Civil servants operated the same under Lungu

By Daily Revelation Editor 

Council of Churches in Zambia (CCZ) secretary general Fr Emmanuel Chikoya has urged former president Edgar Lungu to stop threatening civil servants who are working the way they used to work under him.

On Saturday during a campaign rally organised by Citizens First leader Harry Kalaba in Samfya, Lungu said civil servants who were doing wrong things would be followed individually in their homes and sorted out while those who were doing the right thing would be rewarded when PF comes back to power in 2026.

But speaking with Daily Revelation yesterday, Fr Chikoya said Lungu would do well to measure his utterances.

Fr Chikoya is saying that the former president is condemning the same things which used to happen when he was in office. And he is right actually. The civil servants Lungu is threatening to follow into their homes in the event he were re-elected back into office, for taking illegal orders, are the same people who used to behave in similar fashion under his leadership.

However, Lungu did nothing to correct the situation. In short he nurtured this same nonsense that has continued rearing its ugly head in the nation to this day. Therefore, the former president has no moral right to condemn the same things he helped nurse in the country. In fact, he would do well to show a bit more remorse that he allowed the same to happen. Unfortunately, his successor, President Hakainde Hichilema, instead of learning from the bad, is allowing the same culture to persist. Instead of normalising the operations of these state institutions, he is allowing them and actually abusing them with impunity against his opponents.

Power has now gotten so much into his head, in the same manner it did with Lungu, who is today crying about the excesses of the same institutions he presided over. Today, Hichilema is even talking about further amendments to the same Cyber and Security act he condemned when his predecessor enacted it, even vowing that he was going to annul the same once elected into office. We wonder what spirit possesses politicians the moment they are given power that they go against the same right things they advocated when they did not have it. Today, Lungu is crying about something he could have addressed when had all the power in his hands.

While, we agree that civil servants who are in the habit of following illegal orders must be made answerable in their own individual capacities, Lungu as someone who failed to address this same situation, should now be telling Zambians about how he would handle matters differently, in terms of providing concrete reforms to completely root out this same vile conduct that has been palpably clear to all for many many years in this country actually. In fact, more than threatening to go into individual homes of people, the former president should concern himself with giving Zambians hope about a future he would bring about if re-elected. Zambians want to hear about how he will make corrective measures on those things Zambians hated about him and his administration, and how he would channel most of his efforts towards strengthening his stronger areas and coming up with something new for the betterment of Zambians.