Nankhumwa spoke utter nonsense
Politicians, being what they are, take advantage of any occasion to politic with a view to have more grip on power if they already have it or use it to garner support so that they could one day have it.
But for Information Minister, Kondwani Nankhumwa, it went beyond all this last Saturday when he used the solemn occasion to commemorate the death of former president the late Bingu wa Mutharika to accuse Joyce Banda of being the killer.
It was uncouth behaviour not expected of someone who calls himself a minister and represents you and me.
What Nankhumwa said went beyond politics as it lacked decorum and decency expected of any human being, let alone a minister of government, politics or no politics.
I would not even want to talk about Nankhumwa being government spokesperson, for it is a shame that he is one as he lacks the emotional mental balance to play that role.
Let me have your indulgence to make this declaration.
Although not exactly a good one but I am nevertheless a proud Catholic Church member.
For me, the Catholic Church is not just a church. It even educated me as I spent my seven formative years under strict Catholic instruction reserved for those pursuing priesthood.
With that in mind, I somehow followed the Requiem Mass for the late Bingu wa Mutharika and the main celebrant being none other than Archbishop Thomas Msusa of Blantyre Archdiocese.
Any sensible speaker at that occasion would have wished to keep it solemn throughout and avoid spewing vitriol and respect the clergy that were in attendance.
But Nankhumwa did not consider all that and the fact that he is still in his position says a lot about President Pater Mutharika.
I even don’t want to talk about the nonsense from the State House that the President disassociates himself from what Nankhumwa said.
It is clear the minister was prepared and that is why he brought that newspaper he was waving as he spoke. It cannot be possible that he never got prior clearance at the highest level.
But the death of Bingu is straight forward as the nation has always known it. He died of heart failure.
A whole commission of inquiry was instituted and that is the verdict it came up with.
If Nankhumwa knows anything untold about Bingu, why can’t he report to police for another round of investigations? He is in government, for goodness sake!
At the end of the day, this was lack of respect to the clergy that said Mass at Ndata led by Archbishop Msusa, the people that gathered there and all Malawians.
But utmost of all, it is lack of respect to Joyce Banda. Nobody wants to be called a killer at a public function attended by the whole president commemorating the death of another president.
It is abnormal, uncultured and lacks the bare minimum of basic human decency.
The fact that she has gone to court seeking compensation should not surprise anyone.
It is a natural reaction when someone utters nonsense about you.
The only difference in this case is that this is an Information Minister who is supposed to speak on behalf of government and all of us.
When are we going to have a Minister of Information that we will all be proud of? Maybe it is a sign that we do not need such a minister and such portfolio in the first place.
For Nankhumwa, it must be remembered this is not the first of his horrible gaffes. He told the nation that he has footage of Joyce Banda with Lutepo sharing cash from Cashgate spoils.
Until now, he cannot produce the footage and the President does not think this is serious enough to warrant his dismissal.
On the contrary, the President thinks that merely and verbally disassociating himself from such things through his PR people is enough.
If this is not taking Malawians for granted, I don’t know what is.
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