By Robert Kumwenda
Malawi gained independent from the British colonial rule in 1964, becoming a Republic with Dr Hastings Kamuzu Banda as the first president after which Malawi became a one party state under the 1966 constitution.
Consequently in 1971 Dr Banda was declared president for life and ruled for almost thirty years.
Notably, the transition from colonial rule to independence was without armed conflict.
Malawi held a referendum in 1993, after Dr Banda bowed to pressure for increased freedom and the country voted for democracy.
But as of to date the country remains poor, eighty percent of the population live on less than a dollar a day and access to social services is a big challenge among its citizen but Umodzi Party (UP) leader Professor John Chisi thinks otherwise.
The UP leader has attributed the challenges the country is facing to lack of ideas and visionary leadership by the leaders who have ruled this country from independence to democracy.
He has also blamed the system and failure to use human resource as capital as some of the factors that has make the country to be where is now.
“With less than nine months when Malawians will go to the next polls to elect new leaders this is an opportunity for Malawians to choose leaders who are focus and can take the country to greater heights.
“Malawians must choose leaders that will address the problem of unemployment rate which is high among the youth and those that will bring in justice and end corruption which has now taken a Centre stage in the country,” he said.
On the energy sector, he said more hydroelectric power supply will be created to provide energy to factories that will be created in all districts of the country saying that the aim is to improve the country economy, create jobs and move from predominantly importing country to exporting one.
“There will be sufficient food, more investor’s will come to invest in the country and there will be more foreign earnings through the products that will be exported outside Malawi,” he said.
Since education is one of the pillars for UP there will be no shortage of health personnel in public hospitals as well as teachers in schools.
The UP leader said people will be able run their businesses effectively and the country will have a health population that will take part in national development.
He further said that if other countries like Rwanda which was at civil war have done it, why can we fail saying that people we need to change the way we do things by ushering leaders who really have passion to develop this country than those who just want to enrich themselves.
