A Pictorial Tribute to late President Prof. Bingu wa Mutharika of Malawi

5th April, 2012 shall be a day that shall have an indelible mark to many Malawians including myself. It was the day that the President of Malawi, Professor Bingu wa Mutharika died. Personally, I felt the sadness that I have never felt before when I learned that the President had collapsed at around 11.15am the same day. It was a shock to many!

It is thus with that sadness that I present this pictorial tribute in honour of the late Professor Bingu wa Mutharika. As any person born through Adam, any human (including you and me) have weaknesses but nevertheless Bingu wa Mutharika shall remain a hero to me and indeed will be remembered as a great son of Africa. There are several reasons why Bingu shall always remain a hero to me and I guess even to other Malawians and Africans in general.

I find the life of Bingu wa Mutharika as a President (from 2004-2012) to be very inspiring. Bingu wa Mutharika inculcated in Malawians the spirit of self-sufficiency and self-confidence. This he demonstrated through the so many development projects that he initiated in the spirit of having a Malawi that is not perpetually donor dependent. His argument has always been that Malawi has been 'independent' from colonialism since 1964 (2012 marks 48 years of 'independence'). However, Malawi has perpetually remained one of the poorest countries in the world yet Malawi is rich in several natural resources such as fertile land, fresh water and indeed untapped mineral resources.

It is against this background that the late President always promoted home-grown policies as a way of taking Malawi out of the quagmire of poverty. He thus initiated several tangible development projects that saw poverty levels decline from 60% in 2004 to 40% in 2010. I now present some pictures capturing some of the development projects initiated by the Prof. Bingu wa Mutharika through his 'home-grown policies':






Coupled with good rains, Malawi has witnessed a highly successful fertilizer subsidy programme from 2004 that has made Malawi food-sufficient.





By creating diplomatic relations with China under Prof. Bingu wa Mutharika, Malawi has witnessed tangible Chinese funded development projects including the magnificent Parliament Building in Lilongwe, the capital of Malawi




After waiting for over 40 years, the people of the 'remote' district of Chitipa finally are also now having a tarmac road courtesy of Bingu's development agenda.









The Malawi University of Science and Technology now under construction is also brainchild of the late Prof. Bingu wa Mutharika.




Late Bingu wa Mutharika demystified the myth that Malawi had no mineral resources. Kayelekera uranium mine, opened during the Bingu's presidency, was the first significant international mining investment in Malawi