Malawians on social media are laughing off Leader of Opposition Kondwani Nankhumwa over his newly attained title of Doctor as he has defended his PhD thesis.
Yesterday social media was awash with reports that Nankhumwa who is also Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) vice President for the South has finished his studies with The Antilatic International University where he was studying International Relations.
As some are congratulating Nankhumwa on his what can be deemed as an achievement, others are questioning the credibility of the school he allegedly attended considering that a number of prominent figures are getting their higher papers form miller universities.
One social commentator Onjezani Kenani said that it is a dream of every presidential aspirant to be addressed Doctor just because Malawi’s first President was addressed the same.
Kenani added that the mentality forces people to obtain the title of a Doctor in any way possible even if it means getting it from fake universities.
“Just because the first president of the republic was “Dr.”, every president after him and almost every person with ambitions to become president wants to be “Dr.” If they can’t get the title in an honest way through hard work, either they hastily accept honorary doctorates and demand that they be addressed as “Dr.” or, worse, they find fake universities to obtain the qualification within months
“Without the title, they feel a certain insatiable emptiness. To them, a president is less of a president without the title “Dr.” That Paul Kagame, who does not have the title, has transformed his country does not matter. It is Dr. Hastings Kamuzu Banda who is their standard. They all want to be like him. If they cannot be honest about their qualifications, why should we entrust them with running the finances of this nation? Thinking aloud,” said Kenani.
Another Facebook user questioned why most of the politicians do not attend local universities to attain their PhD’s instead they go to universities with no names just to get them easily.
Prior to 2019 elections, Nankhumwa was also dragged in the mud over his qualifications of which it was rumored that he does not have a Malawi School Certificate of Education.
The rumors had also indicated that even the name he is well known with doesn’t belong to him, allegations he later refuted.
