Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Member of Parliament for Blantyre City South East Constituency Sameer Suleman has claimed that the government spent over K4.5 billion on President Lazarus Chakwera’s trip to Germany, where the president was seen riding a bicycle.

Suleman raised these concerns during a discussion on a ministerial statement delivered by Minister of Tourism Vera Kamtukule, which focused on efforts to promote tourism in Malawi yesterday.

Suleman criticized the president, stating that leaders should lead by example in promoting local tourism rather than promoting tourism in other countries during their travels.

He argued that the president should have promoted Malawi by engaging in such activities locally instead of abroad.

“Unfortunately, leaders are not leading by example. We need to sell our country, but recently a lot of billions, K4.5 billion, was spent by our president going to ride a bicycle in Germany to sell Germany. Instead of riding that bicycle here,” said Suleman.

In response, Speaker of the National Assembly Catherine Gotani Hara cautioned Suleman against involving the president in parliamentary discussions, urging him to focus on the matter at hand without dragging the president into the debate.

She said President Chakwera cannot defend himself in the matter since he is not a lawmaker.

Parliament will resume deliberations this morning.