‘Chakwera will not apologize’ -Chinsinga

Chancellor College (CHANCO) political analyst Blessings Chinsinga has backed opposition Malawi Congress Party (MCP) President Dr. Lazarus Chakwera for describing President Professor Arthur Peter Mutharika as failure, saying there is nothing wrong in the statement.

Two weeks ago Chakwera likened Mutharika’s administration to a pair of scissors designed to cut the thread by which the country is hanging and send the citizens spiraling into the abyss of deeper levels of poverty.

In the statement, Chakwera criticized Mutharika of failing to walk the talk in dealing with challenges rocking the country such as water shortage persistent power outages, lack of enough drugs in hospitals and others.

The remarks did not please the DPP administrations forcing the party’s spokesperson Francis Kasaila and its Acting General Secretary Francis Mphepo to hold a joint media briefing to dress down Chakwera.

In the briefing, the two asked Chakwera to apologize to Mutharika, saying he has no right to issue a National Address.

The two went further by asking Chakwera to resign as Leader of Opposition in the National Assembly for failing his duties.

But speaking in an interview with the press, Chinsinga said there is no need for Chakwera to apologize or retract the statement because as opposition leader he has such constitutional mandate to keep government in check.

“Chakwera as leader of opposition has a constitutional duty to keep government in checking and I don’t think there is need for him to apologize following that speech and further to that Chakwera was talking about government policies and nothing personal,” said Chinsinga.

Chinsinga said Malawi is a democratic state and of freedom of speech is enshrined in the Republican constitution.