OBAMA IS BECOMING A 'NUISANCE' TO MALAWI'S POLITICS

I have, just as many of you, followed with keen interest the unfolding events of the past week in regards to Malawian politicians being on the move both internally and externally for both personal and political purposes.

As one politician left the country for the USA another was consolidating his stand in one of the country’s most populated regions. We thank God for diversity in political personalities and their varying views.

It however becomes an anomaly when a foreign politician peeps into our political room more than necessary.

I am bothered with how America’s President Barack Obama is always intervening in the affairs of our country; our politics to be specific.

Some of our politicians are always using him as a reference point to whatever they do. While one is saying he is Malawi’s Obama, another one is deliberately letting Malawians know that he is travelling to the US to meet Obama. Why we are being told I don’t know.

Without claims of friendship, President Joyce Banda, has still found an official opportunity to interact with the world's most powerful man.PIX BY NYASATIMES

There is nothing wrong with aspiring Presidential candidates in any country visiting other countries to add energy to their cause.

Even Obama himself visited Eastern Europe and key countries such as Germany and UK during his 2008 campaign. However, these sojourns were not from a blank view. He had taken Foreign Policy as one of the key aspects of his campaign.

To him a visit to Europe was to mend fences after George Bush had antagonized the two blocs through his wars on Iraq and Afghanistan. Eastern Europe had to come into play because Bush had used Eastern Europe states to create a buffer zone to alienate Russia militarily. He had to relate to what was going on in as far as FP is concerned.   

In short, Obama had a reason to visit Europe on political grounds. Simple.

As articulated earlier herein, I have no problem with one visiting the US and meeting Obama. However, I am bothered with the cohorts of this politician who are blowing his visit and impending meeting with Obama out of proportion.

If you choose to politicize his visit and try to instill a sense of political pride in it, then you have your left foot in the right shoe.

Even if a Malawian Presidential hopeful spends five months in the White House as a visitor to the Obamas, that would not move a single vote from elsewhere to his side.

A wise aspirant will labor to make merry with countries within the bloc such as SADC and COMESA. A wise aspirant will see Mr. Michael Sata, Mr. Armando Guebuza, Mr. Jacob Zuma, Mr. Jakaya Kikwete and Mr. Eduardo Dos Santos (you must know where they come from) as key elements in his political life among others.

Is his adulthood 'friendship' with Obama as strong as he wants Malawians to believe?

 Let us however keep in mind that politics in Africa creates little room for opposition personalities to conduct explicit deliberations with other statesmen lest they create a diplomatic rift in one way or another (Remember the Michael Sata deportation on March 15, 2007)

Furthermore, a smart aspirant will not tell Malawians that he owns a firm of 200 lawyers somewhere in the First World when he has nothing to show back home besides his residences. This egoism either by the candidate or his supporters is shallow and destructive.

As a country, we are surely dragging ourselves into this unnecessary attachment to America’s first black President without realizing how irrelevant he is to our politics, save for our diplomacy with USA. (Please don’t ask why I supported Mitt Romney toe-and-shoe in the November 6 elections)

Your fellow Malawians are the heartbeart of your political life not me

Fellow politicians and your cohorts, you might fool yourselves that putting Obama at the core of your campaign is going to intimidate your opponents. Nevertheless, what you are forgetting is that Malawian voters are decoding your emptiness in black and white as you fail to resonate with what they know and what is closer to their hearts.

Surely, this whole talk about Obama is cheap and getting out of hand. The American President is becoming an annoyance to Malawi but it is not his fault. It is just that some of our politicians have chosen to hide their fears behind him.

I always have had doubts why some of these politicians will not win in the 2014 elections, what I lacked was concrete proof; I think I have found one and that is poor calculation of thinking that Obama means everything to their political career.

Don’t even talk about John Kerry lest you elongate this post.

Merry Christmas!