The thing is, politicians do not wear their fears on their cloak.

Deep down though, below those plastic smiles and forced handshakes, is the raging storm of uncertainty.

September 16, 2025, which—just on June 23, 2020, when Malawians voted in the court-ordered presidential election—looked like a remote impossibility is fast approaching.

And, all of a sudden, politicians who had a celebratory look about them are finally in business mood.

In such a mood, they are bound to include in State of the Nation Address projects that have not materialised on the ground.

In that business mood, they are likely to raise their heads when everyone else has let their heads touch the ground in supplication and silent prayer.

Indeed, in that business-like mood, politicians are likely to misplace characters when they retell biblical stories—say that of Johah.

The truth is, in their business-like attitude, they will fail to attend events organised to ensure that the legacy of a revolutionary leader who changed the way politics is done in Malawi lives on. They will do so even when they know that the leadership robes they are wearing now were once worn by those they now ‘shun’.

In their desperate attempt to appear relevant, they will, in fact, make references to ethnic background to score political points, all in the name of positioning for the presidential election of September this year.

Already, those in the governing party have started dismissing those who ask them to up their game, lest they be taken by surprise by the outcome of election results.

As for those in the opposition; it is always pointing at wrongs, wrongs and wrongs, with nothing positive to say about the current administration.

It is as if governing party politicians have a book of praises, stacked somewhere out of citizens’ view, ands those in opposition have a book of wrongs, also stacked somewhere in their suitcases.

And they call it politics.

As for individual citizens—including the 5.7 million Malawians that have been facing hunger during the lean season, in line with the Malawi Vulnerability Assessment Committee report—most of whom come out of houses to face a hiding sun.

The hiding sun, one with fading rays, represents hunger, rising inflation, a shaking Kwacha when faced with the United States dollar, political violence, high levels of unemployment, among other ills.

It is as if the ordinary Malawian and politicians—those in governing parties and those in the opposition included—live in separate worlds.

In other words, although they seem to take on the same path of life, they do no