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It would appear that UDF has more dirty linen to wash in public if only to discredit President Bingu wa Mutharika. This week they tried to throw back mud at State House free-speaking Ken Zikhale Ng'oma who has shown no shortage of enthusiasm to expose former president Bakili Muluzi's spendthrift administration which left State House with a debt of K120 million (over $1 million).
Ng'oma has also said the Muluzi administration also accumulated another debt of K22 million in unpaid allowances for security personnel which, he said, he had pushed to Treasury to square.
In a development which speaks volumes about the growing rift in UDF between Bingu, on the one hand, and UDF bigwigs left out of cabinet, on the other, the latter started hitting back this week accusing Bingu of having benefited from the very abuse of resources Ng'oma has exposed so far.
To start with, by making these accusations, UDF is only confirming what several organisations have already accused the party of. This is that apart from monopolising state broadcasters, MBC and TVM, Muluzi also sold Mutharika and UDF using government resources. Which was wrong and an outright abuse of office and privilege.
UDF now wants us to believe that it was wrong for Bingu to be given all the state facilities that they put at his disposal—cars, state security and offices in Blantyre and Lilongwe for campaign—because he was only a cabinet minister. But the only reason why they are turning the heat on Bingu now is because he has refused to play ball.
He does not want to be used for their personal benefits. Perhaps what worries them more is that he has sent shivers down their spines with his tough talk on corruption. Most UDF gurus are scared because they have skeletons in their closets and it may not be long before they are exposed. But the disgruntled UDF gurus lack the moral high ground to smear Bingu with their mud.
As far as I am concerned, the biggest culprit in all this is the one who authorised the allocation of funds and cars to Bingu. And this is the former president himself. Which is why we are happy that UDF is revealing most of the things which were top secrets during the campaign.
And we expect that what we have seen and heard so far is only the tip of the iceberg. That there are more chilling revelations to come as the rift in UDF, which seems to me to be irreparable, will continue to widen.
What is clear is that there are cracks in UDF and that the party needs to act fast before it disintegrates further. Already we hear of some people regretting they are in UDF or that they are still in the party because of so and so. But that is precisely why there are problems. There is so much loyalty to one person. People are not very free to speak their minds and contradict the UDF chairman even if they have crucial issues to raise that may help the party.
It is interesting that UDF issued a statement this week advising people to keep their hands off the party. That the party is tired of being talked about carelessly in the media. That they do not want people to continuously referring to Muluzi.
What I find most interesting is the refutal on the existence of a task force and individuals in UDF who want to discredit Bingu. The party says “this is the making of some misguided persons, rumour mongers and confusionists. Unfortunately some exist within the party”.
My single piece of advice to UDF is that it should urgently put its house in order by dealing with those it describes as confusionists in the party and not behave like a peacock which hides its head in sand in the face of trouble.
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