One can not fault President Dr Lazarus McCarthy Chakwera for being concerned when news made rounds on the alleged abduction of one Silvester Namiwa by unknown elements on Wednesday last week.
The President even did release a press statement to that effect, condemning the act on one of his perceived critics; someone who has been working tooth and nail to discredit the administration since Chakwera rose to power.
I am saying Chakwera cannot be begrudged for extending such sympathy to one of his seemingly fierce critics.
Namiwa in a an abduction movie
Not only does this speak volumes of how exemplary a leader should be in terms of tolerance, but it also underlines the fact that the President operates under the fundamental principle of Umunthu, read Ubuntu across the region.
Besides, Chakwera remains a devoted Christian, an ordained church pastor with an excellent track record.
Above all, he remains a caring father and a loving husband whose parenthood niches have been extended to the entire nation; errant as some of his subjects may choose to be.
For the record, Namiwa was the lead organiser for the July 28 anti-government nationwide protests through his Centre for Democracy and Economic Development Initiatives (CDEDI); a group he found after he fell out of favour from Peter Mutharika’s Presidential Press Office.
Why and how he left the State House job is neither here nor there. It actually may be a topic for another day.
For now, we focus on his role as a mobiliser for anti-government protests that somehow did not materialise; at least according to their plan.
Accordingly, Namiwa hosted a press conference in the Capital Lilongwe on Wednesday afternoon where he briefed the media on the preparations made so far.
On that occasion, it was also made clear by Namiwa and company, that the demos were to go ahead and that nothing would prevent them from demonstrating the following morning.
And then, the drama begun.
As the journalists in attendance left the conference venue, Namiwa and crew were also said to have left the venue.
After a short while, rumours of his alleged abduction started making rounds on social media.
Now, hear this.
Almost immediately, CDEDI produced a press statement, confirming the rumours.
This is where I find Namiwa as another time waster; an attention-seeker whose ever- rushing blood in his veins are there to act as a deterrent against a new Malawi rising.
Otherwise, he, and his team, would have been smarter; right from the beginning as they hatched their plans
Smart I say?
No, I am sorry: The two nouns, Namiwa and smartness, cannot and should not be used in a single sentence. One may grievely anger the Queen’s language!
According to the statement the team released immediately Namiwa was allegedly abducted, the guy is said to have met his ‘fate’ at Area 3 Roundabout, enroute to Likuni.
The statement, signed by CDEDI Communications Officer Edwin Mauluka, made mention of some “unknown thugs with unregistered number plates” to have overtaken Namiwa’s car before blocking him.
You remember we mentioned something about being smart and Namiwa being not good buddies?
You heard me correctly. He is not smart. If he were, he would not have acted the way the statement said he did.
Obviously, Namiwa was not vigilant enough; just someone blinded by his misguided zeal to complete a given mission.
First, picture this: “Without realising that it was a plot to kidnap him, Namiwa _came out of the car to confront the thugs_. And this is when the abductors dragged him into their vehicles in a zigzag way into Area 3 location streets,” explained the statement.
Just from here, one, even a primary school learner who is smart enough than the subject in question can easily deduce that this was a move well laid out beforehand: Namiwa left his car for the ‘thugs’. He just switched cars.
And the statement does not specify why his security detail did to help wrestle their paymaster back from the abductors.
More questions arise with the Statement claiming that some CDEDI members tried to chase the abductors’ vehicle but were not successful.
Come on, guys; one does not have to always be KGB, CIA, FBI or indeed Hitler’s deadly Nazi’s SS to read a potential threat in a combat sense. Reaction becomes instinctive.
I mean, don’t they say it in the military that a distracted soldier is a dead soldier?
For sure after the incident, the abduction and his subsequent ‘rise from the dead’, Namwiwa should have fired his entire security detail.
They failed to protect him.
But nay, it was never to be on this one. This one was supposed to be played to the letter; probably with the press statement already authored.
And I do not want to speculate the length of period taken before the ‘survivor’s reported the incident to the Police; situated almost a stone-throw away from where the abduction allegedly happened.
“Unfortunately, Namiwa left all his mobile phones and his laptop in his car as the abductors just picked him. Currently, we don’t know his whereabouts,” Mauluka is quoted as saying by media sources almost immediately word went round that Namiwa has been abducted.
A good lier, it is said, should have a good memory.
As for Mauluka, he forgot about this or plainly, he is not aware of what he is doing; probably just like his boss.
On the day Namiwa was allegedly found on the outskirts of the city at Nathenje, almost two days after his ‘abduction’, his spokesperson was quoted to have narrated the following in a written questionnaire:
_”We were five of us on the car with Mr. Namiwa. The bouncers in a vehicle without numberplate blocked the car at Area 3 Officers Mess near Roundabout._
_”The vehicle blocked Mr. Namiwa’s car and when he stopped to avoid hitting the car in front of him, several bouncers emerged from the vehicle and quickly sorounded the car Mr. Namiwa was in._
_”They forced open the doors and pulled out Mr. Namiwa while beating him. They took him into their vehicle and sped away._
_”One of us took drove of Mr. Namiwa’s car and began a chase. However, he never succeeded and the car disappeared when it left Lilongwe By-pass road into Area 36 location._
_”We have reported the incident of abduction at Area 3 Police Station.”_
Again, it needs no rocket science to detect some inconsistencies in this explanation and what was said in the press release earlier.
And also, note the time they claimed to have reported the matter to Police.
When pressed by the media of his whereabouts and his personal health, Namiwa insisted on meeting his family and lawyers first before he could give details of his alleged abduction.
And also, we are talking of a man who was reported to have been beaten half-to-death.
Even one with a faith like a mustard seed would not have agreed to such claims. Namiwa just looked alright for a man claiming to have been assaulted to near-dead levels.
And then, there is the issue of his attire; the one he was in before the said abduction and the attire he was found in later.
Studying the pictures released, one can easily tell that Namiwa had changed his attire into a smart T-shirt from the red golf shirt he was initially in before they ‘took him away’.
Come Monday, August 1, 2022, the stage masters were at it again; calling for a press conference where they tried so much to impress the nation how near-dead Namiwa was left by his abductors after some rigorous assault on his body.
In my humble opinion, for someone who brings the faith card in claiming that he can’t lie as he is “a devout Christian”, I am sure he could have done himself, l, and his sympathisers some great service were it that he presented (before the cameras) the alleged wounds while they were fresh.
At the press conference, Namiwa was visibly searching for where to point at on his body in support of his claims.
Here too, he goofed. Not necessarily that we were disappointed though with that, no. It is expected of him; of ‘activists’ of his calibre. Always acting like headless chicken.
And at the presser, Namiwa-just like when he addressed the media when he was ‘found’ on Friday- kept being defiant.
“We are not going to relent. We will fight on. We will not be intimidated by this MCP government. We can’t allow President Chakwera to take us back to the one party system that we ditched during the 1993 Referendum.”
The big question is who is this “we”?
From the look of things, Namiwa and his CDEDI caricatures have got a hidden agenda behind their actions. And it is clear this is nothing to do with Malawi and for the good of the nation for that matter
Surely, it has to do with some individuals that I hope to discuss in detail in my next entry.
As it stands, Namiwa is and will remain some gun for hire, always going for the highest bidder!
Namiwa, the self-styled activist, should know that while he and his cronies may still be stupid, Malawi is no longer!
For now, I am sure the Police have not shelved their investigations on the matter.
By the way, can’t the _conduct likely to cause breach of [public] peace_ apply here? Because, for all I know, President Chakwera won’t sanction his arrest for insulting him or will the President withhold Namiwa’s right to demonstrate.
Chakwera is way much smarter to involve himself in such muddy affairs.
Normally, such mudslinging business is usually left to the pigs, and not someone who has got a country to fix amid some private elements that are seemingly geared to hold him back time and again because they now believe that the President is now the real deal!
