By Vincent Gunde
An online television station- Bakili Muluzi TV and a concerned citizen of Malawi, Pemphero Mphande, have described the change of Chileka International Airport to Bakili Muluzi International Airport as both as an insult and bad move.
President Dr. Lazarus Chakwera conferred honors to distinguished Malawians by renaming and naming certain places and infrastructure after them saying in Blantyre, Chileka International Airport to be renamed Bakili Muluzi International Airport.
President Chakwera said in Lilongwe, the unnamed portion of the Lilongwe Western Bypass Road from the M12 intersection to the M1 Kamuzu Procession Road intersection near Bunda Turnoff to be named Joyce Banda Highway.
“The unnamed Area 18 Cloverleaf interchange to be named Arthur Peter Mutharika interchange,” reads the statement signed by Secretary to the President and Cabinet Colleen Zamba.
Giving his reaction, Bakili Muluzi TV says the change of Chileka International Airport to Bakili Muluzi is an insult to the people of Chileka for they cannot forget their beloved son- Musician-Evison Matafale who was poisoned to death in a police cell in Lilongwe.
“Bakili Muluzi built other infrastructures such as Nkhotakota District Hospital observing that for this, it is good to rename it after him and not Chileka International Airport where people are still angry to this day over the death of Evison Matafale,” reads BMTV writings on the wall.
On his part, Pemphero Mphande says renaming the historical Chileka international Airport is a bad move observing that deleting history is very unnecessary claiming that a country that easily forgets the past, has no future.
Mphande has reminded Malawians on the deletion of UNIMA and changed years of history saying Malawians get stuck with horrible names like KUHES, LUANNAR, and MUBAS, disconnecting the past from the future instead of building new separate universities like Professor Bingu wa Mutharika did with MUST.
He says if this was a campaign move, then, it’s a massive goof, hoping that President Dr. Lazarus Chakwera will rescind the decision saying if Dr. Bakili Muluzi wanted an Airport named after him, he should have built one in the 10 years he ruled the country.
“If you think he deserves being named after an airport, you should build one and name it after him, but stop renaming places,” reads Mphande’s writings on the wall.
