Up to when shall we fail these college students?

It was long battle, a fight for academic freedom. Opposition parties supported them, the Civil Society were on their vertebrae and almost everyone (those that didn’t like the former regime) spoke in support because they felt the lecturers’ demands were justified. The battle went on and on. At the end of everything, people use the glooms of the scuffle as reasons to discredit the then Minister of Education Professor Peter Mutharika.

Now it’s the other way round, lecturers are not involved but students, that’s the most embarrassing part? Thus far an announcement has been made that Chancellor College and Polytechnic have been closed indefinitely. Before the closure, heavily armed police officers had invaded the Chirunga campus beating up students and teargasing them at will, that’s the Malawi Police Force for you, oooops! Sorry, they are now called Malawi Police Service (Malawi Police Service my chikang’a)

What does this tell us? The more things change the more they remain the same. The current administration has conceded to have failed in trying to end the stalemate over allowances as demanded by the students that is if they truly tried. Not that I am on the side of the students or am marking their demands as justified but am rather looking at the bigger picture and the story that’s screaming loud from all this. 

I would make a conclusion that President Joyce Banda didn’t even have time to read the petition that was sent to her by Polytechnic students last week because she is always on the road and flying up in the skies seeing places. If Professor Peter Mutharika is to blame for failing to solve the academic freedom battle then the current leadership shouldn’t be paraded as saints either, they have failed miserably.

I could have given them marks if say that empty headed cheer leader who thought the buying of 50 pickups was a story worthy telling took time to boast of how this administration succeeded in ending this dispute without using teargas and button sticks. That could have been a plus not this junk we are seeing.

And this University Council, ayayaya! You mean they are also a bunch of clueless people?

We are hearing news of “we are on track, we have recovered, bla bla bla,” cheap politics. If we have really recovered just go and get the money and give the college students their allowances since we are on track and recovering very well and let peace return at these two campuses.

This also confirms the fact that this administration doesn’t have good negotiation skills. The evidence is in the way they have been handling the Lake Malawi dispute with Tanzania, how they failed to negotiate with MCTU over demands to raise pay for civil servants. They were forced to take to the discussion table after primary school pupils marched in the streets on Blantyre and Lilongwe chanting “achoke achoke!” (That was embarrassing) 

I don’t care if you have 50 or even hundred pickups Mr Politician, just give me my allowances since we are recovering, period!