Prof Chisi takes swipe at Chakwera’s counter-Covid-19 strategy
Professor John Chisi—President of Umodzi Party (UP) which is a member of the ruling Tonse Alliance government—has taken a swipe at President Lazarus Chakwera led administration for “being off-track” with the way it is countering the Coronavirus pandemic in the country.
He said it was “mournful” that despite Malawi’s myriad of experts in numerous fields, Chakwera has no clear plan to effectively manage Covid-19 in the country.
Folly of copy and paste
According to Chisi—who is a scientific researcher, practicing medical doctor and professor of medicine at the University of Malawi’s College of Medicine specialized in the field of experimental pathology (Haematology)—Malawi needed to “customize its approach towards the handling of the virus.”
An interview with Rainbow TV monitored by Nyasa Times Chisi said that for instance, President Chakwera and team “needed to understand the dynamics of this country.”
Chisi gave an example of late Tanzanian President John Pombe Magufuli who he said understood the dynamics of his country and had a customized approach in handling the pandemic, and did not rush to shut down schools as Malawi did because he knew young people were not going to die of Covid-19.
Said Chisi: “First of all, they [Chakwera and team] had to first understand the demographics of Malawi. What is the distribution of our population? You will realise that our population unlike that of most of Europe is a youthful population, and youths do not die of Covid-19, they are simply vectors.”
“And yet we copied and pasted what was being done in the UK here and went ahead to shut down our schools. Now, tell me, after schools were shut, did we not see the same pupils loitering in markets and getting unwanted pregnancies? How many have died of Covid-19?” he questioned.
Chisi tipped Chakwera administration “to consult and engage experts on such issues” to save the country from being hit hard should the third wave of the Coronavirus come.
MCP egoism
Umodzi Party, which was the first of the eight other parties to join the UTM-MCP alliance last year, said it was time MCP started consolidating the various party manifestos as they had agreed.
Chisi said “without Chakwera roping in strategic ideas of other Tonse partners including Umodzi Party, the development of Malawi remains an illusion.”
He said: “When we were joining the alliance, you must understand that we had our own manifesto. And upon joining the alliance we were assured that the manifestos would be consolidated because we had made it clear as Umodzi [Party] that we had it in our blueprint how we would make the 1 million jobs possible.”
But, eight months later, Chisi said, nothing seems to be happening.
Time to industrialise
“Umodzi Party has always had a solution for unemployment in this country, and that is why we thought we would be of great assistance to the Alliance. The solution to unemployment is to industrialise this country because it is the industries that can provide jobs,” said Chisi.
He said much as MCP had done well in its initial year as far as the agriculture sector is concerned, the sector was not an ideal solution to turn the country into a robust economy.
“Now we need to industrialise this country and create jobs. And that is what we are ready to offer as Umodzi Party,” he said.
Teachers’ impasse
Commenting on miscellaneous issues, Chisi said it was sad that government “was not serious in the manner it was handling teachers on the issue of Covid-19 allowances.”
Teachers in the country and the government have failed to reach a compromise with the former giving an ultimatum of up to seven days for the latter to pay them their allowances or stage an unspecified action should they not be paid.
Professor Chisi said the impasse was impacting negatively on the education system in the country which will take a long time to heal.
“The problem is that government is taking teachers for granted. It needs to reason with teachers and come to a compromise. After all, if you asked me, teachers are the most rational and understanding persons,” he said.
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Is the professor trying to say that it is ok for elderly like him to die with covid? Does the professor know that some youths who are also vectors brought the virus to their homes from school and are now orphans?
A pulofesa Chisi mwayionera patali. Munapusisidwa. Munayanira mumvi wakulowani maso hehede. Mwalirira kuutsi ndi kunong’oneza bondo. Kuyimba ng’oma anzanu avina. Bolavwa Mbakuwaku anali nji osatekeseka anayionera patali kuti ngozi ikubwera.
who doesn’t know chisi,? this guy is just a chancers.
It’s funny that he is praising Magufuli who succumbed to the virus himself because of his arrogance. While customization is a good idea, Tanzania got it totally wrong. They have lost many people including 10 senior government officials within 1 month
Am happy the fact that he can speak out and he utilize the reason and I personally I agree with him really the president he doesn’t have a clue what current situation to deal with it
Prof.Chisi,
I request you to stand as an MP…you will make it for sure.Start underground now,2025,will win with flying colors.Nkhukumanya kwamba kale wamwana iwe,una Inborn vinjero,wapambana chomene na Mbuzi yakukwako yira,kunifumba Cha,wayimanya kale.
At the same time,i request His Excellency to give you ministerial post,you are fit with development ideas.
Yewo Chomene,
+27724722299
[email protected]
Imwe namwe mwati mupemphe a president wapereke u ministerial position kwa munthu wakufuntha nga chisi? imwe zakuti doda ndakuzelezeka ili nthe mukumanya cha?
kkkkk sure copy and paste ndizomwe amadziwapo a Nonse alliance.i support you Chisi
Waona nyengo ikumala palibe chake akupezako personally. There are professionals in the task force. Medical officers aren’t the only professionals to control the pandemic. Covid19 is social, economic, medical and political. This man is antiCongress. We all doubted his joining of the Alliance. Possibly he was planted by DPP to be spying on the Alliance ndiye adatchera kumwezi nkhanga zidaona. Let him get out of the Alliance and join DPP+UDF. As for us we will be through the COVID19 soon. Nobody knew about the virus to decide whether schools should remain open. It was a risk nobody wanted to take. Neither did he. The world has no profs for COVID19.
Please stop blaming all criticism and failures on DPP. What do you mean Chisi was a DPP plant? Anything that opposes or critiques the current Alliance direction is DPP or cadet. This attitude towards criticism is the most disheartening element in the Alliance. Please take criticism soberly and learn from it. There a lot of sense in what this guy is saying.
Eiish!!!!
You can see how a Professor speaks with fear or favour. He is part of the Alliance but is able to speak what could be good for the country. He has even before that openly said that Chakwera has no clue on how to handle the covid 19 impasse. We have abundance of untapped professionals in the country and yet they are not fully utilised. Akatengedwa ndi maiko ena you start to say bwerani kumudzi mudzatukule dziko, nonsense. Job creation, phwaaaaaa, inclusion of manifestos of other Alliance members, phweeeee.
Ati professor mfundo zopepela chonchi, kumabakila strike ya aphunzitsi pa covid money.,…and you say you are a professor. A professor, the whole world countries economies are on their knees due to covid 19 ndiye mukamunene mnzanu kuti where are 1 million jobs. Inu a professor which line of thinking is this?
You are joking your professorship boss, it’s not possible to create 1 million jobs amidst covid or mutakhala inu…..ndinu opusa kwambiri sukulu yanu singapindulire anthu chifukwa ndinu opanda chilungamo
There are always people who voice out like they are intelligent and they rally sound it but they don’t have power to make decision for the mass, hence let alone be allowed to make noise until their last day.
Kodi inunso ndiye mwatani? Mmesa muli mu Tonse momwemo inuyo? Ndiye kuti you have failed together, don’t blame your partners boss. Blame yourself for partnering with people musakudziwa vision yawo bobhoo! If you agreed to walk with them ndiye kuti you understood each other, mukuti chani lero tsopano!
I stand to differ with Prof Chisi. How does one bring in the example of covid-19 denier and ant science person like Magufuli? Is he not responsible for many deaths in his country including his own?
Reading through the article, I expected to read somewhere that, being one of the Tonse Alliance Leadership, Prof. Chisi had a meeting with President Chakwera or his VP, SKC, to discuss his concerns re-Covid 19 and any other issues pertaining to Health. He is entitled to such meetings. My concern is that, unless he was given a cold shoulder, it’s not fair for him to criticize Chakwera the way he has done. Otherwise some of us can only conclude he is being hypocritic and just seeking some sort attention to prove his relevance.
Please engage your alliance partners in future for a better Malawi.
This is not Tonse govt it’s MCP govt it’s for many times should I keep on you people….ife tikuyendera Chakwera super High five
good man Chisi
I will agree with professor Chisi on USE OF SPECIALISTS or EXPERTS. I am sure in the past 50 years we have trained enough of our own. Let me appeal to the educated group; please accept positions in your area of specialisation. Thats the only way we can contribute effectively. No common sense this time. Mphuzitsi wa Masamu is Director of Higher Education; What do we expect.
The good Professor
Chisi is right. The world has fialed to give us full information about Covid-19. Here is a disease that has a recovery rate of 97%. The death rate is 3%. Of the 3% you will find that over 2% are more that 60 years old and with underlying factors. The youth have strong immunity and can fight off the disease. Closing schools was a mistake. This copy and paste will not help us. Did the lockdowns help Western Countries? Donald Trump was against lockdowns. We talk of India without thinking about her massive population of 1.4 billion people. What is the percentage of the cases against total population? Anthu angopezerapo mwayi wobera K6.2 billion apa. Mwadyetsa bwino Kondwani Nankhumwa and Mainja.
Hie Proff Chisi, have u ever engaged or you are waiting for the President to ‘consult’ you?
Chisi needs to remember that it was Peter who shut down schools. Laz opened them. Zikomo