By Patson Chilemba
FDD leader Edith Nawakwi has pleaded with President Hakainde Hichilema to call on former president Edgar Lungu and the other leaders in the country, including herself, to join hands in resolving the economic hardships the country is going though.
Calling in to Daily Revelation, Nawakwi said Zambia belonged to all and the problems the country is facing required President Hichilema to muster all the help he could get to help the country through this period of hardship that is hitting every Zambian hard.
“This is our country. Let’s close ranks and work together. Let President Hichilema call president Lungu and even me I am willing to help out,” Nawakwi said, saying most of the challenges the country is going through due is due to the sour relationship the country has with China whom it owes the largest debt. “I am willing to be on the first plane to go and plead to China. I will kunkula to say tapapata. These are the people President Hichilema should have gone to before he went dancing to the people who don’t like the Chinese in the west.”
Nawakwi said President Hichilema as head of state urgently needed to go on a state visit to see the Chinese President as the country’s obvious bias towards the United States of America and the west is hurting Zambia greatly.
She said the Chinese will not come to the table on account of being yelled at by the Americans, saying they will be responsible if President Hichilema were voted out as they are not helping but are only motivated by permanent interests and not permanent friendships.
Nawakwi said both the IMF boss and the USA Treasury came to Zambia empty handed except to try to drive a wage between Zambia and China, for which she said President Hichilema was a willing participant as their “blue-eyed boy.”
She said there was no way the people would survive buying a liter of diesel at almost K30, and mealie meal at over K200, with expensive electricity while the government kept on boasting about the lower inflation figure.
Nawakwi said from time immemorial, the Chinese have been Zambia’s all-weather friend, saying President Hichilema could have been deceived by people like Finance minister Dr Situmbeko Musokotwane to have taken a west ward tilt, and that the Chinese were not happy in the manner they were treated, including the cancellation of projects to the tune of $3 billion when the UPND was assuming office.
She urged President Hichilema to take a leaf from late president Michael Sata whom she said was a clever man in that while he denounced the Chinese while in opposition, among the first trips he took on assuming office was to visit China from where most of the country’s landmark projects have come from in recent years.
“Actually our President is extremely naïve. I don’t know what we can say to help him. He needs help. And those from America should do everything to help him because if it were me I would not deal with them,” said Nawakwi
