The politician long heralded as the “father of modern Lagos”, Bola Tinubu,70,has won a tight race to succeed Muhammadu Buhari as the next president of Nigeria.
Tinubu, “having satisfied the requirements of the law, is hereby declared the winner and is returned elected”, Mahmood Yakubu, chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), announced early on Wednesday.
Tinubu polled 8.8 million votes to defeat former-associate-turned-foe Atiku Abubakar and surprise frontrunner Peter Obi, who scored 6.9 million and 6.1 million, respectively, to emerge president hours after three opposition parties called for a cancellation of what they called a “sham” of an election.
Tinubu
Tinubu’s political career began in 1992,when he joined the Social Democratic Party where he was a member of the Peoples Front faction led by Shehu Musa Yar’Adua and made up of other politicians such as Umaru Yar’Adua, Atiku Abubakar, Baba Gana Kingibe, Rabiu Kwankwaso, Abdullahi Aliyu Sumaila, Magaji Abdullahi, Dapo Sarumi and Yomi Edu.
He was elected to the Senate, representing the Lagos West constituency in the short-lived Nigerian Third Republic.
President Lazarus Chakwera on Tuesday afternoon assured the nation that his administration is very committed to fight corruption to the end in the country by strengthening all institutions in the chain of the fight.
He was speaking at Parliament Buildings in the Capital Lilongwe on 28th February, 2023 when he appeared before the August House to respond to general issues raised by Members of the house during general debate on the State Of the Nation Address (SONA) which he delivered in the House on Friday, 17th February, 2023 and also to provide answers to specific questions that were put forward by five specific Members of the House.
Responding to a question from Zomba Lisanjala MP William Susuwere Banda, who asked as to What plans the government has to ensure that the fight against corruption in Malawi is not lost, considering that currently Malawi has performed badly in the fight against corruption and that the Director General of Anti-Corruption Bureau spent most of her time fighting internal battles than doing what she was employed for; President Chakwera told the House that his government remains firmly committed to the fight against corruption in Malawi based on actions already taken and those that will continue to be taken in the war against the vice.
Among others, President Chakwera told the August House that government has strengthened prevention of corruption, prosecution capacity, and has established the Financial Crime Court.
“We are strengthening prevention of corruption. This is being done by strengthening the capacity of the institutions in the chain of prevention of corruption. The Anti-Corruption Bureau is only, but one institution in that chain. But our approach is strengthening all institutions in that chain like PPDA, Government Contract Unit, Auditor General’s Office, Accountant General’s Office, Financial Intelligence Authority, Malawi Police Service, and Financial Crime Court.” Said President Chakwera.
He added that his administration has come up with strategies for prevention of the vice including: instituting Integrity Committees conducting life style audit, for which the President said the Anti-Corruption Bureau has already developed the manual guide, and instituting whistle blower Protection Act.
Here the President told the House that consultation with stakeholders have already taken place with the support from the country’s cooperating partners such as European Union and United Nations, and that the process is with the Malawi Law Commission.
Further, the President told the nation that his administration is reviewing the Primary School Curriculum to include ethics on corruption subjects in the Curriculum.
Malawi leader also told the August House that the Anti-Corruption Bureau recently advertised to recruit lawyers to boost the capacity at ACB as one way of strengthening the prosecution capacity.
Said Chakwera; “The Anti-Corruption Bureau itself right now has 16 lawyers of its own who can prosecute cases and after duly conducting procurement process recently, the ACB identified three more lawyers from the practice to help with the prosecution and now is in the process of drawing up contracts for them which will be performance based. Also at the office of Director General for Anti-Corruption Bureau, we are in the process of strengthening capacity by bringing in one or two very experienced prosecutors to not only prosecute specific cases of corruption and fraud but also transfer skills to the younger lawyers.”
He then told the House that his administration has also established the Financial Crime Court, saying the court is to improve the fight against corruption.
“This court is now established and it was an initiative of this government to improve the fight against corruption. Three judges have initially been appointed, the court is now operational.
I will therefore say that in view of those measures, we must avoid the sensational idea that Malawi is doing nothing to curb corruption or that we are losing that fight. You can not measure the progress of the fight against corruption by headline and social media allegations. The measure of the fight against corruption is whether institutions are being given what they need to win that fight and whether they are producing results in the form of stopping fraud from happening, recovering what was stolen in the past and prosecuting those responsible until they are convicted, and in these critical areas, we are making much progress.”
President Chakwera then responded to a follow-up question from Zomba Lisanjala, and other two supplementary questions on the Corruption issues from Machinga East legislator (Esther Jolobala) and Dedza North (Saviel Kafwafwa) respectively.
Since he was elected, President Chakwera has been appearing before Parliament to fulfill the constitutional mandate based on Parliamentary Standing order 70(B) as laid with Section 89(3) part C of the Constitution on Malawi.
One of the country’s renowned music producers Tapiwa ‘Tapps’ Bandawe has come at an open place to apologize to the public for the Dan Lu’s ‘ Take my body’ ( Ndili Ndinyere) video clip which he produced.
The video clip full of obscene language has been receiving bad comments from people saying it is out of Malawi’s culture.
In his facebook post on Tuesday, the legandary music producer said: ” I would like to take this time to address my position on the clip that has been trending of the song I produced for musician Dan Lu.
Tapps and Dan Lu
“The song has brought about a lot of conversation and controversy. Being a seasoned producer and veteran in the music business having produced music that has entertained and uplifted many throughout the years, I would like to stress that in hindsight I should have known better.”
Tapps said the song was not in any way made to offend or to trend negatively but that it was made with the intent to entertain.
“I would like to apologize unreservedly to those it has offended.
“I have no excuses and should have known better.
“I will dedicate myself to doing what I do best, producing music that serves the for the betterment of humanity and Malawian morals as is indeed my role as a senior statesman in this music industry.”
The producer concluded his post by describing the musician Dan Lu who is behind the song as his brother and a wonderfully talented artist who has entertained Malawi with countless uplifting songs such as the iconic anthem Part of Life.
“As a musician, Da Lu is there to express his thoughts into music, as a producer I am there to guide and I must stress in this instance I erred in my duties,” he wrote.
As one way of easing the access to its financial services, one of the country’s leading financial institutions, Standard Bank Malawi has opened a branch at Nchalo trading centre in Chikwawa district.
The official opening of the new refurbished Branch took place on Tuesday February 28,2023.
It was witnessed by a cross section of people including the bank’s Chief Executive Officer Philip Madinga, customers and clients.
Speaking at the function,Madinga described Chikwawa as a very crucial economic district which deserves new and modern infrastructure.
” This is a conducive environment for business and we want people around here have easy access to our services, ” said Madinga.
The CEO further called for more private players to come in and invest in the district which has the potential to spur other economic activities in different sectors.
” We are calling on more investors to come and invest or open their businesses here. This is a good place for business,” he urged.
The Standard Bank of Malawi, previously known as the Commercial Bank of Malawi, is a commercial bank in Malawi.
The bank is licensed by the Reserve Bank of Malawi, the central bank and national banking regulator.
It is a large financial services provider, serving the banking needs of large companies, small and medium enterprises, as well as individuals.
As of December 2019, the bank’s total assets were valued at MWK:375.26 billion (US$519 million), with shareholders’ equity of MWK:87.24 billion (US$121 million).
Barely a week after presented the State of the Nation Address in the August House, President Lazarus Chakwera on Tuesday left all his busy office schedules and returned to the House to answer questions from Members of Parliament.
According to Chakwera, the return to the House is part fulfilling his constitutional and democratic mandate as Head of the Executive arm of government.
In his answers to questions presented before him by the members of the house, the president tackled various pertinent issues that when addressed properly – are key enablers of country’s development agenda.
On corruption, the Malawi leader restated the untiring efforts his government has invested to ensure that there is a creation of a corrupt-free Malawi by strengthening capacity of institutions that are mandated to lead the fight against corruption.
The Presidsnt also spoke on his administration’s commitment to transform the country’s Agriculture sector through mega farms and modern technologies such as large-scale irrigation and climate-smart agriculture.
In the same vein, Chakwera also reiterated his pledge to restructure the Affordable Inputs Program (AIP) so that it responds to the transformational agenda currently undertaking.
“We will step up social safety programs so that we target the right people while striking a balance between food security and commercial farming,” said Chakwera.
He added “Over and above, my time in the House is fruitful and has given us great insights on how best to build a new Malawi.”
During the query session, Mangochi Central MP Victoria Kingstone asked the President about the status of Mangochi International Airport.
The MP claimed that land for the project was already identified but people are still waiting.
In his response, the unshaken Malawi leader said his government is currently engaging donors and the private sector for possible financing of the Mangochi International Airport project.
Another question was from MP for Zomba Lisanjala William Susuwele Banda who asked Chakwera to elaborate more about the plans government has to ensure that the fight against corruption in Malawi is not lost,claiming that the country has performed badly in the fight against corruption asthe director general of the Anti-Corruption Bureau has spent most of her time fighting internal battles than doing what she was employed for.
But in his response, Chakwera said government is strengthening the prevention of corruption by among others conducting lifestyle audits and reviewing school curriculum to include ethics.
He added that government is also strengthening the prosecution capacity of Anti-Corruption Bureau and the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions.
The President also mentioned the establishment of a court to handle corruption cases.
“We must curb the sensational idea that Malawi is doing nothing to fight corruption.
“You cannot measure the progress of the fight against corruption based on headlines and social media allegations,” said Chakwera.
