Mutharika threatens UMSU leader: ‘you have spoken enough and you are not the only person I need to listen to’

One of the student Union leaders of the University of Malawi (UMSU) Sylvester Ayuba James who is also Chancellor College Student Union President has revealed that he was threatened by President Professor Arthur Peter Mutharika for strongly opposing the fee hike.

Mutharika on Thursday held a meeting with 15 student union leaders from all the four public universities at Kamuzu Palace over the University fee hike saga which led to the immediate closure of CHANCO in Zomba.

The students wanted to plead with Mutharika who is also the Chancellor of the University of Malawi to revise the fees downward, saying the adjustment is unjustifiable.

According to information posted by Ayuba James, Mutharika got angry during the dialogue and ordered him to stop speaking.

“During the deliberations, I took a strong stance against anything more than 300, 000 for generic students and 600, 000 for mature entry students. Surprisingly, the HE himself, who chaired the meeting, angrily told me not to speak again. ‘You are dominating the meeting, let others speak, you have spoken enough and you are not the only person I need to listen to.’ He said.

“He also said in his statement that ‘some of you are doing all this for your selfish political interest’. Honestly, I knew he was referring to me because of the context of the whole set of events. I stayed silent thereon as it was now impossible for me to speak,” wrote James
He added: “Towards the end, when the President suggested rigidly a 50,000 kwacha across-the-board reduction, I thought Sikwese was going to say “let us consult our people first before we can agree or disagree.” I thought that would be our best exit statement from the mediation hook. Unfortunately, even before I passed a note to him to say something like that, he had already said “thank you” after the HE had told him to submit proposed figures for mature entry students.”

“I almost cried there and then, and I wept and burned with anger inside me. For once, I wished I was the UMSU President. But that was too late. Everything else was now water under the bridge.”

Ayuba James has also criticized UMSU President for seeking audience with Mutharika, saying the decision was suicidal.

“That’s how we lost the battle colleagues. I make this statement not to damage anyone’s opinion in your eyes and minds, but for you to appreciate where some of us stand in the whole picture. In my view, and I say this with my full conscience, we lost the battle due to lack of political calculation in our leadership.

“The idea to seek audience with the President was highly naive and the timing itself was a handball in the our own goal area. I warned UMSU against this but I was dismissed. I told them that we were winning the fight on all fronts because almost all sections of our society were for us, and there was no need to call for the york again onto our neck when it was already off, but I was seen as a radical, perhaps. All I saw in UMSU leadership was sheer excitement about meeting the State President. They thought our achievement would be defined in terms of who we met in the process, and not what we achieved,” said Ayuba.

He added: “I don’t know what to say today, but it PAINS me that we have now all lost together despite some of us making all efforts to punch sense into the leadership. For me as Ayuba, life can’t be more painful. I laid my life bare for this cause, resisted all sorts of financial temptations, sacrificed all good relations with different individuals, spent personal resources and sunk deep into the dung of debt, and, above all, stood by the principle… But only to end like this. My children will hate to hear this story. I apologise to everyone of you colleagues for our failures as UMSU. Our story needs rewriting or at least editing, if generations are to be inspired any bit by it.”