20101216
africanews

Malawi President Bingu wa Mutharika on Wednesday warned his critics he is not Jesus Christ and will take action if they continue to be critical of his government. Many people accuse him of not exercising patience when making important decisions.

“It was Jesus, the son of God who said turn the other cheek. Do you want me to be Jesus? That was Jesus, the son of God, I am Bingu,” he said. “You slap me here, I will hit you. That is the way life is.”

He added he will not give the other cheek to be slapped like Jesus.

“No, not me, I am the son of man. You play with me, expect the consequences,” Mutharika, the current African Union chairman said, accusing religious groups and churches, and the civil society organizations for not helping him to develop the nation and for also lacking patience themselves in their respective organizations.

“You are telling me to exercise patience yet you do not do that in your churches and organizations. Have you not expelled each other without mercy?” said the President.

“Mercy and patience were not made for Bingu alone,” stressed Mutharika. He then gave a Biblical reference where Satan is believed to have been so close to God but wanted to take over and found himself in hell.

“Even God did not allow Lucifer to behave as God. There is always one leader at a time,” he said.

Mutharika told a gathering at a national tree planting launch his critics were wrong to blame him on the expulsion of the Vice President Joyce Banda from the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP).

“The problem with Joyce Banda is that she was forming parallel structures in the party and government,” he added, adding there was a party for Banda and there was a party for Bingu wa Mutharika.

“Where on earth can you run a country like that?”

Banda, the country’s first woman vice-president and former minister Khumbo Kachali were fired from Mutharika’s party after a row over who will succeed the head of state.

The Malawi leader picked Banda, a popular grassroots campaigner, as his running mate in the 2009 presidential race, a ‘dream ticket’ which ensured him a landslide victory.