By The Forum
Where’s the outrage? Where’s the national soul-searching over the latest Afrobarometer poll showing that more than half of Malawi’s youth would leave the country tomorrow if given the
chance?
Now imagine if this poll had instead put the ruling Malawi Congress Party (MCP) comfortably ahead in the upcoming elections, we think we’d be drowning in “boma ndi lomweli” translated as no need to change government and that would be the result of a government fulfilling promises. And by now, surely, we would have had a dissertation from at least one college professor as it happened after the IPOR poll recently that had the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) leading MCP by 17 points.
But alas, this isn’t about who’s up in the horse race. This is about what’s pushing the majority of Malawi’s youth to want to pack their bags and run from their country of birth.
Polls, for the record, are snapshots. They capture the mood of the moment. Anyone pretending they predict the future hasn’t been paying attention. Voter sentiment is fluid and is why political parties campaign until the last minute. Unless, of course, one believes that people’s minds are set in stone, which is a depressing but convenient excuse for parties that have no plan to change the hearts or minds of the voters.
And yet, when the Afrobarometer poll came out, basically echoing what singer Patience Namadingo had told President Lazarus Chakwera to his face that “every youth wants to run away” the response was deafening silence.
Namadingo, 34, didn’t sugarcoat it during a youth-focused State of the Nation interface earlier this year. And it turns out, he wasn’t exaggerating.
Afrobarometer found that 50% of Malawians aged 18 to 35 would emigrate if they had the chance. The top reason? No jobs.
Let that sink in for a minute.
Malawi’s population is nearing 22 million, and 80% of it is under the age of 35. Among them, 53% are unemployed but actively searching for work so they could meet their own needs and not depend on anybody else. Only 3% have full-time jobs. If that’s not an economic emergency, what is?
Even more revealing is the fact that 61% of young Malawians say they want to be entrepreneurs but without collateral, financial institutions are unwilling to give them loans to start their business, and they’re locked out of the system entirely.
To a crowd of young people watching the campaign season gather momentum and wondering if anything will really change, Namadingo delivered a line that should haunt this administration: “Your Excellency, you should be able to show, not explain.”
In just over six weeks, the real battle won’t be about who’s leading polls in July or early August. It’s about whether the governing party can convince a disillusioned, jobless generation to vote for it and not against.
So again, where’s the outrage?
