False promissory notes during election periods

By Daily Revelation Editor

Citizens First (CF) leader Harry Kalaba has urged Zambians to temper their excitement over the recently announced $1.1 billion crude oil refinery project in Ndola, warning that it may be another election-season promise designed to sway voters.

“In the past, this government has promised the moon and not even delivered a star,” said Kalaba referencing the UPND’s track record on infrastructure and economic pledges. “Let’s wait until the bulldozers roll before we celebrate.”

Kalaba is right when he says that there will be an explosion of campaign promises during the season the nation is entering into. He’s also right when he says that Zambians should brace for a flood of promises, including cheap mealie-meal, new bridges and roads that may never materialise.

We have also previously written that the nation should anticipate a sudden improvement over the chaotic electricity supply experienced in the last two years, including if the country will experience another dry spell during the coming rain season.

At least for next year, Zambians should be excited that with or without rains, they will have an abundance of electricity supply in their homes. What magic will the government play to achieve that? Bally will surely fix it, including pulling some of the levelers such as reduced exports to neighboring countries, wherein some questionable companies have been given questionable contracts to export the energy. This while Zambians struggle through the darkness, with millions enjoying only between 20-30 percent of energy daily.

It surely is unacceptable for this nation to be wallowing in 80 percent darkness when people in countries such as Saudi Arabia, which is situated in the desert, enjoy access to energy 24/7.

But Zambians must not just watch out for the explosion of promissory notes with no chances of fulfillment, or those windfall crumbs from the election period from the ruling party. They must also watch out for the promissory notes from the opposition, including those coming from Kalaba himself. Actually the cheating Zambians have endured for many years starts from the opposition parties, who usually promise heaven on earth to get elected into office. However, once they have been elected into office and are confronted with the demands of running office, they begin to renege on their promises.

They literally backtrack on the promises they made and begin to unleash ‘venom’ through their gullible and narrow-minded supporters when people start holding them accountable on their false promises. The same supporters who saw everything wrong in the people they just voted out, suddenly begin to view the same wrongs being committed by their leaders as right.

In the process they turn their leaders into little demigods. Before they know it, the popularity of those leaders is quickly waning in the minds of right thinking members of society. They hold on to the illusion of 2.8m or even 1.8m, meanwhile the train has moved on from that station leaving those whose heads are buried in the sand behind.

We therefore urge the long suffering Zambians to use this period onwards to begin critically sieving through the promissory notes being dished out by politicians, even those from those they support and hold dearly. They must place a premium on the leaders they have in government and those seeking to take over from them. They can’t allow themselves to continue being lied to from one election cycle to the other.

They have tolerated the lying for too long and now is the time they must reclaim governance back to themselves as the real bosses.

One’s tribe, race and or physical appearance should be peripheral, in fact should not even feature anywhere when considering national leadership. Those who base their leadership choices on such considerations are mercenaries who should actually be considered real enemies of Zambia.