PP diehards might tout it as the very best to have come out of their leader as a lecturer yet at the other end of the row, MCP diehards are busy as well criticizing the same thing that their friends are praising. That is the lecture delivered by the State President, Joyce Banda, at Texas University ahead of the US summit.
The speech, titled ‘Nothing for us without us’, delivered by Africa’s only second female head of state and current chair of the southern African countries’ partnership, SADC, praised the west for their continued aid to Africa. However, beyond that the speech also called for a shifted paradigm in the way the west relates with Africa.
“We need to develop more effective ways of working together. We all need to write the story of our transformation together. This is what I am trying to do at the local level in Malawi, but we need to find a way to translate this in how we think about development globally,” Banda said in her address.
However, it is her use of the mantra ‘nothing for us without us’ that has apparently caused some uncomfortable moments with MCP supporters.
According to the MCP supporters, it was their presidential candidate, Rev. Dr. Lazarus Chakwera, who first used the mantra on the local political scene and, as such, it belongs to him. And him alone.
The party supporters accuse President Banda of plagiarism and stealing ideas from their party president and candidate. Others, in an apparent mockery, have suggested that the president is contemplating of ditching her own PP and join MCP as a mere member even due to Chakwera’s alleged sound policies.
