In January 1997, Comesa’s Council of Ministers established a special committee of eminent persons “to investigate into and prepare a comprehensive investigative audit and management report for the period beginning 1992 to-date.”
The investigation specifically targeted the conduct of President Bingu wa Mutharika who was Comesa’s Secretary General.
About two months later, the committee, chaired by Zambian Emmanuel Maposa Hachipuka, noted among other things, “glaring instances of mismanagement of the resources of Comesa by the Secretary General ... on unproductive, irrelevant and unrelated mission to Comesa’s aims and objectives... Substantial funds of the institution have been used to finance travel, accommodation and other expenses of the Secretary General’s missions. No reports exist to show the net benefit of these missions to Comesa.” [emphasis mine]
Mutharika was duly sacked before the year was out, mainly because of the findings of that report but he blamed his exit on many factors, not least of which were his political ambitions back home.
On Tuesday, September 7, 2010, the Council for Non-Governmental Organisationsn in Malawi (Congoma) came up with its own damning verdict on President Mutharika’s apparent endless trips abroad, some of which could have little or no benefit to Malawi. (A few weeks ago, someone likened him to a world traveller who only comes home to pack a new suitcase for adventures afresh.)
Congoma chairperson Voice Mhone criticised President Mutharika for his needless globe-trotting, which is, to quote a term used by State House Press Officer Albert Mungomo, haemorrhaging the forex given that our import cover is hovering dangerously below two months.
The day the story came out in The Daily Times, Mungomo and some cabinet ministers went flat out tearing Mhone apart and some even cast aspersions on the integrity of newspaper.
Now, it’s worth noting that none of the president’s men disputed Mhone’s observations on Mutharika’s gallivanting. All they did was to recycle the choice terms usually reserved for the president’s critics. Mhone was deemed insulting the president (just a notch below sedition), malicious and ignorant [because] his criticism was “coated with political innuendo” (a Dausism that is as empty as it gets).
According to Mungomo, Mutharika’s globe-trotting has no effect on forex shortage because his trips create an environment for business people to bring forex into the country — which, I should add, will be spent by the president abroad so that he creates an environment for business people to bring forex into the country, which will be spent by the president abroad so...
Now, either Mhone is hopelessly “malicious and ignorant” about the short and long term benefits brought about by the president’s globetrotting or the president’s men only said what they said because they needed to say something in defence of the president to show their unflinching loyalty which was demanded by Mutharika when he was swearing in new ministers in early August.
In the recent weeks, the president has been to Namibia, Swaziland, Germany and Rwanda. And they are two or three trips planned for September. Could all this be the effect of the billion-kwacha flying toy that was controversially bought last year?
But the State House deems it improper to question President Mutharika’s never-ending foreign trips. As a matter of fact, for a man who has travelled to over 150 countries (I hope that doesn’t include the contentious trips in the damning Comesa report because that would be a shame), the State House wants us to believe the president derives no pleasure from his trips abroad. They are just the pain of the office of the president of Malawi and chairman of the AU — and we should be grateful and shut up! (By the way, since January this year, US President Barack Obama has made only three foreign trips — to Afghanistan, Canada and Czech Republic.)
But, nope, there’s no shutting up. The president does not travel light. He has ministers, technocrats, a whole retinue of bodyguards and countless hangers-on. And they don’t come in cheap. And jet fuel is not cheap either. And they all draw forex. But, are all these trips so dependent on the president that no other person — by which I mean Vice President Joyce Banda or even line ministers — could represent him and achieve the same result?
And suggesting that “President Mutharika’s entourage is too small compared to the president of Zimbabwe [Robert Mugabe]” is a new low in the governance of the country. Mugabe is not an example of anything good and to compare our situation with Zimbabwe’s does not bode too well for the nation. Weep, Malawi, weep!
