Kamuzu Chibambo labels  Malawi donor dependency ‘chicken mentality’

Opposition Peoples Transformation Party (Petra) president, Kamuzu Chibambo has branded the country’s lust for donor aid as a ‘chicken mentality’, and  has since urged the nation to fully utilize locally available resources if the economy is to transform.

Petera president Kamuzu Chibambo: Time for Malawi to stop relying on aid
Petera president Kamuzu Chibambo: Time for Malawi to stop relying on aid

The local economy continues to sail through troubled waters, and the authorities have started embracing the idea that bilateral donors are not bringing back their budgetary support.

Bilateral donors- who contributed about 40 percent of the country’s budget- closed their aid taps for Malawi in November 2013 following revelations of massive looting of public funds by greedy civil servants and businesses in what is known as the cashgate.

And in a recorded interview with Capital Radio, Chibambo said it was high time Malawians started making better use of locally available resources and stop relying on aid.

“Donor aid is not the answer for Malawi, and this is the message that should be drummed into our people again and again. For me donor aid I take it as a chicken mentality, wanting others to bankroll our living in Malawi. It cannot be; it’s unacceptable,” said Chibambo.

Chibambo said the country has been blessed with resources such as water, minerals and land which, if put into better use, would help to transform the social and economic landscape.

“We need to look at what we have as a country; let’s take full stock of what we have. We need to ask ourselves what are we creating for our country.”

Malawi has been depending on donor aid for decades, however, last year Finance Minister Goodall Gondwe advised the nation to forget the possibility of donors returning with their aid purse, saying the donors were pulling out of a number of countries.

“I would like to emphasize this very strongly. We should not proceed on the premise that the donors will come back with their budgetary support purses. We could have budgetary support from the World Bank, the EU and the African Development Bank but I would have difficulty in proceeding on the basis of expecting that the bilateral donors will come back,” said Gondwe.

He further said expecting donors to come back was not a realistic expectation.

Gondwe noted that mobilizing more resources locally and being efficient by doing more with less were some of the options on the table for the country to operate without donor dependency.

Recently, a University of Malawi’s Chancellor College- based political analyst Dr Boniface Dulani faulted and attributed President Peter Mutharika’s failure to win back budgetary support to his inconsistent position on the issue of donor aid.

Dulani also told Malawi’s flagship daily, The Nation’s Political Index that the country’s economic policies continue to make the nation unattractive investment destination with Malawians heavily squeezed with punitive taxes making domestic savings and investment impossible.

Mutharika has been inconsistent on donor aid. He has been pleading with the donors to reopen the aid taps despite his earlier claims that Malawi does not need aid.

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Winston Msowoya
Winston Msowoya
8 years ago

By all means,as far as where we are now economically,we can not afford to run our nation independently, the economy is free for all.In fact,no matter how strong the economy might be,it could not survive within the vicious climate of corruption that exists in the government of Peter Mathanyula.it is absolutely foolishness to condemn the donor nations for their outright criticism of the evil Muthalika dynasty.This started when Bingu stole billions of Kwacha some of which went into building a small White House (Ndata) and some stollen funds were used to rig the last election in favour of Peter’s political… Read more »

william
william
8 years ago

Bilateral donors are the main agents of suffering in malawi.These so called donations are not donations as u may suggest,they come in with terrible myriad conditions that worsen the country’s affairs the most.Malawi as a sovereign state must cognitively come up with practical strategic ideas on utilization of the resources that we have.Honestly we are below poverty line today not simply because we are inherently intellectually incapacitated but because we are perpetually being exploited by these same donors in many ways.I pledge to fellow malawians particularly the colossi to be honest and transparent when executing govt developmental projects.Let me conquer… Read more »

FABIANO
FABIANO
8 years ago

BINGU’S IDEAS TO RUN THE COUNTRY WITHOUT DONOR SUPPORT WAS GOOD. BUT HIS PEOBLEM WAS THAT HE SAID THAT AFTER PICKING FIGHTS WITH DONORS. MALAWI NEEDS A PROPER TRASITION TO ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT SUPPORTED BY THE SAME DONORS. THIS IS WHAT WAS LACKING IN BINGU’S

International Observer
International Observer
8 years ago

What a suggestion by Mr. Chibambo. The problem we have is that there are so many players who feel are capable of assisting in the running of affairs in government, hence the chaotic situation we are in as a country. The current Minister of Finance once said it, APM once hinted about it but the reaction from the general public plus other opposition leaders was that Malawi cannot do without aid, that the president was out of his senses because he spent most of his time abroad etc. If people embraced the ideas as set out by late Bingu, the… Read more »

Fingo
Fingo
8 years ago

You have written a lot but it’s all nonsense. Number 1 – the Chinese are only interested in extracting primary commodities in Africa for use back in China. Anyone who thinks the Chinese can assist an African country to develop needs his head examined. Number 2 – a serious government cannot fail to carry out its agenda simply because there are many people saying the opposite. DPP got the mandate to govern in 2014 but only God knows what they have chosen to do with that mandate. Number 3 – neither Bingu nor APM know the meaning of austerity. It… Read more »

Fraction
Fraction
8 years ago

Is this new? Bingu said this and he was given 60 days to leave office for telling donors to go to hell among other reasons. Most Malawians now know Bingu was right. Zambezi Water Way has been derided with people calling Bingu names as well as rejoicing at Mozambique’s sabbotaging of the ceremony in Nsanje. What a shame! When this project materializes Malawians will wake up again to appreciate what a visionary Bingu was. I don’t support Chibambo but I do support his idea espoused in this article. With all that massive, systematic and daily siphoning of billions of kwachas… Read more »

ISSA KABUDULA
ISSA KABUDULA
8 years ago

The PETRA president woyeeee!!! am on your side in supporting the idea – tell the ILLOVU for only a year to plant maize and rice – that will end hunger for 2 or more years in Malawi. We need radical changes to development. Ulemu and stupid democracy will not assist Malawi which is losing its girls and boys who are leaving the country every 3 hours, and many are dying in their way before their destination. We know this, but we are keeping quiet. We need opposition parties which will bring solutions on the table, no blames and we need… Read more »

Truck
Truck
8 years ago

YES THAT TRUE IS LIKE CHICKEN MENTALITY OFCOURSE THEY WANT DONOR AID TO COME BUT THEY ARE FAILING TO CONFISCATE CASHGATE MONEY AND PROPERTY ITS A JOKE FIRST CONFISCATE CASHGATE MONEY AND PROPERTY PUT THAT MONEY IN GOVERNMENT TO START WORKING MAY BE DONOR AID CAN COME BACK

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