Chilima says he is last Malawi VP ‘to be victimised’: Others have picked ‘Chidude’ running mate

UTM Party presidential candidate Saulos Chilima  who is also the country’s Vice-President but quit the ruling  Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) last June to launch his presidential bid, says he is the last veep to face harassment from a Head of State, saying once voted into power on May 21 2019 Tripartite Elections, he would put in place measures that would ensure a good working relationship between the Head of State and his second-in-command.

Speaking at  a well patronized UTM political rally in Neno,  Chilima said  will be “the last Vice-President to be victmised”, saying the holder of the office in the UTM Party administration will have specific duties to avoid breeding a bad working relationship that has rocked the performance of the country’s President and Vice-President over the years.

“Let me declare here that I am the last vice president to face such harassment and sour relationship between the president and his vice. In future, we will not have such a thing,” said Chilima as Michael Usi, the UTM presidential running mate and designated vice president looked on.

There has been bad blood and poor working relationship between President Peter Mutharika and Chilima which forced Chilima to resign from the DPP, a party that sponsored him to the vice presidency, to form the UTM.

In the past, there had been bad blood and poor working relationship between Bakili Muluzi and Justin Malewezi especially after Muluzi hand-picked Bingu wa Mutharika for the presidency.

There has also been bad blood and poor relationship between Bingu wa Mutharika and his vice Cassim Chilumpha who became the first vice president to be jailed on treason charges whilst in office.

Bingu wa Mutharika had also bad blood and poor relationship with Joyce Banda who became the vice president in Bingu’s second term of office but things did not work when Bingu decided to hand-pick Peter Mutharika, his blood brother for the presidency forcing Banda to form her own Peoples Party.

Chilima said this poor working relationship with the Head of State  was not in the interest of Malawians.

He said the UTM administration will the Vice-President is a functional officer and not tohers who have picked a ‘Chidude’ running mates to be control freaks as vice presients.

“Others have picked a ‘Yes bwana’ type of a Chidude to be vice president who cannot not offer any critical input to the leadership,” he said.

At the rally, Chilima also urged the youth to embrace technology, saying this will help develop the country which he said is lagging behind technological development.

Earlier, UTM Party secretary general Patricia Kaliati said the current administration has failed to develop Neno district where she said people are still crying for a good tarmac road.

She said: “It is very sad that this government is able to construct tarmac roads going to mere individual properties, yet you my fellow Malawians here in Neno are struggling to transport your farm produce such as Irish potatoes and oranges to markets in town due to poor roads.”

Kaliati also said it was unfortunate that in the 21st century some places around Ligowe Trading Centre in the district have no mobile phone network coverage to the extent that they climb trees and higher grounds to get a signal and communicate.