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Bingu Wa Mutharika

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Lilongwe - The African Union on Sunday, during the first day of its 14th summit of heads of state and government elected Bingu Wa Mutharika, President of Malawi as its new chairman, replacing Libyan leader Colonel Muammar Qaddafi.

Born on 24th February 1934 in Kamoto Village in Thyolo, a southern district, 30 kilometres from the commercial city of Blantyre, Dr. Bingu Wa Mutharika is a Malawian economist, politician and current state President of the Republic of Malawi.

Born Ryson Webster Thom, this son of a primary school master adopted the more African name of Bingu Mutharika during the 1960s when pan-Africanism was sweeping across the continent. He did his primary and secondary education in Malawi. He was later educated at the University of Delhi in India where he gained a Masters Degree in Economics and later obtained a PhD in development economics from the Pacific Western University in Los Angeles, California, in the United States of America.

He joined the Malawi civil service during the reign of President Hastings Kamuzu Banda, the first head of state, but fled to Zambia after some misunderstandings under the single party rule in the 1960s.

After working for the government of Zambia, in 1978 he joined the Addis Ababa-based UN Economic Commission for Africa (ECA), where he eventually became a Director for Trade and Development for Africa.

Leaving the ECA, he worked for the World Bank briefly, before being appointed in 1991 as the Secretary General of the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA), a regional body that promotes regional economic and trade integration of 20 states from Egypt to Zimbabwe.

During his days at COMESA, Dr. Mutharika spearheaded the establishment of several regional economic organizations such as the Association of African Central Banks, Conference of African Ministers of Finance, African Federation of Chambers of Commerce and Industry and Eastern and Southern Africa Business Organization.

In the early 1990s, while still working at COMESA in Lusaka, Zambia, Mutharika supported the then pressure group that became to be known the United Democratic Front (UDF), to oppose Banda’s increasingly autocratic regime.

The UDF and other groups campaigned for the reintroduction of multi-party politics in the country. The campaign culminated in the UDF winning the elections in 1994 and saw UDF leader Bakili Muluzi becoming president of Malawi.

Under Muluzi, Mutharika rejoined the Malawi government as a political appointee in the post of Minister of Economic Planning and Development from 2003 to 2004.

Prior to this, he served as a Deputy Reserve Bank Governor of Malawi, the country’s central bank.

After Muluzi completed his two terms as Malawi leader, Mutharika succeeded him into office in May 2004. He won re-election in May 2009 following a landslide victory of his ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), a party he formed after winning elections in 2004.

In addition, Dr. Mutharika has been the author of several books — including “One Africa, One Destiny,” “Africa’s Response to Globalization,” “Mabizinesi Aphindu : Mayendetsedwe Abwino Amakono (Modern Methods of Running Businesses),” “Towards Democracy, Good Governance and Development” and “Towards Multinational Economic Cooperation in Africa.”

Dr. Mutharika has also been recognized by several international, regional and national bodies for his achievements made towards developing, not only Malawi, but the region as well.

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