UCHIZI MBANGE
Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) vice president for the southern region has lambasted former President Peter Mutharika’s saying his call against the use of Bingu’s face is misinformed.
In his statement, issued on January 5, 2022, Nakhumwa said he was responding to Mutharika’s press release because he felt Mutharika was targeting him.
He outrightly said he did not fear Mutharika but rather wanted to enlighten Mutharika and the general public that DPP was founded by Bingu wa Mutharika on democratic principles.
Nankhumwa said Malawians needed to know that Mutharika was not known to the general populace when DPP was formed in 2004.
“It is therefore, my sincere hope that the Late Professor Bingu wa Mutharika remains the Father and Founder of the once mighty DPP and deserves respect and recognition as accorded in the much contested poster.
“According to Nankhumwa, any call against the use of the Bingu wa Mutharika’s face by party officials misinformed and lands on hard rocks.
“Let it also be decoded that additionally, the Late Professor Bingu wa Mutharika was a country President, hence a national figure.
“Therefore, his face and name shall forever be used as either the former Head of State or the Founder of a political party, and not necessarily as a member of a particular family,” reads Nankhumwa’s statement.
A statement by Mutharika, which was widely shared on several online portals, said Nankhumwa’s conduct insinuates that late Bingu wa Mutharika would have endorsed the former were he alive today.
It read: “It has come to my attention that one individual who apparently is an aspirant to the DPP presidency has posted a poster in which he has put the face of the former President of the party, late Professor Bingu wa Mutharika.
“The purpose of this callous action is to give the impression that the late Bingu would have endorsed this individual’s candidacy. As president of the DPP and head of the Mutharika family, I am distressed by this exploitation of our departed relative,” read Mutharika’s statement.
