Could the emerging of Her Excellency President Joyce Banda of Malawi be the dawn Malawians in particular and we Africans in general have been waiting for ions of years? Ever since she has been sworn in as President of Malawi, Mrs Joyce Banda hasn’t disappointed so far!
She has thus far shown what it means to be a woman, a mother, a wife and a leader. So far she has been a breath of fresh air in so far as leadership on the continent is concerned. She has been good and magnanimous. After being fired by Bingu wa Mutharika from the vice presidency of the ruling party, which African leader would have mourned him apart from Mrs Banda. She did not allow bitterness and grudges to cloud her heart and mind like others and went on mourning Bingu and gave him a befitting funeral. In most African countries political rivals largely go unrecognized and their deaths treated as non-events. There are no condolence messages sent to their families from those in power and no acknowledgement of the roles they played. Malawi’s founding father is on record as actually facilitating political rivals’ departures from earth to eternity. In South Africa, for example, the role played by Robert Sobukwe and others in the Pan African Congress has yet to be recognised; its easier to recognise the much younger and later comer onto the political scene Steve Biko the Black Consciousness leader possibly because he belonged to the right party than others.
In Zimbabwe Ndabaningi Sithole, Lookout Masuku and others, though not heads of state, have yet to be recognised at the highest level. Madam Banda, well done! The former Minister of Information was fired for lying unlike in other African countries where they actually hire ‘spin doctors’ to turn ‘black into white.’
She actually is on record telling the new Minister of Information not to lie to the people of Malawi unlike others who believe lies are part of politics. Thank you Ma’am for daring to be different. Madam Banda, even before her appointment as President of Malawi, has been different.
Where some leaders were passing legislation to have better and more oppressive control of their people, she was busy passing laws that give freedom and human dignity; where some leaders were busy indulging in corrupt activities like smuggling goods in and out of the country, Mrs Banda was busy in capacity building in Malawi by especially helping women to establish projects and businesses to eradicate poverty; whilst other leaders are busy alienating foreigners she is busy engaging them because she understands Malawi is not an island and will need the international community’s hand in order to develop and make great progress.
Even before becoming President she has been in the forefront of working to improve the education and health for her people where other leaders have lost the plot. Yes, Malawi has found an iconic leader to spearhead development and lead it into the proverbial land of milk and honey. When she celebrated her sixty second birthday, it wasn’t a national pomp and ceremony affair but private family-and-friend affair. We hope this is the beginning of different governance in Africa.
I propose that Madam Banda, because of her outstanding work before and even after her ascendency to the Presidency of Malawi, she be given the Nobel Peace prize. God bless Malawi!
