A Malawi Congress Party (MCP) politician in the North has given President Lazarus Chakwera the Ngwazi title, saying the president reminds him of former President Ngwazi Hastings Kamuzu Banda.
MCP Northern Region chairperson for the North Joseph Chavula bestowed the Ngwazi title on Chakwera on Friday during a rally Chakwera held in Mzimba.
Chavula claimed that Malawians in Chitipa, Karonga and Mzimba where Chakwera inspected crops last week told MCP officials that Chakwera remind them of the leadership of Malawi’s first president Ngwazi Dr. Hastings Kamuzu Banda.
“Banda was a perfectionist and you are also a perfectionist. They say they have every reason to change your name from today to be Ngwazi Dr. Lazarus McCarthy Chakwera,” said Chavula.
Ngwazi means conqueror or strong warrior and the title was first given to Kamuzu Banda who ruled Malawi between 1964 and 1994. Analysts say Ngwazi became popular than the name Kamuzu.
Bingu wa Mutharika who was president from 2006 to 2012 was also given the title in 2010 by Ngoni Paramount chief Inkosi M’mbelwa in Mzimba. Bingu was using the Ngwazi title officially.
During the rally, Chakwera did not comment on the bestowment of the title.
However, Chakwera, who unlike his predecessors has been given the title by a fellow politician rather than a traditional leader, has been advised against using the title.
“I hope President Chakwera will publicly decline the “Ngwazi” title to show that he has no appetite for vain glory titles bestowed by opportunistic persons with an intellectual RAM that’s too small to process national vision and goals into reality. LMC is enough a name in itself. Write it side by side with this dark age Ngwazi nonsense, and it will read more palatable, more acceptable. And it had to be someone from that region,” lawyer Bright Theu said.
Social commentator Kondwani Munthali said: “Inkosi ya Makhosi M’mbelwa 2 in 1959 gave Kamuzu title of Ngwazi. Inkosi ya Makhosi 4 gave Bingu the title. IYM 5 asked the President where M’mbelwa University is. It’s a Ngoni title, bestowed by King not a politician.”
