Malawi President yet to give bank accounts consent for verification

President Peter Mutharika is yet to give letters of consent to local journalists to examine details of his US bank accounts, five days after he challenged them to do so to prove he was already super rich before he ascended to the presideny.

His press office on Monday tossed Nyasa Times from one office to another when we wanted to get the consent letters which would have allowed us access his US bank accounts which have been at the centre of heated debate since his recent tantrums.

Some of his officials at State House even feigned ignorance that the head of state made the statement at a press briefing on Thursday at Kamuzu Palace in Lilongwe characterised by Mutharika’s unusual high tempers and fury, arrogance and intolerance.

“I was already a millionaire when I returned to Malawi from America. You can check my bank accounts in New York,” he said.

Mutharika had lived and worked in US for 40 years before returning to Malawi in 2007, two years after his late brother Bingu ascended to the presidency on United Democratic Front after former president Bakili Muluzi handpicked him.

“My salary is only K1.4 milion , I was making 10 times that when I was out of the country,” he said hitting at his critics who say he is extravagant and insesitive to the country’s dire economic situation following his unpopular decision to charter presidential jets on his endless globetrotting and take with him a historic larger than life delegation to the UN in the US.

According to the President’s declaration of assets to the office of director of public officers, he has over US$8m in two bank accounts in the US.