Mutharika calls in Tony Blair! Palace showdown as Malawi hunts for big‑money investors
Lilongwe was buzzing this afternoon as President Arthur Peter Mutharika hosted former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair in a high‑stakes meeting insiders say could shape Malawi’s economic future.
Sources at Kamuzu Palace described a no‑nonsense briefing from Mutharika, who laid bare the crisis he inherited — the now‑infamous Four Fs: Food, Forex, Fertiliser and Fuel — all “on life support” when he took office last year.
The President insisted his team has begun to stabilise the situation, but warned that Malawi needs heavyweight partners to finish the job.
In a dramatic appeal, Mutharika urged the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change to help pull in serious, credible investors, especially in mining and energy — sectors he says could transform Malawi’s fortunes if handled right.
Blair, who has reinvented himself as a globe‑trotting adviser to governments, reportedly told Mutharika he was impressed by the President’s “clear direction” and vowed to tap into his organisation’s global networks to bring investment to Malawi.
He described the country as “full of potential waiting to be unlocked.”
The meeting has already set tongues wagging in Lilongwe, with some insiders calling it Mutharika’s biggest diplomatic play yet.
Tony Blair, who had to reinvented himself from an international war criminal doing Americas bidding in the Iraqi war against “weapons of mass destruction”, killing my neighbour Dr David Kelly in the process to conceal the truth, has transcended to “a globetrotting advisor to Governments”.
Beware of the fifth F: Malawi is F*cked without a direct daily airline service to Europe. A flight to New Zealand is only 4 hours longer than flights into Malawi. Nothing is worth flying out of Malawi if it sits on the tarmac of Addis Ababa for 6 hrs. There was a time HM QEII enjoyed fresh Malawian Roses on her breakfast table every morning. Now I can buy mine from Kenya! And coffee, and sweetcorn, sugar snap peas, mango, lemon …. the list goes on.
Presently, Malawi affords to flush US$58,000 a day, rather than make compost or hu-manure – Fk your freebie fertilizer from the UN WFP. It’s never “free” at point of use: the transportation costs munt it’s benefits. That’s why Malawi has “sub-subsistence” agriculture.
Fuel is even worse. It’s for young men to burn isn’t it, while women try and find the fuel for cooking their dinner? Biofuel (firewood and charcoal) is likely to run out within the decade (the next adminstration, so that’s OK). The solution is staring at you from above: cook on solar powered electric barbeques, just like to Kiwis do – it’s free! Hot lunches and battery charging allows electric lighting to enable Adult Education in business studies every evening in classes in underutilized school buildings.
All these dirty, second-hand, cast-off cars from Japan, just drains Malawi of Forex while they generate a means of government / consumer taxation and traffic-police corruption. Get on your Bicycles: everyone else in the world knows that 80% of car and motorcycle trips in LL and similar urban areas are less than 8km! But the MG will borrow the money from China to build super highways. What interest do they charge you (in)?
I wish you all well in these times of climate change.
Tony Blair will make sure his friends get the contracts. Hardly any money will be left for the Malawians. Most of the money will go towards very expensive loans for the investments. Don’t trust Tony Blair
We will wait for the fruits of this meeting