Centre for Democracy and Economic Development Initiatives (CDEDI) has given President Lazarus Chakwera 14 days to address the economic crisis that the country is passing through which includes uncertain future of Affordable Inputs Program (AIP) and unavailability of foreign exchange and fuel.
Speaking during a press briefing which the organization conducted on Thursday, CDEDI Executive Director Sylvester Namiwa said if Chakwera fails to address the challenges, CDEDI will be prompted to collect signatures to force the Speaker of the National Assembly to call for an emergency meeting of Parliament in a bid to save the country from complete destruction.
He noted that the June 23, 2020 court-sanctioned Fresh Presidential Elections (PPE) sold the country a dummy because the Tonse Alliance has failed voters.
He suggested that government and the Public Affairs Committee (PAC) should call for an all-inclusive stakeholders meeting to rescue the country from further damage because the fear is that leaving the current situation unchecked will lead to loss of millions of lives of vulnerable and marginalized citizens due to starvation.
Namiwa added that the President and his government should also come forward to address the issue of maize unavailability considering that people are failing to buy maize because there no maize to buy.
He said any carelessness in handling the maize crisis in the country is a recipe for disaster.
“The situation on the ground is dire as evidenced by soaring prices months away from the lean period. We are in September and the 2022/23 growing season is just setting in. Shortly, some parts of the country will start receiving rains, and the latest weather forecast predicts most parts of the country will, this year receive rains early.
“However, there is a cloud of uncertainty on the future of the Affordable Inputs Programme (AIP),” he explained.
He then asked government, through the Agriculture Ministry to come clear whether government will proceed with AIP or not and tell Malawians about the prices for the farm inputs as well as the number of the targeted beneficiaries.
On plans by Agriculture Development and Marketing Corporation (ADMARC) to fire over 3,000 employees, Namiwa said government should not play with the company as it has proven to be a tried and tested tool in making both maize and fertilizer accessible to Malawians.
Namiwa advised the Chakwera administration to take its hands off ADMARC and reminded the President that he promised Malawians one million jobs and therefore, the last thing they would expect is to see as many as 3,000 people losing their jobs at ADMARC.
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