There seems to be no immediate solution being provided by the UPND Government to the issues being faced. The crises being faced are economic, leadership and political in nature.
By Chishala Kateka | NHP president.
Lusaka – Zambia is in a crisis as Zambians become the main opposition to the UPND. Some may not see this, while others though seeing it, are hoping against hope that this is not so and that all the issues being currently faced, will blow over. As some hold this hope, however, the country is rapidly sinking deeper into problems.
The crises being faced are economic, leadership and political in nature. It is, therefore, imperative that we implement a national program of action along three main thematic areas:
▪️ Creation of a locus of national unity that is not superficial.
▪️ Restoration – we need to restore the ‘Soul’ of the nation.
▪️ Setting the Development Agenda.
◾Economic Crisis.
The hope and expectation held by most Zambians was that the new leadership would resolve the debt and economic situations and that once this was done, people’s individual financial and economic issues would ultimately be resolved.
Due to the lack of a speedy resolution to the debt issue, the nation has experienced investor shyness with the much touted IMF bailout package not yet realised. The Kwacha has lost value against major currencies, contributing to the escalation of the cost of doing business.
The situation in the economy is characterized by a cost of living that has escalated beyond the reach of most Zambians, a lack of liquidity in the economy, very little income in homes, high cost of fuel, high interest rates and, a matter causing most chagrin to Zambians, the issue of the high cost and current lack of availability of mealie meal.
Productivity has also been affected. The agriculture sector, for example, has experienced the cutback and late delivery of agricultural inputs, as well as a reduced number of beneficiaries for the Farmer Input Support Program.
Also Read: UPND and its baffling performance! – Chishala Kateka.
The health sector has not been spared and has been greatly compromised resulting in health centers and hospitals becoming consultation centers where patients are given prescriptions and have to procure medication from chemists.
◾Political Crisis.
There seems to be no immediate solution being provided by the UPND Government to the issues being faced.
This situation has created a political crisis. With the country not being able to move forward in stability and the party in power realizing this, a level of desperation has crept in. This desperation manifests itself in political violence as the Government has began to limit the political space for those opposed to them.
The Opposition has began to be clamped down with even peaceful demonstrations being curtailed.
◾Leadership Crisis.
The UPND are afraid of being replaced because of their failure to deliver according to the expectations of the citizenry as well as a failure to deliver on their promises.
The UPND has an ideologically bankrupt and incompetent leadership that has not only failed to manage Zambia’s surplus staple food situation but have instead managed, in a very short space of time, to turn it into a deficit situation. This shows a lack of management capability.
Internationally, they have an anti -patriotic agenda, choosing to further the interests of their international cronies over the interests of Zambians.
Also Read: This is a wrong time to align Zambia to the US with a changing geopolitical landscape.
We have Ministers that should have resigned or been dropped but have not. We have a government that enters a Nolle Prosequi on the day of judgement, a government that arrests and detains its citizens before cases are established; this is now the order of the day.
The three (3) crises referred to above, marry into the national crisis that the country is currently faced with. The citizenry across the country is constantly complaining about one thing or another and their lack of essential well-being.
Every crisis bears within it the ingredients for its resolution.
Crises in a nation will always be resolved. All crises have an inborn solution; it is the manner of that resolution that is of concern to us. The resolution can be through a revolution or through existing constitutional provisions, for example a sitting government leadership can do the right thing by taking a moral or ethical step and resign.
Resignation can be at the level of the Presidency only or the entire Government can do so to pave way to fresh elections. The President being impeached by reason of incompetence or wrong doing is also constitutional.
◾Upheaval or revolution in social terms.
Societies experience crises from time to time. It is these crises that provide a ripe environment for their resolution. When people feel they cannot continue to live under their existing conditions they seek to change their status quo. The Patriotic Front is an example of a Government that was ‘overthrown’ democratically.
In the case of the Zambian people versus the UPND in Government, one of the two must yield. Either the people or the State must yield.
States are a creation of the people and are not a permanent feature of society. They come and go and therefore, it is very clear that unless the UPND yield to the demands of the people, they will undoubtedly go. They have a choice to go in shame or honourably, by doing the moral and ethical thing by resigning because they have demonstrated that they are clueless about how to resolve the national crisis which in a large part is of their own making. They have shown themselves to be incompetent.
Their exit is foregone and is not debatable.
As New Heritage Party (NHP), we recognise that the political crisis we refer to relates not just to the UPND but includes a crisis in the Opposition. The whole nation is at sixes and sevens. No wonder why State House Media Director Clayton Hamasaka asked the question:
“Who amongst the opposition would take over from HH?”
It is interesting to note that he did not defend the UPND and their many political gaffes but justified the UPND stay in Government due to the fact that there seems to be no one in the opposition to take over from HH.
As NHP our response to Hamasaka is that there is a way out of this national crisis that we are faced with.
It is not about a person or changing the face at State House. Rather, it is to take a national approach to the resolution of this national crisis.
It is about restoring the collective national ethos of the nation of Zambia – a nation that had started out full of promise. That central defining ethos that made Zambians Zambian, as opposed to any other nationality. This nation that started out full of promise now lays desolate, where vultures and scavengers come and feast on the national carcass, aided by those supposed to protect and lead the Zambian people.
There is merit for the Opposition Political Parties of like mind to begin to agree on an agenda of a national program of action to resolve the national crisis that we find ourselves in. This would be around three (3) main thematic areas:
1◾Creation of a locus of national unity that is not superficial.
We need to define a national imperative for national unity to which everyone can buy in. Our future is only assured as a shared common possession as opposed to the way things are now where we see political power as rotational along political, and regional lines.
Those that say “previously we were overlooked” are now saying “this is an exclusive Government to all those that were overlooked and therefore those that had positions before are excluded”.
Current appointments show that this is the case. At what point do we draw the line? This is a very myopic approach because without this unity we are talking about, we cannot move forward as a country.
2◾Restoration – we need to restore the ‘Soul’ of the nation.
The citizenship needs to be restored to all Zambians. This is the purpose for which we got our independence. We need to reset the settings that we had at Independence. We need to ask ourselves the question, “What was the project that we promised ourselves. Where are we now in relation to who we should and could be? Are Zambians benefitting from their resources?”
We need truthful self introspection and an empirical criticism of all that exists now.
3◾Setting the Development Agenda.
A program of action which will implement our development plan needs to be developed.
When we talk about ‘development’, it is firstly to develop the individual Zambians. They must have a clear stake in the national development that restores dignity to Zambians. This is the project that offers the most viable and most desirable route out of this national crisis.
The above approach will clearly transcend the political and regional divide and will be embraced by those Zambians that are forward looking and are tired of the mediocrity that we have allowed ourselves to sink and wallow in and which has held us back as a people.
©2022 Woodpecker’s Digest Inc.
Putting news into perspective
