By Patson Chilemba
Hakainde Hichilema is able to lie with his eyes open, FDD leader Edith Nawakwi has charged.
Speaking with Daily Revelation, Nawakwi questioned which economic school the President went to and who were his lecturers, saying economics was about stability but President Hakainde Hichilema was increasing fuel prices every month.
She said as far as she was concerned, there was no economy worth talking about in Zambia as things kept worsening with increased fuel prices, record high mealie meal prices and the very high cost of living.
She said the UPND negated their own budget where after pronouncing the budget, they went ahead to hike the fuel prices within 24 hours.
“There is no economy to talk about. You should have done graphs by now which he likes to refer to, to show what the fuel hikes have done on the economy. He says he’s an economist but I don’t know which school of economics he went to where prices change every week (monthly for fuel). I don’t know who his lecturers were,” Nawakwi said.
She charged that President Hichilema came back to Zambia from China boasting that he had a successful trip to that country “after concretising his two-year honeymoon” with the west, claiming that there was nothing successful about that trip.
“What does success from China mean? A success trip means them saying ‘we shall do TAZARA.’ But they said we are going to do it on commercial basis. When Rupiah Banda went to China he brought back Chin-Henan. Kenneth Kaunda brought TAZARA,” Nawakwi said. “Awee ba Hakainde balansekesha. Umwaiche wandi alansekesha (Hakainde makes me really laugh the way he does things). Tell me what he has got from China? Has he got debt relief?”
She charged that President Hichilema lied Zambians over his claims to double CDF.
“What strikes me is we have a President who is able to lie with eyes open. Tell me what the President said about CDF. He was going round saying we will double CDF in next year’s budget. Doubling means increasing to K56 million. But are you going to call the K30 as doubling?” Nawakwi asked. “If a man in his state can lie with his teeth, do you think he can offer you a viable budget? He’s risking the future of the state through his blatant lies. Whenever he wants to tell a lie he speaks without reasoning.”
She said the UPND administration was complaining about civil servants not being with the government, but wondered why professionals in various parts of the country were being overlooked, “by telling villagers that they must sit down and plan projects.”
She charged that President Hichilema has failed to move to State House because he “does not fit in the stature of the people who have sat in that office.”
“At least Frederick Chiluba left him some portfolio in privatization. With Levy Mwanawasa, he is remembered for the Levy Mwanawasa Hospital. With Rupiah Banda when you go in villages people will tell you ‘we were receiving eight bags of fertilizer.’ Michael Sata, there is the Sata University and also started works on the Kazungulu Bridge and Kafue Gorge. Edgar Lungu was finalizing that work,” said Nawakwi. “Hakainde can’t be like those honourable men who have lived there. He doesn’t fit in the shoes of people who have walked there. No wonder he’s not getting any new ideas.”
