Fond push for federalism: Roll out civic education to Malawi citizens

Think-tank Forum for New Direction (Fond) has said it will roll out civic education on federal system of government aimed at providing specific information  how the system works by analysing the positives and also the negatives.

Fond general secretary Professor Godwin Mkamanga told Nyasa Times after the think-tank’s meeting in Mzuzu city  members of the grouping have since agreed to adopt  federalism system for their debate on 12th October 2014 at St John of God .

The debate that was supposed to take place on 28 September but has been postponed to 12 October “to allow more stakeholders to attend.”

Mkamanga said FOND will extend formal invitations to its members, all churches, political parties, government officials, traditional leaders, business communities, current MPs and those that did not make to Parliament, NGOs, senior citizen.

FOND has also said it “ will sort services of some lawyers that will offer assistance in case of arrest of organizers of the event on ‘Pro Bono services’.”

The group said it will campaign for federalism and offer civic education to the citizens.

“FOND is currently on design stage of identifying organizations that would assist define and produce material for civic education as well defining what Federation is verses current Unitary System both its best practices as well as disadvantages,” said Mkamanga.

According to Mkamanga, Fond has  identified what it has called ‘reverse qouta system’ of selecting students into the northern region secondary schools apart from what has been discovered at Nkhatabay secondary.

“ Data is being collected from Phwezi, Chaminade, Kaseye, Ekwendeni Girls, Mary Mount, Mzuzu government, University of Mzuzu  as one way of demonstrating the evils unitary system under DPP lead government. This information will be part of presentation during debate as one such serious example.”

The group said it welcomes government respresentative to the debate “ instead of wasting resources and time to bribe our chiefs as there are not the only stakeholders in such regard.”

FOND said it is collecting data on how many students who obtained between 6-15 points that are still sitting in villages between 2010 to 2013.

“ Information that was on agenda is around 121 students are still in their respective villages and the number keeps growing year on year.”

Members of the grouping have also cautioned traditional leaders to consult their subjects to allow debate before issuance of statements that are opinionated.

The group said  North Malawi has a strong case to demand federalism , pointing out that after 50 years of independence, northern region has no air transport connection to the rest of the world  and that none of their extractive industry has aided development in northern region, citing Paladin’s uranium mine at Kayelekela in Karonga.

President  Peter Mutharika has since  urged political and religious leaders to give dialogue and reconciliation a chance, instead of dividing the country.

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