University of Malawi (Unima) political scientist Blessings Chinsinga has argued that the way government is handling the issue surrounding the resignation of President Peter Mutharika\u2019s top aide, Ben Phiri, shows there is power crisis at State House.<\/p>\n
Chinsinga has since urged authorities to resolve the issues that are apparently boiling at Malawi\u2019s Plot Number One.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf he wasn\u2019t that powerful and important within the current political set-up, I don\u2019t think government would have come in to say Ben Phiri hasn\u2019t resigned. Ben Phiri is playing politics; he just wants to assess the extent regarding how he is rated.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you have followed people\u2019s comments in the social media, they have been insinuating that he is very powerful and in some circles, he has been described as Malawi\u2019s Prime Minister,\u201d said Chinsinga in an interview yesterday.<\/p>\n
He added that he is of the view that there is some kind of discomfort on the part of some key political players whom he argues have been probably trying to get Phiri.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s why he has reached the extent of offering to resign,\u201d Chinsinga said.<\/p>\n
Despite Phiri himself having had resigned, Presidential Press Secretary Gerald Viola issued a statement in which he refuted the news that the President\u2019s aide would step down on Monday next week.<\/p>\n
The Dai l y Times <\/em>Thursday reported that State House had rejected Phiri\u2019s resignation on the premise that there were administrative errors in the resignation letter.<\/p>\n But Chinsinga says State House\u2019s response on the matter shows signs of desperation albeit suggesting that the incident could be a blessing in disguise for government to resolve its crisis.<\/p>\n Said Chinsinga: \u201cI think this will trigger some kind of discussion and probably that will lead to the resolution of the misunderstandings that have been there over the role of Ben Phiri.\u201d<\/p>\n Phiri started working 2007 during the regime of former President, Bingu wa Mutharika, and has reportedly remained the President\u2019s closest confidante ever since.<\/p>\n Commenting on the issue, another Chancellor College political analyst Ernest Thindwa said the events show that some government and party functionaries are not comfortable with Phiri.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s a feeling that he has assumed so many powers than what he is supposed to have. One would suggest there\u2019s pressure from both the President and other officers, perhaps in the interest of the office, stepping down would be in the best interest for him,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n But Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) spokesperson Francis Kasaila said Phiri\u2019s resignation had nothing to do with the party and ruled out any power struggle or any attempts to test the public\u2019s reaction.<\/p>\n And in an interview yesterday, Viola insisted that Phiri had not resigned, saying his resignation could only be influenced by the working relationship between him and the head of state because he reports directly to the President.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" University of Malawi (Unima) political scientist Blessings Chinsinga has argued that the way government is handling the issue surrounding the resignation of President Peter Mutharika\u2019s top aide, Ben Phiri, shows there is power crisis at State House. Chinsinga has since urged authorities to resolve the issues that are apparently boiling at Malawi\u2019s Plot Number One. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":3276,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3272","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3272","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3272"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3272\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3277,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3272\/revisions\/3277"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3276"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3272"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3272"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3272"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}