A hush has fallen over southern Africa following the shock election defeat of Malawi’s Lazarus Chakwera.
With octogenarian Peter Arthur Mutharika making a grand comeback, Reverend Chakwera goes down history as a ‘wantam’ president who raised a nation’s hope then quickly crashed it.
As he leaks his wounds, the beleaguered man of cloth will appreciate that not even God can redeem a soul determined to stay politically blind. But so, which African incumbent is next on the firing line?
One can only imagine how ‘birds of a feather’ across the continent are howling and agonising over their future. For all incumbents touting power, when a neighbour’s head is being shaved bare, it’s only wise to wet your own.
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The breeze of change through the ballot can be unforgiving. I dare say African voters must stop believing in nothing and start believing in something to take their poor countries forward. When we perpetually stand for nothing, we’ll fall for anything in our quest for good governance. And that, in the end, is just an accomplished mediocrity.
Let’s re-examine Malawi for a moment. What new value does Prof Mutharika and his Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) bring? Or is he merely a lesser evil compared to the outgoing president? We shouldn’t forget the controversies that plagued his previous tenure (2014-2020) soon after he dislodged ‘iron lady’ Joyce Banda from power.
Malawians booted the good old professor of law in 2020 amid electoral fraud and graft claims. He was once accused of pocketing $195,000 from a contractor who had also bankrolled the DPP. Although Malawi authorities cleared him, were these claims fully addressed in a way that justifies his return to power?
That said, there’s talk in Lilongwe that Chakwera fell because of unfulfilled promises. Many voters believed the country was headed in the wrong direction. The death of Vice President Saulos Chilima in a plane crash last year further left Chakwera badly exposed. Stakes were high.
Methinks the Malawi election has proved just how voters can be prisoners of empty hope. They can recycle and reward the very characters who badly failed them in the past.
Prof Mutharika’s victory is akin to Donald Trump’s comeback. The US leader had a messy exit in 2021, only to strut back into power like nothing happened. These old guards are larger than life. I see a full Trump reawakening in Prof Mutharika.
For Africa, democracy remains generally shaky. As Ugandan opposition leader Kizza Besigye once said, the continent has two distinct groups – the oppressors and the oppressed. Sadly, the oppressed applaud the oppressors. Over the past two decades, 20 nations have tampered with presidential term limits. In others, coups have replaced ballots with bullets. Yet, citizens seem at peace with these autocratic power plays.
In Guinea, voters backed a new constitution that paves the way for coup leader Mamady Doumbouya to run for president. In Chad, Parliament is scrapping term limits, allowing Idriss Déby, in power since 2021, to be president for life. In South Sudan, Salva Kiir is stringing up Riek Machar. In Tanzania, the region’s only female president will run virtually unopposed in the October election. Her only challenger, Tundu Lissu, was arrested in April and held incommunicado. The ruling CCM party is pulling every sting to crush the opposition.
Whether treason charge against Mr Lissu holds water or not, the optics are bad. President Samia Suluhu has handed critics reason to believe she’s hatching a plot to cling to power. Yet amid the tyranny, CCM fanatics adore ‘mama’ to the hilt. Meanwhile, Uganda’s strongman Yoweri Museveni was this week cleared to contest again. He may earn a spot in the Guinness World Records for ruling half a century.
Yes, the electorate is cheering ‘M7’ despite the all-pervading big man syndrome typified in him and other life presidents like Nguema Mbasogo of Equatorial Guinea, Paul Biya of Cameroon and Congo’s Denis Nguesso. Zimbambwe’s Emmerson Mngangwa and Ivorian Alassane Ouattara are also in the club. If Africans don’t wake up, they will make elections a bare ritual where nothing but mediocrity is rewarded.
-The writer is a communications practitioner.
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By Mark Oloo