The ruling Malawi Congress Party (MCP) plans to disseminate the highly rated State of the Nation Address (SONA) by the state president His Excellency Dr. Lazarus McCarthy Chakwera to the rural masses so that they appreciate the good developmental plans the Malawi leader has. Chief among Chakwera’s plans is to guarantee food security in the country as a way of dealing with hunger which has come, partly, as a result of climate change related shocks such Tropical Cyclone Freddy and El Nino.
Disclosing plans to disseminate the SONA to constituents in rural areas was the MCP Director of Youth who is also Minister of Local Government Hon Richard Chimwendo Banda at a political rally held in Salima District.
In his speech, Chimwendo also revealed that Dr. Lazarus Chakwera has directed that every person who is hunger stricken must be given relief food. According to the MCP Director of Youth, Chakwera is also assuring Malawians that nobody will die of hunger in the country as his administration is on the ground distributing relief maize to the affected households. The president also stated that the lean season response initiative will last for 6 months.
“My Administration embarked on the lean season response for all the affected people in all the districts, giving each of the affected households a 50kg bag of maize every month, and I expect that members of this House whose constituencies have received this maize will testify that this is true.
“This intervention, which started four months ago, will run for a period of six months, and it is a supplement to the decision I made to release maize from the Strategic Grain Reserves for price stabilization, and that maize is being sold at an affordable price in a number of areas through ADMARC markets,” stated Chakwera.
While showcasing the various development projects under implementation by Chakwera led government including the Solar power plant and M5 road (Lakeshore Road) in the district, Chimwendo also assured constituents of continued developmental initiatives in Salima and other districts.
Chakwera’s SONA has been praised highly by several quarters including the faith community, corporate world, traditional leaders, and the public at large. It is a good move to widely disseminate the SONA so that the citizenry is kept abreast of the developmental plans the current administration has put in place as well as those already under implementation.