Power struggle has ensued in the main opposition party, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), as who will be its torchbearer in 2025.
There are two main sources of current DPP squabbles.
Firstly, internal presidential aspirants have ganged up to fight each other. Do not be fooled that there are only two antagonistic camps in DPP.
The truth of the matter is that all presidential candidates including Prof. Arthur Peter Mutharika, Kondwani Nankhumwa, Dalitso Kabambe, Bright Msaka and many others are overtly fighting their own battles.
Such internal wrangles happened too when Bakili Muluzi later discovered that almost all members of national executive committee did not support his bid for both third and open presidential terms.
The aftermath of this discovery is that Bakili Muluzi decided to poach a presidential candidate from the outside of the party, Bingu wa Mutharika.
From the outside of the party, the ruling Malawi Congress Party (MCP) has also strategically caused havoc in the main opposition, DPP.
Nowhere in the global political scene would a speaker of the National Assembly be involved in choosing the Leader of Opposition in Parliament.
Here in Malawi, it is on record that Kondwani Nankhumwa was handpicked as the Leader of Opposition by the Speaker of National Assembly, Mrs. Catherine Gotani Hara.
This was just some days after Kondwani Nankhumwa had paid a private visit to Mama Cecelia Tamanda Kadzamira, the wife to the former President of Malawi, Late Hastings Kamuzu Banda.
It was not startling that the agenda of the visit was kept under wraps.
It can logically be concluded that Kondwani Nankhumwa might be serving two masters at the same time.
Have you ever wondered why Kondwani Nankhumwa as the Leader of Opposition allowed the National Assembly to table the date of the 2020 fresh presidential elections on Tuesday when private bills are usually deliberated on Thursdays?
The parliamentary date fixing of the 2020 fresh presidential election caught the DPP unawares.
As a result of DPP’s dearth of formidable preparations and campaigns, it dismally lost the elections.
Furthermore, during an interview with Zodiak in 2019, Dr. Saulos Chilima disclosed that there was a list of DPP gurus who were secretly sponsoring the newly formed UTM party.
Unfortunately, Dr. Chilima failed to produce the list of names of such sponsors as promised.
With political wrangles in DPP, will it not be reasonable that Kondwani Nankhumwa could be one of such sponsors?
Kondwani Nankhumwa may be popular within the DPP ranks but can he competently compete with Dr. Lazarus Chakwera who is perceived to have obtained his PhD meritoriously.
In terms of his education, Kondwani has failed to clear two serious academic allegations.
First, it is alleged that Kondwani used the Malawi School Certificate that belonged to his deceased brother.
Second, it is on record that Kondwani Nankhumwa did data collection, data analysis and thesis writing in only three months towards his PhD.
With that short period, it is highly likely that Kondwani Nankhumwa literally bought the much-touted PhD.
It must be pointed out that no one is claiming that presidency requires PhD.
What is being chastised here is the dishonesty that Kondwani chose to dupe Malawians that he is of high acumen.
For sure, both presidency and leadership require a man of high integrity.
Besides his educational lapses, has Nankhumwa portrayed leadership skills in the political portfolios he assumed?
Truth must be told, Kondwani Nankhumwa has been the weakest leader of opposition so far.
Compromised as he is, his checks and balances on government are usually lukewarm and timid.
How did he allow the whole 2023 National Budget to pass within 120 minutes in the National Assembly without proper scrutiny?
As young as Kondwani, why can’t he allow the aging Peter Mutharika to stand in 2025 knowing that he will have such an opportunity in 2030?
Why is Kondwani Nankhumwa behaving like Dr. Saulos Chilima who dumped DPP just because he could not wait for a while?
As the Leader of Opposition in Parliament, why did he fail to work with DPP president but instead he instituted his own parliamentary shadow cabinet without consulting President Mutharika of the party?
As a member of National Governing Council and Central Executive Committee, why did Kondwani seek legal solutions to internal political conundrums.
What Kondwani Nankhumwa is doing is that he is drifting this country to a single party regime, the MCP regime.
In my view, Kondwani Nankhumwa is not the promised messiah in the 2025 General Elections.
