Talking Blues: A tale of leading by doing nothing

Once upon a time, there was a village in a valley straddling a river called Lawi.

Its people earned their livelihoods by subsistence farming; cultivating various crops by the river. One day, as they were tending their fields, they noticed a baby floating downstream.

One brave villager rushed into the waters, grabbed the baby and brought it to the riverbank. Other villagers commended him, and together, they ensured the baby’s safety and recuperation.

Not too many days passed before more babies came floating downstream.

Villagers joined forces and laboured hard to save them. The appearance of babies on the river soared. The whole village was soon performing rescue efforts; pulling babies out of the river, bathing, cleaning them, and making sure they were looked after.

Of course, not all babies were being rescued. Some became crocodile prey, while others drowned, the villagers’ valiant efforts notwithstanding. Undaunted, the villages continued saving the babies.

However, exhaustion and fatigue crept in. Fuses became very short, and tempers started flaring quickly. At this point, one young man was seen running northward along the bank of Lawi River.

Someone shouted, “Where are you going? We need all hands here to save the babies!”

The youth responded, “I am going upstream to find the son of a gun throwing the babies into the river!”

Some villagers commended the young man for such a brilliant idea. Sending the young man, or even a contingent upstream to see where the babies were coming from and finding out the root of the problem would perhaps ease their effort and could even stop whatsoever was dumping babies into the river, potentially eliminating the exhausting and time-consuming crusade.

Others disagreed and hullabaloo ensued.

The opposing minds countered that all hands were needed on deck to rescue as many babies as possible. The others still contended that there was a need to investigate upstream to nip the evil in the bud.

“Can’t you see? If we find out how these babies are falling into the river in the first place, we can stop this, and no more babies will drown. We should deploy a team upstream to eradicate the cause of the problem!”

“But it’s too risky,” others insisted. “It might fail or take too long. We will lose too many lives!”

“But don’t you see that we are being overwhelmed and babies will die anyway. Let us go upstream to find out the underlying cause.”

Deadlocked, two delegations were dispatched to the Village Chief for advice and a decision.

The chief, wanting to be seen neutral, appointed a committee of impis to deliberate on the predicament. Committees in place, the chief took a backseat on his ndalema, meanwhile entertaining delegations of visitors and visiting neighbouring villages on one pretext or another.

With some folks appointed into committees, there were even fewer hands to perform the now 24-hour rescue operation, pulling babies from Lawi River, bathing and cleaning them and making sure they were allocated foster parents.

After a while, villagers started grumbling. The work was becoming excruciating. The chief, hearing of increasing discontent, was regularly addressing them to placate them.

After zero progress from the committees, the chief expressed his vexation that the people and committees he had appointed were sabotaging him by not resolving things quickly.

Now, unknown to everyone, the chief had lived upstream as a young boy, long before assuming the chieftaincy. He still had contacts, and through those, he knew precisely why babies were being dumped into the river.

Yet, instead of getting to the bottom of the issue, he had opted to delegate this crucial issue. Worse, despite the lack of progress, this chief seemed content to merely express vexation.

Now, let me digress.

Our beloved country, this beautiful land of ours straddling Lake Malawi, has a multitude of challenges. These challenges are why, among other things, President Peter Mutharika and his Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) was rejected by voters. Conversely, promising to resolve the challenges that Mutharika failed to fix is how current President Lazarus Chakwera was voted into office.

Unlike the hapless villagers of Lawi Village, we know that most, if not all, our problems are rooted in public resources’ mismanagement.

Against this background, Chakwera and his pals promised to:

  1. a) apprehend all thieves,
  2. b) recover funds stolen from public coffers and
  3. c) invest these and other funds safeguarded from theft into our livelihood.

By so doing, social service delivery would improve, infrastructure would be developed with a million jobs created in twelve months, prices of fertilizer would be reduced universally, and we would be eating three times a day.

You know the reality? Our fellow Malawians who depend on the Kamuzu Central Hospital’s faulty machines for dialysis – read: patients – marched this past week demanding urgent attention to their situation.

Patients marching for dear life.  Why?

Because the government lacks adequate resources to maintain and buy medical equipment since some people, allegedly former government officials and operatives stole our money. Money which Chakwera and his alliance partners promised would be recovered and invested in, among other things, medical equipment.

Six months later, after a spate of arrests intended to hoodwink Malawians that something was afoot, Zero Kwacha has been recovered.

No trial worth talking about is in progress, let alone the recovery of looted resources and Chakwera’s defence or rather excuse is that he “freed and funded” the Anti-corruption Bureau (ACB) and that’s it.

That is it.

To rub salt into our wounds, that the ACB Director General’s office is vacant, a vacancy that everyone was expecting but did nothing about. A cabal that won election on the promise to fight corruption is happy to see the ACB without leadership!

Now go back to the tale above and tell me how different Chakwera’s leadership is from the indifferent chief who – having delegated a problem to his lieutenants – was happy to just talk and talk, go here today and there tomorrow, pursuing this or that ceremonial duty while his people were hurting.

Do you see any difference?

I don’t.

“Nana-ta!” (None at all).

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KK Mulaudzi
KK Mulaudzi
3 years ago

I couldn’t have put it better myself. Excellent depiction of Laz’s failed leadership. When Joe Biden said of Trump that “…he wants the job but he doesn’t want to do the work”, he could as well have been talking about LMC… When I think of the time many people spent on the queues on 23rd June 2020 thinking that they were getting rid of a clueless leader and replacing him with an effective, results oriented leader, I almost come to tears. All is not lost however, if individual ministers, the VP and top public officers can choose to be different… Read more »

Sindyeka Dekhani
Sindyeka Dekhani
3 years ago

The sabotours’ (knowing they will never govern this country because they’re barred), will only ensure to hoodwink Malawians that they’re kingmakers. Akingmaker is like the chief’s dog, and being an African Dog, it will still eat bones!

If i were LMC, i would replace my Legal structure immediately.

Mwamvabe!!

Mdala
Mdala
3 years ago

What a nice story! But unfortunately it is the cruel reality the 21st century, 57 years after independence, after 7 x government change, in our beloved country, the so called ” Warm Heart of Africa “…!
To many babies and little hope!
Where is this strong and pragmatic servant – leadership you promised!

Anzanufe
Anzanufe
3 years ago

That’s what happens when you believe too much in pathological liars who pretend to be servant leaders

Akuchikazi kuchigwa
Akuchikazi kuchigwa
3 years ago

our president failed to deploy right people to work for him. They are incompetent and he cant reprimand them. they have no integrity and can not resist kickbacks. some think childishly. the list of thise who ate our money and walking free is too long. starting with Bakili, joyce banda, mphwiyo and his team.

Back Lash
3 years ago

Mapwiya, use a MEGAPHONE! English is a foreign language. Use a MEGAPHONE and local language. No slang.

Alamu Pumani Mwakalamba

Is fighting corruption the only thing you are waiting for? How far are we from 1st January? Malawians are waiting for tangible development like roads, schools, hospitals etc. We have now seen that dpp and udf did literally nothing to increase schools in Malawi. Education is for the rich. The poor cannot compete with the rich for places in secondary schools. This is what we want Chakwera to do. He can fight corruption while developing the country.

Zabweka
Zabweka
3 years ago

Previously, I was thinking that Alamu Pumani was a person with senses but now I believe that he is just a wet leopard who looks like a sheep.

NZERU NKUPANGWA
NZERU NKUPANGWA
3 years ago

I agree our problems are rooted in mismanagement of resources and it follows that all realms entrusted with our resources continually misappropriate and waste these precious resources. Now how do we deal with that seeing change of leadership guarantees the same malaise in one form or another?

PelomaPepe
PelomaPepe
3 years ago

No change at all except chizungu cha president! And we don’t eat the president’s accent.

CULTURE
CULTURE
3 years ago

Malawi needs a Presidential Council to run the country because Chakwela has miserably failed. This ever happened when Kamuzu was incapacitated. Chakwela is definitely incapacitated mentally and our country needs to be rescued. The bible says it is very dangerous to fall in the hands of God. Chakwela has already fallen in the hands of God and is now of the devil. He is busy serving the devil instead of God because of his fall. Chakwela started his leadership style with bloodshed spirit from John Tembo who appointed him to lead MCP. Tembo could not be inherited by someone with… Read more »

Last edited 3 years ago by CULTURE
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