Malawian leaders and the syndrome of using titles they never earned*|*Malawi news
Malawian leaders and the syndrome of using titles they never earned
Nowhere in the world do you find leaders who love titles and prefixes as in Malawi. Bakili Muluzi continues to refer to himself as ‘Dr' BakiliMuluzi. Bingu wa Mutharika's official name is His Excellency the President Ngwazi ‘Professor' Bingu wa Mutharika.
Although Muluzi never earned a college doctorate or PhD, he is very eager to use the prefixes ‘Dr' because of an honorary degree. President Mutharika has never taught at a university in his life. Yet, thanks to the honorary title from a little known Asian university, the president is more than eager to use this title, ‘professor'.
All over the world, people do not suddenly start calling themselves doctors or professors because of honorary degrees or titles. In very rare cases where the prefix is added to the name, it is always made clear that the title is honorary. Thus instead of ‘Dr.' the term ‘Dr.h.c.' is used. Honorary degrees are supposed to be that – honorary.
You are not supposed to start looking for a job with it or act like you have just defended a thesis.
Lots of eminent leaders around the world receive these titles everyday but they never refer to themselves as ‘doctors' or ‘professors'. Nelson Mandela, Thabo Mbeki and Jacob Zuma have received numerous honorary doctorate degrees. Yet, they never sign their names as Dr Nelson Mandela, Dr Thabo Mbeki or Dr Jacob Zuma.
Barack Obama has received his fair share of honorary degrees – and so have George Bush, Bill Clinton, Jimmy Carter, Arnold Schwarzenegger and many others. None of these ever sign their names with the prefix ‘Dr'.
Condoleezza Rice is a PhD holder and a very respected professor but nobody ever refereed to her as ‘Secretary of State Professor Condoleezza Rice' or ‘Secretary of State Dr. Condoleezza Rice'. The president of Iran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, is a PhD holder and was himself a brilliant professor of civil engineering. He too never refers to himself as doctor or professor. As a matter of fact, many real professors and doctors prefer to be on first name basis – even with their students.
The desire for titles and prefixes has driven some Malawian leaders to do some extreme things. Bingu wa Mutharika got his PhD in economics from Pacific Southwest University, a university that was unaccredited at the time – in other words, a ‘briefcase university'.
It has been said that Malawi leaders are constantly fiercely lobbying different universities to award them honorary degrees.
Why do Malawian leaders have such a huge appetite for titles and prefixes they never earned? The answer is simple – they use these titles and prefixes to mask their incompetency. Labels distract people from scrutinizing the actual performance of leaders.
This is not an attempt to underrate education. Education is very important especially to a country like ours. We need to modernize our schools and prepare young people to compete with the rest of the world. In the 21st century, successful nations will be those that understand the importance of world-class education.
Over the next few months I will outline my vision of how Malawi can successfully be transformed into an IT capital of Africa; how we can introduce computing to our schools even as early as primary schools; and how we can position ourselves to compete with nations like India for jobs currently being outsourced from America and other industrialized western country.
We must encourage our young people to get as much education as they can. However, once the education diplomas have been accumulated. Let's set the titles aside and get to work. Performance, not titles, is what matters.