Call him Prof. Ngwazi Bingu wa Mutharika

President Ngwazi Dr Bingu wa Mutharika and the First Lady Madame Callista at the East China University during the ceremony on Sunday.

By Samuel Makaka in Shanghai

Malawi President Ngwazi Dr Bingu wa Mutharika said on Sunday that Malawi values the support it is receives from the Peoples Republic of China in human capacity building as many Malawian students are on Chinese sponsored academic scholarships, studying in Chinese Universities.

Dr Bingu wa Mutharika was speaking at East China Normal University in his acceptance speech after the institution conferred on him an honorary professorship in economics.

In accepting the honorary professorship title, the Malawian leader, joins his younger brother Professor Peter Mutharika.

The young Mutharika is a respected international decorated professor at Law.

In his address to the gathering at the ceremony, Dr Mutharika said that Malawi and Africa as a whole cannot develop without well trained experts who he said are lacking at the moment.

“We need human capacity building in our countries and Malawi is looking forward to new areas of cooperation between the East China University and Malawi’s University of Science and Technology being established with assistance from the Peoples Republic of China,” he said.

The State President said that it is possible for Africa to be developed but only when African experts take a lead in the fight against poverty and ignorance.

“Through education and human capacity building we can change humanity for the better and Malawi as a country is happy that we are doing just that,” he said.

President Dr Bingu wa Mutharika reiterated his conviction that Africa will develop and become a major contributor to the global economic development.

At this point he repeated his view that Africa is not poor but that the people on continent are the ones who are poor.

The President said that this is the case because of the vast resources Africa is endowed with. He said that he is aware that Africa needs financial resources and well trained human resources to turn the raw materials on the continent into wealth.

Dr Mutharika disclosed that Africans are aware that they are marginalized in many ways by the rich nations.

“Africans are aware that they are being marginalized in global politics, science and technology, economic development and trade. Africa is also marginalized in global resource financial allocation simply because Africa is poor,” said Dr Mutharika who is also the chairperson for the continental country grouping, the African Union (AU).

But he said AU sees emergence of globalization as an opportunity for the people of Africa and other nations to work together through the pursuit of global peace and security and fight against terrorism so as to create new wealth through promotion of industrial development, manufacturing, mining, agro-processing and promotion of human capacity.

He told the gathering that Malawi has improved tremendously in the last five years he has been in power, explaining that more and more people are living above the poverty line because of the abundant availability of food.

He said 75 percent of Malawians are already accessing clean portable water, beating the UN set target of 74 percent by 2014.

Dr Mutharika, also commended China for being one of the biggest cooperating partners in Africa and hope that African countries will benefit much more as the cooperation gets closer and closer reducing poverty among the people of Africa through support from China.

Speaking when he introduced President Mutharika to the audience, president of the University, Professor Yu Lizhong said it was a great honour and pleasure that President Mutharika agreed to accept the title of honorary Professorship in Economics.

“His Excellency, Ngwazi Dr Bingu wa Mutharika, President of the Republic of Malawi and chairperson of the African Union is a well known economist and politician. He holds a PhD in development economics from the Pacific University of Los Angeles-USA,” the University President told the gathering. He also disclosed to the gathering of other positions that Dr Mutharika held before becoming State President of the Republic of Malawi.

Prof Lizhong also pointed out that President Mutharika spearheaded the formation of several regional economic organizations including the Association of African Central Banks, Conference of African Ministers of Finance and many more.

“So it is therefore our pleasure and honour that President Mutharika agreed to accept the title of Honorary Professorship from our University,” he said.

Currently, there are four Malawian students studying at the East China University.

During the ceremony, President Ngwazi Dr Bingu wa Mutharika donated to the institution several books that he has written in his lifetime career as an economist.

Amongst the donation, was his yet to be published book which the President described as somehow controversial.