Wed 1 Dec 2010 15.00 GMT
guardian.co.uk,
"Not content with his current titles," reads an article in South Africa's Mail & Guardian, "His Excellency the President Sheikh Professor Alhaji Doctor Yahya Jammeh wants to be crowned King of the Gambia. And the president has enlisted traditional leaders in his cause."
Unknown to many, another monarchy, far away from the Gambia, is being created in Malawi. The heavily titled His Excellency the State President Ngwazi (Conqueror of Conquerors) Professor Bingu wa Mutharika, barred by the constitution from running for a third term, wants his younger brother, Peter Mutharika, to succeed him.
Every week, chiefs from all over the country are paraded on national television to sing praises of Peter Mutharika. "Nobody in Malawi is more qualified than Peter to become our president in 2014," they say. A television programme, Road to 2014, has been specially created to exclusively campaign for the president's brother.
Many of the public are outraged, considering this blatant nepotism. They agree that the only qualification separating law professor Peter Mutharika from other highly qualified candidates within the ruling Democratic Progressive party is the blood connection to the president.
Some think that what has compelled President Mutharika to impose his brother on Malawians is the fear of being arrested for corruption when his term comes to an end. In Malawi, it has become a tradition that each former president gets arrested after leaving office.
In 1995, Hastings Banda, the founding president, was arrested on suspicion of having murdered four cabinet ministers in 1983. Bakili Muluzi, whom Mutharika succeeded, has been in court for the past four years answering charges of corruption, including the allegation that $12m of donor funds came to be found in his personal bank accounts.
Opposition leaders speculate that Mutharika, too, sees himself in Muluzi's shoes. When he took power in 2004, his declared personal assets were a little over $1m - mainly comprising a Malawian farm called Ndata and another farm he bought from his Zimbabwean friend, Robert Mugabe, in 2001.
Today, however, the 76-year-old president has built on Ndata farm a private palace estimated to have cost several million dollars, with 58 rooms, four floors, complete with escalators, a nuclear bunker and, next to the house, a dam thought to be worth a few more million.
In a 2009 interview with the official Malawi News Agency, Mutharika trashed any suggestion that he had accumulated ill-gotten wealth. He reminded Malawians that he was the only president to have ever declared personal assets in the first place.
Naturally, President Mutharika pointed out, people should expect an increase in his assets since he has been receiving a salary and allowances as head of state.
In spite of the president's vehement denial, there is no shortage of those who question how a mere salary and allowances could have made him so rich in so short a time.
In a country where the majority of the population survive on less than a dollar a day, once he is out of power, he would undoubtedly face questions about this sudden wealth - unless, perhaps, his brother were to succeed him.
Nothing is being left to chance in the moves to have Peter Mutharika take over. Vice-president Joyce Banda, seen as a stumbling block to the succession, is being privately pressurised by President Mutharika to resign. In public, she is ridiculed and ostracised, in sharp contrast to the president's self-praise in raising the status of women.
Her refusal to resign has angered Mutharika so much that Banda has now been reduced to a ceremonial role, to the public's disbelief. Peter Mutharika, officially an education minister, is de facto vice-president, ostentatiously driving around in huge motorcades like his brother.
Staunch supporters argue that Mutharika has "developed the country beyond recognition". As a result, they say, only another Mutharika can continue with this development agenda - an argument many Malawians disagree with.
"Not content with his current titles," reads an article in South Africa's Mail & Guardian, "His Excellency the President Sheikh Professor Alhaji Doctor Yahya Jammeh wants to be crowned King of the Gambia. And the president has enlisted traditional leaders in his cause."
Unknown to many, another monarchy, far away from the Gambia, is being created in Malawi. The heavily titled His Excellency the State President Ngwazi (Conqueror of Conquerors) Professor Bingu wa Mutharika, barred by the constitution from running for a third term, wants his younger brother, Peter Mutharika, to succeed him.
Every week, chiefs from all over the country are paraded on national television to sing praises of Peter Mutharika. "Nobody in Malawi is more qualified than Peter to become our president in 2014," they say. A television programme, Road to 2014, has been specially created to exclusively campaign for the president's brother.
Many of the public are outraged, considering this blatant nepotism. They agree that the only qualification separating law professor Peter Mutharika from other highly qualified candidates within the ruling Democratic Progressive party is the blood connection to the president.
Some think that what has compelled President Mutharika to impose his brother on Malawians is the fear of being arrested for corruption when his term comes to an end. In Malawi, it has become a tradition that each former president gets arrested after leaving office.
In 1995, Hastings Banda, the founding president, was arrested on suspicion of having murdered four cabinet ministers in 1983. Bakili Muluzi, whom Mutharika succeeded, has been in court for the past four years answering charges of corruption, including the allegation that $12m of donor funds came to be found in his personal bank accounts.
Opposition leaders speculate that Mutharika, too, sees himself in Muluzi's shoes. When he took power in 2004, his declared personal assets were a little over $1m - mainly comprising a Malawian farm called Ndata and another farm he bought from his Zimbabwean friend, Robert Mugabe, in 2001.
Today, however, the 76-year-old president has built on Ndata farm a private palace estimated to have cost several million dollars, with 58 rooms, four floors, complete with escalators, a nuclear bunker and, next to the house, a dam thought to be worth a few more million.
In a 2009 interview with the official Malawi News Agency, Mutharika trashed any suggestion that he had accumulated ill-gotten wealth. He reminded Malawians that he was the only president to have ever declared personal assets in the first place.
Naturally, President Mutharika pointed out, people should expect an increase in his assets since he has been receiving a salary and allowances as head of state.
In spite of the president's vehement denial, there is no shortage of those who question how a mere salary and allowances could have made him so rich in so short a time.
In a country where the majority of the population survive on less than a dollar a day, once he is out of power, he would undoubtedly face questions about this sudden wealth - unless, perhaps, his brother were to succeed him.
Nothing is being left to chance in the moves to have Peter Mutharika take over. Vice-president Joyce Banda, seen as a stumbling block to the succession, is being privately pressurised by President Mutharika to resign. In public, she is ridiculed and ostracised, in sharp contrast to the president's self-praise in raising the status of women.
Her refusal to resign has angered Mutharika so much that Banda has now been reduced to a ceremonial role, to the public's disbelief. Peter Mutharika, officially an education minister, is de facto vice-president, ostentatiously driving around in huge motorcades like his brother.
Staunch supporters argue that Mutharika has "developed the country beyond recognition". As a result, they say, only another Mutharika can continue with this development agenda - an argument many Malawians disagree with.
The development referred to is Malawi's success story in achieving food security. To Mutharika's credit, Malawi has turned from a net food importer to an exporter. Mutharika disregarded the International Monetary Fund policies and introduced a fertiliser subsidy for subsistence farmers.
But apart from food security, much of the development is exaggerated. In 2009, Malawi projected a GDP growth of 8.4% as published in the Economist, ranking it the second fastest in the world, behind Qatar.
Malawians question these statistics because nothing in their daily lives has changed to reflect this. Fuel, medicine in hospitals and jobs on the labour market are always in short supply. Foreign exchange is scarce and the import cover is dangerously stuck at four weeks as opposed to three months (the barest minimum recommended for an economy of Malawi's size).
Over the past three years, Malawi's exports have been, on average, less than its imports by $22m - a huge sum for such a small economy.
The president, not unlike Ugandan former dictator Idi Amin, accuses Indian businessmen of secretly smuggling forex out of Malawi.
But at the same time the president bought a private jet, to which the donor community, especially Britain, reacted angrily. The Department for International Development reduced aid money by about £3m per year for the next five years in reaction to the money spent on the new jet.
Another factor in the forex shortage is the president and his brother's frequent trips abroad, sometimes for as long as one month (on the part of the president) or two months (his brother). The president travels with a huge entourage of about 100 people at a time.
Malawi is not doing well on the human rights front, either. Anybody who criticises the president publicly risks being thrown in jail for sedition. Opposition politicians, religious clerics and others have been detained for this.
A female member of parliament, Anita Kalinde, was publicly assaulted by Mutharika's supporters for backing Vice-President Banda. No arrests were made.
Recently, the same gangs wanted to beat journalist Mike Chipalasa for asking the president "tough questions" at a press conference. He was saved by the police just in time. Again, no arrests were made.
Towards the end of 2009, the world was enraged by the arrests of two gay men who publicly announced their engagement - until they were later released after donor countries and UN secretary-general, Ban Ki-moon, intervened.
Besides, the president insults Malawians who do not support his ideas as "drunk", which infuriates multitudes.
All these things do not make a good recipe for a Mutharika dynasty. Regardless, the president is determined to give it a try.
--
Toyin Falola
Department of History
The University of Texas at Austin
1 University Station
Austin, TX 78712-0220
USA
512 475 7224
512 475 7222 (fax)
http://www.toyinfalola.com/
www.utexas.edu/conferences/africa
http://groups.google.com/group/yorubaaffairs
http://groups.google.com/group/USAAfricaDialogue
Department of History
The University of Texas at Austin
1 University Station
Austin, TX 78712-0220
USA
512 475 7224
512 475 7222 (fax)
http://www.toyinfalola.com/
www.utexas.edu/conferences/africa
http://groups.google.com/group/yorubaaffairs
http://groups.google.com/group/USAAfricaDialogue
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