Opinion: The DPP chaos in the House is APM’s fault
Maybe he was sulking or was it the sting of defeat at the hands of the Lazarus Chakwera-led Tonse Alliance in the court-ordered June 23 2020 fresh presidential election.
It may as well have been that the octogenarian Arthur Peter Mutharika (APM) was so tired after two grueling presidential campaigns in one year that, in the spur of the moment, he screamed, “No, no, no, no, I can’t do this anymore, I quit!”
Whatever the case was, the truth is that APM, after conceding defeat, gave the impression that he was out of active politics.
Responding to a question on what Mutharika’s plan was after his loss, the former president’s spokesperson Mgeme Kalilani said in 2020: “His immediate plan is to settle down as a private citizen like any other Malawian and shake-off the aura of public life having made his contribution towards making Malawi better at the level of the presidency.”
Soon after, Mutharika disappeared to his retirement home named Page House in Mangochi and was holed-up there for months where he methodically avoided criticizing President Chakwera and his administration.
He was so out of site that everyone in the party was convinced there would be no return to active, let alone presidential politics, for the law professor.
It is why, from early 2021, folks like former Minister of Finance Joseph Mwanamvekha had the courage to criss-cross the country to meet Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) grassroots leaders who form the political grouping’s Electoral College to offer himself to serve as party head and win back power.
It was that same belief that APM had indeed retired that the likes of vice-president for Eastern Region Bright Msaka—one of the most cautious men I know—that prompted him to throw, albeit gingerly, his hat into the ring and began to position himself for the DPP presidency.
Even former Reserve Bank of Malawi Governor Dalitso Kabambe joined the fray.
As for the impatient wannabe Nankhumwa, he couldn’t wait to see the back of his boss APM as soon as it was clear he had lost the election.
There was a rhythm in DPP that people were now free to start publicly vying for the DPP presidency, until they realised they weren’t. Mutharika, out of the blue, had started signaling that he wanted to come back.
From nowhere, presidential aspirants were seen as divisive and confusionists. Indeed, Mutharika started floating the idea that ‘people’ wanted him to return and save them from the economic pain he claimed Chakwera had brought on them with his failed policies.
Orders from Page House started flying around that all campaigns for DPP leadership positions should stop forthwith. The likes of Msaka, Mwanamvekha and Kabambe recoiled to their corners and toed the Page House line, which is seen as the party’s head office. But Nankhumwa remained steadfast in his pursuit of the DPP leadership and, in his dreams, the country’s presidency.
NOTE: This opinion first appeared in the Weekend Nation
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