Finally, President Chakwera has commissioned the much-anticipated inquiry into the events surrounding the Chikangawa plane crash, which tragically claimed the lives of Vice President Chilima and eight others. However, political mercenaries of the Opposition appear less enthusiastic than expected; they are working hard to cast doubt on the capability of the Commission of Inquiry to produce a credible report.
They are playing the game of shifting goalposts as a tactical strategy to keep their narrative that the plane crash was an act of assassination intact. They called for a commission of inquiry, but now that the inquiry has been commissioned, they are questioning the composition and credibility of members and doubting if TORs will be satisfactory. They are not prepared to give the commission of inquiry a fair chance because they are scared.
And I can guarantee that when the inquiry report concludes that the plane crash was an accident, the Opposition and their political mercenaries will reject the results and find faults with everything about the commission.
The reason for fear and discomfort is that the Opposition intends to use the Chikangawa plane crash and death of Chilima as their nuclear head for the 2025 election campaign bombardments. If they can sustain the narrative that MCP killed Chilima up to official campaign period, then they will be well armed to face Chakwera at the ballot. The whole 2025 campaign manifesto of the opposition alliance is hinging on the Chikangwa plane crash. They had hoped Chakwera would ignore the inquiry call and chicken out to their advantage. Now their nuclear arsenal is under attack and they are panicking.
To make matters worse for the Opposition, Chakwera wants the inquiry report ready by November 30, which means that the public might possibly have the report within the first 2 weeks of December. Therefore, the public will hotly debate the report on social media and mainstream media for only about a week or so and get distracted by the festive season celebrations.
The debate will cool off by the time we get February 2025. By the official campaign period, the Chikangawa plane crash will no longer be a hot-button campaign issue, and the Opposition would have been completely disarmed, denuclearized and neutralized. That’s their fear.
