Welcome to the Republic of Queues — formerly known as Malawi. A land once full of promise and potential, now reduced to a nation of lines.
If it’s not sugar, it’s fuel. If it’s not fuel, it’s cooking oil. If it’s not cooking oil, it’s forex. And now, as if to crown our national humiliation, it’s cooking gas. Yes, Malawians are now queuing for gas. The very same Liquified Petroleum Gas (LPG) that government and environmentalists begged citizens to adopt in a push to save our depleted forests.
And what do the people get for switching to clean energy? Nothing but long queues and empty promises. For nearly a month now, households that made the switch to LPG are being punished for doing the right thing. They queue in frustration, with no assurance of when the gas will arrive — or if it ever will.
It’s a special kind of irony: the government encourages citizens to dump charcoal and firewood for cleaner options, only to make those options inaccessible. The result? A tragic, predictable return to the very habits we’re supposed to be fighting. Trees will be cut. Forests will burn. But hey, there will be no queue for charcoal, will there?
Austin Theu, the spokesperson for the Ministry of Energy, wants us to believe it’s not their fault. It’s forex, he says. Malawi doesn’t have the dollars. That’s it. That’s the explanation. As if Malawians should accept this with bowed heads and grateful hearts. As if a nation can function on excuses and press releases.
Meanwhile, our leaders fly business class and pose for pictures at conferences about “climate resilience” and “green economies.” They wine and dine while their own people burn trees to cook porridge. Environmentalist Charles Bakolo is right to worry — but his worry should go beyond forests. This is about national shame.
We are tired. Tired of the queues. Tired of leaders who only react, never plan. Tired of a country that runs like a machine with no oil — sputtering from one crisis to the next, while the people suffer.
In Malawi today, your patriotism is measured by how long you can stand in line without complaining. But make no mistake: we are not a patient people. We are a cornered people. And one day, even the most cornered citizen will say, “Enough is enough.”
Until then, queue on. For sugar. For fuel. For forex. For gas. For dignity.
And maybe, just maybe, one day, we’ll queue to vote in people who actually know what they’re doing.
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