To believe the narrative, war has been averted. Malawi will not be run over by military tanks dispatched from Dodoma by Tanzanian strongman Jakaya Kikwete. Countless lives too, have been served from an imminent bloodbath that some retired heads of states have, acting in good faith and with legendary tact, have averted.

Former Mozambican president Jacquim Chissano and his retired South African counterpart Thabo Mbeki, mediators of the Lake Malawi dispute, have thrown in the gauntlet, a mooted magic wand that will vanquish all emotions, tempers and bad blood between the two neighbors; a resource sharing agreement.

“What was good in that meeting,” said in an exclusive interview Foreign Affairs Minister George Chaponda, “is that the Tanzanian President said that this not an issue we can fight war over.”

And that statement sums it all in terms of all the big fear that engulfed this nation, a fear of war…