Gaba Malawi's Samuel Et'o? Nah, call him dull and a cheat..

The news that is in town is about Gabadinho Mhango. At the moment it seems like Gaba is the only player who is enjoying massive publicity in the media. If he is not cheating on his age then he is having problems to score during his JCE exams. Without roving up and down with the truth, Gaba is so dull and is a cheat, atleats my conclusion is based on facts.

Now there is a heated debate as to why this JCE issue is becoming a hot topic, the reason is simple when Gaba was writing his JCE it was news all over. His timetable was splashed in the papers and it generated a lot of excitement because a lot of people including his family, Big Bullets club, FAM and all of us had commented that the boy needed to take his books seriously before his football career.

I remember very well there were a lot of foreign teams that had shown interest to sign the player but the deals never went through. The reasons given were “Gaba apange kaye school”. 

Gaba had on so many occasions snubbed the national team call up because we were made to believe that “he was concentrating on his studies”. For example this other day he didn’t report for camp because he was writing his midterm exams and Coach Kinnah Phiri wasn’t amused at all. In other words as a country we were all waiting to hear what might come from Chichiri Secondary School. We remembered how Gaba came to watch his team draw against Namibia on June 5 at Kamuzu Stadium. He had just finished writing one of his JCE papers.

After noticing lack of fire power upfront during the game, there were calls for the coach to recall Gab for the Kenya game which was scheduled for the other week. The game was coming a day after the boy was sitting for his last paper. It was also reported that the coach had arranged special training sessions for Gaba only. As you can see, we all wished Gaba well but the boy doesn’t have the mind for education.

I have seen people commenting that education and football don’t go together. There are examples of players such as Samuel Eto who are millionaires but never made it in class. Trust me the Samuel Eto example cannot be applied to the Malawian context where our players as good as Josephy Kamwendo can only attract clubs from Mozambique pompa pokwelera kabazapa. They go to South Africa only to be dumped in the Mvela League, if they are lucky they will be signed by a PSL side but chances are that after 1 or 2 seasons they will be relegated to the bench before being offloaded completely. We have so many examples I don’t need to list them here.

Look here; we have seen Players that we all thought had travelled a lot to at least have something to show for it but where are they? Remember the story of Chancy Gondwe? The guy after all the years of playing in South Africa he couldn’t even afford 30 thousand kwacha to enrol at a Theological college in Lilongwe. Should I tell the story of Grant Lungu here? Had it been that he had the papers I believe he could have hanged up his boots and start searching for a job elsewhere. We have Phillip Madinga who is heading FDH bank, do you remember him? He was playing football but he never hesitated to take his books seriously. Apart from the likes of Phillip Madinga, Water Nyamilandu there are few players that have decent jobs after hanging their boots. Why? They don’t have the papers. Football in Malawi doesn’t pay and the standards have gone down that we can’t even produce a Samuel Eto from here, never, not in this generation.

Let me take you to Liberia, I guess we all can remember how George Weah failed to make it as president despite being popular because he did not have the papers. This forced him to go back to school for him to realise his ambition of becoming Liberia’s next president.

If we commend our players for dodging books in favour of football what kind of message are we giving to some young players who are at Primary School and are eyeing to become another Gaba? 

Having said all this let me point out that as a nation we realy need to take the blame also for spoiling this boy. We made him become the Eto we are talking about when he was miles away.

The return: Peter Mutharika's communication skills under the microscope part 1.

“People who do not have the talent to speak can be wonderful communicators”, Kevin Hogan. He says it is difficult to effectively communicate if you do not know what you want in the communication. This is where I am having problems to fully understand the debate in town about Arthur Peter Mutharika and his communication skills.

I have been following Peter Mutharika on his campaign trail and analysed the core message of his 2014 comeback bid. In Peter Mutharika I have seen a man who is so passionate about Malawi. I have listened to a man who knows what he is talking about. A man who opens up his mouth to speak only when it’s necessary. He is so brief and straight to the point. 

Talking about his leadership skills; Peter Mutharika has demonstrated his leadership skills in the way he has managed to put together the DPP and make it become the likely party that is poised to form the next government come 2014. After the death of Bingu in April last year, DPP was written off, people jumped ship but Peter Mutharika lived by his words at Ndata “sindikusiyani, I was born here and I will die here”.

During the time of Bingu, Peter Mutharika was overshadowed by some of the lows of his brother. Now that he has to carry himself without any shadows of his brother, the evidence is laid bare on the ground for all to see; a complete leader who is queuing to becoming Malawi’s next president and this is slowly becoming a reality. 

On the same, I have come to realise that those that are intoxicated with Fanta orange are the ones who are having problems to comprehend his messages because they are used listening to some folklores and the “ine ndikuti ine” pronunciations by amayi. Besides, their “amayi” has this ear-splitting and irritating voice that has the potential of damaging your eardrum. I am not surprised that all orange sympathisers have problems in getting right what Peter Mutharika says. They all have got damaged eardrums.

Imagine listening to this;

“Amayi ndi abambo ine ndinali ku chikwawa, kumeneko ndinali mu nyumba ya amayi ujeni awa, ndiye anandikhazika pachiujeni ichi. Inetu pano ndagula mabulangete ndipo ena akubweletsa anthu, nkhalamba mmidzimu muzifunda. Inu mukumudziwa Estere Jekete inu? Ine mayi ake ndakumana nawotu ku Ndirande. Iwe Skeffa Chimoto tayima ndikupatse moni, iwetu umayimba bwino, wandikumbutsa malemu a bamboo anga”

Then you listen to this;

“Lake Malawi belongs to Malawi. The issue of the lake is not negotiable because it’s ours. You don’t negotiate with people that have come to your house to steal from you. You protect your property by being tough, standing up to them as a real man”.

Which one of the two statements makes sense? Peter Mutharika is somebody who wastes no time by going straight to the point. He knows Malawians are suffering therefore all they want is to hear that message of hope. Malawians have got no time to listen to folklores. Malawi is not a kindergarten