Real Change

We hear and talk about change but none of us talk about real change. Real change that saw the American history re written when Obama became the first Black President.  Each one of us at some stage wishes to have lived longer and witnessed change, to repeat change because real change is rare.

I think I just witnessed real change not just change although I may stand to be disagreed. I was born and raised in Malawi. People who matter to me, all of them, live in this small country of Africa.

Malawi has witnessed three leaderships in a space of 40 years, Ngwazi the dictator, who reminded us all the time that Colonial Masters were control freaks and that he destroyed what he called stupid federation, Bakili Muluzi, a business man, I cant just find anything to say about him, good or bad, depending which side of the coin you are and the late Bingu Mutharika who emulated Kamuzu's leadesrship to the point that he even inherited his name. 

Today Malawi's clocks seem to have stopped ticking, no hope and promising future for the young and the elderly.Dreams shuttered and everything went back to basics, shortages of basic items, fuel, power cuts and many more while the president enjoyed extravagant life.

 This is why it appears to me that my time to witness real change arrived on 5 March 2012 when Malawi President Bingu Wa Mutharika suddenly died at Kamuzu Central Hospital in Lilongwe.

He was a man who ruled Malawi with iron fist and spat fire all the time to his imaginary enemies, well, to say the truth, he had absolutely none. He was afraid of his own shadow and made friends with those that people loathe and shun away those that we loved. He did not take a good advice and hated to be advised, to him it was an external force that he could not bear to take.

This is why when his death was unofficially announced, Malawians never thought that they will have a smooth transition, things were going to be hard and may have civil unrest, as the force of the monsters created by Bingu himself remained and was still out there. They thought that handing over power to Joyce Banda was something that Bingu's monsters would never do without a fight. They never thought that one day the small printed words of the booklet called Constitution will prevail and those monsters will be dissipated in the dark as if they never existed.

I believe that there a lot more surprises to be learnt following his death in terms of the skeletons he has left in his closet. He was callous and a ruthless leader Malawi has ever had and noone apart from his wife and kids will ever miss Bingu.

We knew the word constitution will be mentioned time and again but who was going to give a damn considering the history and Bingu's government demeanour. " I am god and you are satan" he said, " tell them that now I am responding to their Pastoral letter, I will be here to 2014 and beyond" we were challenged. He was a messiah, today's Moses and so on. Constitution was only followed where it suited him best and that's what life had been with Bingu.

But sometimes, you just tell that change is coming and no single man can prevent it from happening. We waited and waited, there was no official announcement of the president's death and finally the unforgettable last nice try of the so called "coup gang" led by Patricia Kaliati, the red lipstick woman was held. To be honest, the whole press conference did not make any sense to me and boggled me the whole night trying to make sense of it. I had waited for an analysis of why the gang held that press conference and what purpose did it serve to the eager Malawians who deserved to know the truth.

Not telling the the truth was not enough to upset Malawians but convening a press conference that will work to tell Malawians that Madam Joyce Banda cannot be the successor of Bingu Wa Mutharika, just made things even worse.  We were informed of Rwandan and the Nigerian Constitution that could persuade the Courts in Malawi to follow in the event that the vice president did seek recourse. Who were they kidding?

Dejavu; African leaders tend to make a stand where it is obvious that they are loosing ground; Gadaffi of Libya, Bagbo in Ivory Coast, Hosni Mubarak of Egypt and many others did the same thing. I had anticipated the worst and so the whole world but in the morning, thank God, there was calm and instead of just change our patience paid off with real change.

Malawi did not just let the Constitution prevail but it gave itself a second chance of dusting itself off, unity among Malawians was out of question. Manifestation of tiredness and implicit attitude of showing Patricia Kaliati that they have enough of the government that takes them for granted and trampled on their human rights with impunity.

This is not just a change but real change, I always believe that those who witnessed this have witnessed something they had waited to occur for a long time. 

God bless Madam Joyce Banda and the people of Malawi.