It doesn’t rain but pour for Malawi President Lazarus Chakwera who has splashed 15 million pounds to Tony Blair Institute to spin for him after a disastrous BBC Hard Talk interview that reduced him to an inexperienced and clueless leader.
In the interview the President was clueless failing to answer basic questions, forcing his critics to say his mediocre performance was a confirmation that the President was not in control.
Others have said his Vice President should have been delegated because the issues that he failed to respond are better handled by Saulos Chilima, his proactive deputy and a coalition partner who gave him the presidency on a silver platter but he is currently being sidelined by Chakwera and his inner circle.
“This is the Vice President who was publicly sent to come up with a report to overhaul the public sector but Chakwera has thrown the report away for reasons known to himself,” said one analyst on social media.
As the bad press over Chakwera’s poor performance on Hardtalk grew and circulated forcing the President to fire Press Officer Brian Banda who booked the interview – State House quickly paid Tony Blair Institute for a spin hiring mercenary journalist Daniel Smith to come with an article at the price of over K15,000,000.
The article, circulating on social media, tries but in vain to portray the interview as a draw.
“However, aside from one or two weak responses, such as his unconvincing justification for taking a member of his family on a foreign trip, President Chakwera acquitted himself with refreshing dexterity, perhaps owing to his training in philosophy and prowess in oratory. To be sure, this interview was tense, but that is precisely because it was a perfect balance between the gallant effort by Sarah Montague to expose President Chakwera’s weaknesses and the President’s ability to push back by leveraging his strengths. Although the duel can be reasonably said to have ended in a draw,” the article spins.
President Chakwera also unashamedly denied to have appointed his daughter Violet as a diplomat to Brussels yet back home he defended the appointment on the basis that she is qualified.
“Get your facts right. My daughter is not going to Brussels,” said Chakwera.
But knowing how Chakwera lies this meant that Violet is going to London not Brussels because that’s what has happened.
While President Chakwera has denied appointing her daughter to a diplomatic post to Brussels during Hard Talk Interview with the BBC, last week his presidential spokesperson Brian Banda who has now since fired confirmed that the president had appointed his daughter to the diplomatic post and justified the appointment saying there was nothing wrong since the president’s daughter was qualified for the job and that she went through interview.