By Gustion Ian Mtaba, Sean Chilonga & Bright Chizuma
As the Malawi Congress Party (MCP) prepares to convene its elective conference in August 2024, the vultures are circling, eager to feast on the party’s resurgent might. The opposition Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) has, months on end, maniacally schemed with some MCP-affiliated politicians whose ambitions seem to override the overall good of the party itself. Their scheme is, although knowing it as a tall order that it is, to put up a fight against the incumbent formidable Secretary General, Eisenhower Nduwa Mkaka.
We are in total agreement with analysts who have offered their opinion suggesting that replacing the MCP’s incumbent Secretary General would be a move nothing short of catastrophic, ripping the heart out of the party’s remarkable comeback.
Mkaka appears to be an intellectually and psychologically fortified as well as an unyielding anchor that has steadied the MCP’s ship through tumultuous waters, guiding it towards a historic victory in the 2020 Presidential elections with the aid of strategic alliances in the face of an uplifted victory threshold of 50%+1.
During the party’s pivotal 2018 convention, he stared down a cabal of heavyweight contenders. His vision for a revitalized and principled MCP resonated with the delegates like a thunderous clarion call. Since then, he has been the driving force behind the party’s remarkable resurgence, his strategic brilliance and organizational mastery propelling the MCP to a reclaimed forefront of Malawi’s political landscape.
Under Mkaka’s stewardship, the party has ushered in the transformative leadership of Dr. Lazarus Chakwera, who went on to shatter the DPP’s long-entrenched stranglehold on power. Mkaka’s fingerprints are all over this historic configuration of the party through a political project called MCP renaissance which he undertook with his peers to bring about the clean-slate leadership of the incumbent MCP President, Dr. Lazarus Chakwera, who is also the country’s incumbent president.
Having replaced one Gustave Kaliwo as Secretary General who cared more about his stomach than the party such that he went about working in cahoots with the then ruling DPP to weaken the then opposition MCP, Mkaka’s tactical acumen and unwavering commitment to the MCP’s revival has, for sure, ensured that the party should regain and accelerate its strength, thereby emerging victorious in a number of by-elections that have occurred since 2020.
Clearly, Mkaka’s contributions extend far beyond the party’s national ascendance. He has spearheaded the MCP’s surge in the party’s traditional southern ‘weak-hold’, a region once the impregnable fortress of the DPP. This regional expansion has cemented the MCP’s status as a truly national force, solidifying its position as the governing party.
It is little wonder, then, that the DPP is now desperately scrambling to undermine Mkaka’s leadership. Sensing the MCP’s growing strength, the opposition party has unleashed a relentless campaign of character assassination against the Secretary General, even going so far as to pressure the President to remove him from the Cabinet. Yet, Mkaka’s unwavering loyalty to the party and the President has only served to strengthen his resolve, his commitment to the MCP’s cause unwavering in the face of such orchestrated attacks.
The MCP cannot afford to lose Eisenhower Mkaka, not now, not ever. His steadfast leadership, his unparalleled strategic vision, and his organizational brilliance have been the bedrock of the party’s resurgence. To replace him with a weaker character, as the DPP so desperately desires, would be an act of political self-immolation, one that would undermine the MCP’s continued growth and influence.
The MCP delegates must recognize the indispensable role Mkaka has played in reviving the party and positioning it as the dominant political force in Malawi. By retaining him as the Secretary General, the party will ensure that its momentum and trajectory remain uninterrupted, paving the way for even greater triumphs in the years to come. To do otherwise would be to betray the very essence of the MCP’s renaissance, a betrayal that the ordinary members of the party would not soon forget.
