Simango ‘thinking aloud’: The price of greed in Malawi

When it finally sinks in, you will start asking yourselves ‘how did this happen?’ Well, here is a quick answer for you: You made the mistake of believing that you were an invincible system and all you had to do was to switch the ‘on’ button at the appropriate time and everything would fall into place. Big mistake. You are not a system and have never been a system. Let me break it down for you.

1. Bingu won second term on account of his infrastructure delivery and fertiliser subsidy. System or no system, he was going to get re-elected (although with what we are seeing now, I have doubts on the margins he won with).

2. You won in 2014 on account of Bingu’s goodwill.  Period.

Now, here is how you ensured your loss, this time around.

Because you believed you were a system, you decided to get rid of Saulos Klaus Chilima (SKC) in order to retain the presidency within your tribe so you can continue looting public coffers and sharing public positions amongst your lot.

What you did not count on was a new element amongst you – Gertrude Mutharika,  the First Lady. She fooled you by playing docile and unambitious. Before you knew it, she had President Peter Mutharika  in a bottle and was in charge of State House with her sights set on owning the presidency after her husband.

And just like that, your house became divided.

And, devoid of the very weapon that Peter had hoped would take the party to new heights, your non-system fell apart. It was actually painful to watch.

So how was it supposed to be? What was your best path to victory? It’s there for every one to see that Peter has always been a reluctant president. His ambitions started and ended at winning the presidency and nothing more.

My gut tells me he wanted to stay on for just a couple of years and then resign to leave Chilima in charge while he goes into retirement to enjoy his whisky.

Had that happened with Chilima teaming up with Kondwani Nankhumwa as his running mate, for example, there was nothing was going to stand in the way of the SKC marketing machinery, especially operating out of Plot Number One.

So how did you end up here? Greed.

And because of that, you will now have to face an enemy that managed to take you out while bootstrapping. Now it is perched on the citadel. Be afraid. Be very afraid.

Simple English? You are dead.