Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) presidential hopeful Paul Msikula Gadama has said Malawi now needs new blood with new thinking for the country to excel.
Gadama expressed his sentiments in a statement released on Friday. In essence, Gadama is opposed to the candidacy of his party leader Professor Arthur Peter Mutharika (APM) who is above 82 years old.
He said as a country, Malawi is passing through a lot of challenges that are immeasurable and the leadership is now idle without any concern and any plans to save the citizens.
“Life has become more difficult to live and to have two meals a day; it is like pushing a train to the next destination. We have two big parties which are Democratic Progressive Party and Malawi Congress Party but it has been proven that both parties have failed Malawians,” he said.
“Malawi Congress Party they came with prop but through what is happening they have failed big time everything is not adding. When you wake up in the morning, you hear the issue of no fuel at the pumps, issues of shortage of forex now have turned into the national anthem, no drugs in the hospital, no roads in Malawi,” reads part of his statement.
It adds, “We are remaining with jealousy and envy as prescribed in our national anthem. During the DPP, things were not fine as some people described it, but the world economy was at a good level, we cannot compare the Muluzi time and the Kamuzu regime.
“If Democratic Progressive Party was better why did Malawi was still standing as one of the poorest countries in the world, I strongly believe that if they were able to control our economy we could come out of the poverty zone, but the poverty margined was increased with 28% therefore for me DPP did nothing but they were good to decorate their problems and define it as better.”
According to Gadama, the key aspect of economic growth is an increase in the nation’s gross domestic product (GDP), which is a measure of the size and health of a country’s economy over a period of time (usually one quarter or one year).
He says Malawi has all the important factors for it to develop but just lacks strong leadership.
“The other main factor that makes countries in Africa fail, especially in Malawi is the issue of nepotism, regionalism, and tribalism and this happens so much with Chewas and the Lhomwe.
“During DPP it was only one tribe while MCP is also passing through the same suits, during DPP it has six ministers from Thyolo district only while the whole central region had one minister, just for example. Do you think the country can prosper? The answer is NO!
“We need fresh blood, people like Mbakuwaku, Gadama, KENAN, and many more, they need to come together and come up with a new leadership frame.
“You may find that some people in DPP are in the wrong place and are not well embraced, if DPP could be a good party they could just agree to give the party to people like Gadama, and the southern region they could just give Vice but not five candidates from one region and one from the central region, some parties are keeping hold without knowing it. This should tell you something, you Malawians, if these people could be one, they couldn’t be fighting for the position, that they are not supposed to take. If we can remove the tribal elements in our parties I strongly believe we could be more unified and develop easily. Malawi Congress Party once tried to give it to Gwanda,” he suggests.
He says, there must be a change in the country’s politics so that no one tribe can rule Malawi for ages.
“Please let us consider others. Rotation Leadership is a solution for all parties in Malawi. For your own information, Malawi has three regions, we have north central and south. We don’t have an eastern region,” he says.
DPP will hold its convention in July where party members are expected to elect the party’s President who is going to represent the party in the 2025 polls.
Among the party’s six presidential aspirants who have so far shown their interest to compete for the presidency are Paul Msikula Gadama, Kondwani Nankhumwa, Dalitso Kabambe, Joseph Mwanamvekha, Bright Msaka, and Cedrick Ngalande.
