Dausi back with verbal diarrhoea: Malawi Information Minister promises ‘entente cordiale’ with media

Known for his high-sounding English phrases, 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.

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.

Accepting his role, Dausi said:  “I am delighted to have been appointed. I am available for the service to the nation.”

He thanked President Mutharika for giving him “a  rare opportunity and a  great honour of serving in the government as a cabinet minister.”

Dausi added: “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.”

With his love for quotes, Dausi said in quoting Benjamin Franklin: “every man I meet is my superior in some way, and in that I learn from him.”

He also attributed another quote to Italian Theologian,  St Thomas Aquinas: “A service to the people is the service for the common good.”

Asked if he will continue using his bombastic style of his oratory, Dausi said he speaks “the Queen’s language- English” and will strive to be an effective communicator.

Pressed further if he will be helpful to the media in line with the passing of the Access to Information (ATI) Bill by the Malawi Parliament, Dausi said: “Government is big business.  It is the fine of the finest arts; trick of the trickiest business, there is no question of lying bare of what is happening in the corridors of government.”

However, he promised to provide and not suppress government information to the news organisations.

“I will make sure you members of the media get correct version of how government is operating without creating some unnecessary stories. Making sure that facts are put in the right perspective,” he said, adding “I will be helping members of the press not to distort facts.”

Quizzed on whether he will ensure there is access to information, Dausi said: “You can’t expect, really the whole issues of how things happen in administrative and statecraft to be put to public bare.

But he promised to create what he called “entente cordiale” – a good relationship with the media.

“There will be entente cordiale with the media,” he said.

Parliament passed ATI Bill which is said to be almost similar to the original that had been butchered and was presented to the House in July 2016, is expected to become law after President Mutharika assents to it and gets gazetted.

On whether Mutharika will approve the Information Law, Dausi was evasive, saying the Head of State will do what is good to the nation.

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.

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