Is your life better today than it was in 2021?

By Daily Revelation Editor 

Citizens First (CF) leader Harry Kalaba says the UPND administration has done nothing since they assumed office in 2021.

He points to the many unfulfilled promises and the prevailing hunger situation in the country to justify his assertions.

However, while he’s on point with his assertions about Hakainde Hichilema and UPND’s failure to fulfil several of their campaign promises and their tendency to shift blame towards the PF on things they have failed to deliver upon, we do not agree with his position that they have failed to deliver anything since they were ushered into office.

Kalaba can surely make his case on the UPND failures without coating the same with claims that are completely not true. There are surely certain things the UPND has delivered upon, such as the free education policy in the country and the huge uptick in the recruitment of health workers and teachers for instance, they are currently implementing the construction of the Lusaka-Ndola dual carriage way, of course the valid arguments raised against the cencessioning notwithstanding. And they might yet fulfil many more promises if they set their priorities right during this period they have left before the 2026 general elections.

We feel that honesty should underpin the practice of politics in this country, and that also extends to the honesty with our politicians raise their criticism of those in power. In so doing, they will claim the moral high ground even with supporters of the ruling party to be taken seriously whenever they raise criticism, with the exception of course of a few hardcore that has mastered the art of dismissing any criticism directed towards Hichilema as hate.

Like we have stated already, aside from Kalaba’s claim against UPND failing to do anything, which of course is not true, he is right in raising the issues he argues the UPND has failed to address, such as the historically high mealie-meal prices, very high fuel prices. And an argument can be made against Hichilema’s own claim with his mouth when as leader of the opposition he claimed that climate should not be used as an excuse for load-shedding as all that was required was right leadership with right priorities.

While the UPND has definitely scored some achievements, however, the degree of those achievements pale in comparison to the almost heaven-on-earth promises they made while in the opposition. The same promises upon which Hichilema and his party were elected into office.

In terms of performance, the UPND has definitely failed to distinguish itself from the PF administration they said was visionless and riddled with poor leadership. No reasonable Zambian out there can claim that the UPND performance in office has been better than that of the people they ejected from power. This is against the wisdom by the voters who came out in their droves on election day in August 2021, on the understanding that they were voting in the UPND and voting out the PF in order to see an improvement in their livelihoods. 

What we may not tell definitively is if the PF would have performed any better if they had been allowed to stay on in office. They could have performed worse or better or even maintained the UPND performance levels had they remained in office. Those who argue that they may have performed worse point to the first default on the foreign debts which started under the administration of Lungu. And  while the Kwacha significantly appreciated, especially in the last month of Lungu’s time in office from around K23 to K17, an argument was made that the same happened mainly on account of the politics employed by the PF to make that happen. The country’s debt burden was first pronounced as unsustainable during the administration of Lungu, sitting at over $14 billion at the time. And there was of course the viciousness of caderism terrorising Zambians during that period.

But others still argue that during the PF time, the price of fuel was only K17 as opposed to the K32 now. The price of mealie-meal was only K130 per 25kg bags as opposed to the over K330 now, amidst a bumper harvest which the UPND is accused of obliterating. The electricity tariffs and electricity connectivity fees during the PF were way way lower than they are right now. And while the cost of living was bad at that time, it has only worsened now during the UPND administration.

Therefore, for Zambians to be truly satisfied of the change they effected in 2021, the degree of UPND’s performance must far outweigh that of the PF without any shadow of doubt. We shall end this opinion with this question. Is your standard of life better now than it was three years ago?