President Chakwera  Teargas Moment and the Responsibilities Nations Owe Their Former Presidents.

By Amb. Godfrey Madanhire*

On 14 May 2026, Malawi offered the continent a moment that demands reflection. Former Malawian President Dr Lazarus McCarthy Chakwera arrived at the Kamuzu Day commemoration to honour Dr Hastings Kamuzu Banda, the country’s founding leader. The morning had begun with a memorial at the Malawi Congress Party headquarters, where officials and supporters gathered before accompanying him toward the mausoleum. What followed was a scene that unsettled many. Police roadblocks near the Lilongwe City Council Civic Offices and the Bingu International Convention Centre redirected the procession. Instructions were issued, tensions rose and teargas was released. Senior party officials, citizens and the former president were caught in the confusion. A former head of state was placed in a position of visible embarrassment and personal indignity, a moment that revealed a troubling lapse in the respect owed to those who have served at the highest level.

Across Africa, the public lives of former presidents often unfold in similarly charged spaces. In South Africa, Former President Jacob Gedleyihlekisa Zuma spent years navigating legal proceedings and a period of imprisonment, placing a former head of state at the centre of national contestation. In Botswana, Former President Lieutenant General Dr Seretse Khama Ian Khama relocated to South Africa after tensions with his successor, an extraordinary development in a country long regarded for its political steadiness. In Zambia, Former President Edgar Chagwa Lungu passed away in a South African hospital on 5 June 2025. His remains still lie in a South African mortuary almost a year later. His family prefers that he be buried in South Africa, where he spent his final months, while the Zambian government under President Hakainde Hichilema insists on a state funeral in Zambia. The result is a prolonged and painful standoff over the final dignity of a former head of state.

Taken together, these moments reveal a continental truth. Former presidents occupy a space where memory, authority and expectation collide. Their presence can steady a nation or unsettle it. How they are treated reflects the maturity of institutions and the confidence of the state. The experiences of Former President Chakwera, Former President Zuma, Former President Khama and Former President Lungu show that leaving office does not end a leader’s influence. It simply shifts the terrain on which that influence is exercised.

This invites a broader reflection. Former presidents carry a kind of knowledge that cannot be taught. It is earned through responsibility, through decisions made under pressure, through the weight of governing millions. They have negotiated with global powers, managed crises, balanced competing interests and carried the hopes of their nations. They are living archives of statecraft. They hold the memory of the state.

Africa’s liberation generation embodied this depth. Mwalimu Julius Kambarage Nyerere grounded Tanzania in service and cultural rootedness. Dr Kwame Nkrumah imagined continental unity with urgency and clarity. Dr Kenneth David Kaunda offered Zambia a moral vocabulary centred on humanism. President Samora Moisés Machel built Mozambique’s identity on dignity and collective purpose. Captain Thomas Isidore Sankara inspired a generation with his belief in African capability. President Robert Gabriel Mugabe, in his early years, placed education and national consciousness at the centre of Zimbabwe’s development. These leaders shaped nations not only through policy but through the weight of their lived convictions.

Africa  has former presidents whose post‑presidency has strengthened the continent. Former President Thabo Mvuyelwa Mbeki of the Republic of South Africa remains one of the continent’s most influential thinkers and mediators. His articulation of the African Renaissance offered a framework for governance, cultural renewal and institutional strengthening. After leaving office, he continued this work through the African Union High‑Level Implementation Panel, guiding negotiations in Sudan and South Sudan, supporting the Comprehensive Peace Agreement, facilitating dialogue in Darfur and contributing to political processes in the Horn of Africa. His post‑presidency shows how a former leader can continue shaping continental direction through diplomacy and intellectual leadership.

Former President Chief Olusegun Obasanjo of the Federal Republic of Nigeria stands as another example. His involvement in the Kenya post‑election settlement of 2008, his leadership in the Liberia peace process, his engagement in the Great Lakes region and his recent role in facilitating dialogue during the Ethiopia–Tigray conflict demonstrate the authority he brings to complex negotiations. He has served under mandates from the African Union, the United Nations and regional bodies, showing how former leaders can stabilise transitions and strengthen institutions.

The continent has already begun to institutionalise this wisdom. The African Union established the Panel of the Wise to draw on the insight of senior statesmen and stateswomen. SADC created its own Group of Elders to support mediation and political stability. ECOWAS regularly turns to former presidents to guide transitions. These structures recognise that experience is an asset, not a threat and they offer a foundation for a more deliberate role for former presidents in public life.

The experience of Former Malawian President Dr Lazarus Chakwera at the Kamuzu Day commemoration brings this into sharp focus. A former president caught in a moment of disorder raises questions about how a nation manages political transitions and honours the dignity of the office. It also places a responsibility on those who currently hold power. President Professor Arthur Peter Mutharika, as the sitting Head of State, is uniquely positioned to set the national tone. He can cultivate an environment in which former presidents are treated with the dignity their office commands. He can encourage institutions and citizens to recognise that the experience of those who have served before strengthens the state. He can promote a political culture in which respect for the office does not end when a term concludes.

Such leadership serves the country and it also serves the sitting president. Every leader eventually steps away from office. Every leader becomes a former president. The standards upheld today become the standards inherited tomorrow. A president who honours his predecessors reinforces the dignity of the office and strengthens the foundation upon which his own legacy will rest.

Africa advances when it honours its elders. The continent grows when it draws from the experience of those who have governed. Leadership becomes a continuum when the dignity of the office extends beyond the term of service. Former presidents stand as living archives of statecraft. They hold the knowledge that guides nations forward. Their wisdom strengthens the continent’s foundation for the future.

* Ambassador Godfrey Madanhire is Chief Operations Officer, Radio54 African Panorama, Pan-Africanist and Advocate for Sovereign African Governance, and Director of Communications and Partnerships-AIGC . The views expressed in the article are his.