On Friday, February 17, 2023, President Lazarus Chakwera delivered what most commentators have described as a State of the Nation Address (SONA) that rises hope to desperate Malawians.
It was meant to be a very colourful opening of the first meeting of the 50th Session of Parliament and the 2023/2024 Budget Meeting until some Members of Parliament belonging to the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) chose to embarrass themselves by wearing sackcloth.
If you read the Bible, especially the Old Testament, Israelites used to wear sackcloth to express remorse to God and beg for forgiveness. It was a symbol of repentance.
However, the motivation behind wearing sackcloth by beleaguered DPP legislators was to seek cheap sympathy or undeserved political mileage over the suffering of Malawians.
In their irrational wisdom, they agreed that by wearing sackcloth, they would demonstrate that they were suffering together with Malawians. Very big mistake because Malawians are not fools as they thought.
For instance, Thyolo Central MP, Ben Phiri, came to Parliament after enjoying an English breakfast at a four star hotel using a state-of-the-art limousine. What suffering was he displaying by wearing a suit cut from a chigudulira?
Eventually, enlightened Malawians did not give them what they expected. Nobody paid attention to the embarrassing and unparliamentary dressing apart from mocking them as goons.
As if that was not enough embarrassment, boom! The Leader of Opposition Kondwani Nankhumwa became the cartoon of the day when he rose on point of order while the President was delivering the SONA.
Nankhumwa, of all things, stopped the President from addressing expectant Malawians within and beyond the borders just to ask for a bottle of water.
Asking for water itself is not bad conduct especially knowing that some of his MPs were wearing ziguduri and the Chambers air condition was not enough to keep them cool.
However, the honourable thing that Nankhumwa could have done was to scribble a note and send it to the Clerk of Parliament. Within a few minutes, he could have been supplied with bottles of water.
Knowing the overzealousness of Kondwani George Malemia Nankhumwa, he clutched the opportunity to expose to Malawians that he is very shallow and not someone ready to lead this country.
An American writer Mark Twain once said and I quote; It is better to keep your mouth closed and let people think you are a fool than to open it and remove all doubt.
Nankhumwa could have kept his mouth closed than standing on a point of order while the President is delivering a very important statement to the nation just to request a bottle of water.
The long and short of what DPP parliamentarians including the Leader of Opposition did during SONA is that it was a childish, embarrassing and clear message to Malawians that ndi a chibwana.
Wearing ziguduri suits or dresses left them with eggs all over their faces no matter the reason for doing so. The majority of well thinking Malawians did not listen to or support the idea.
As for Nankhumwa, next time remember to bring a bottle of water into the chamber to avoid the temptation of embarrassing yourself by opening your mouth to remove all the doubt.
To confirm that he is empty, instead of being national in his response to the SONA on Monday, Nankhumwa chose to be personal with the President.
It is clear that the response to SONA by the Leader of the Opposition did not originate from him. It is obvious that it was written without his input. Once again, he displayed callous shallowness and immaturity.
Of course, that was typical of Nankhumwa and we could not expect anything more. The tragedy is that he wildly dreams that he can become president of this country. Very sad.
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