apostle Paul did.
It remains to be seen if the former Vice president Justin Malewezi's conclution that as a nation we have failed to solve our problems after being fed up with the problems which are rocking Anglican church of the Lake Malawi Diocese of which he is an active member .
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