It’s not true that HH hasn’t achieved anything during his time in office

 By Daily Revelation Editor

As the campaigns are in full swing, there has been an escalation of attacks and counterattacks traded between the ruling party and the opposition. During his rally in Chisamba, President Hakainde Hichilema urged Zambians against being cheated by “those two boys”, as he commonly refers to NRPUP presidential candidate Brian Mundubile and his running-mate Makebi Zulu, describing them as crooks. One of his campaign songs is referring to his opponents as ba pompwe (thieves).

The very next day, the duo called a press briefing at which they went after Eagle Milling, a company started under the directorship of Zambia National Service (ZNS) Commander Lieutenant General Maliti Solochi, of being a conduit of corruption for Parliamentary speakers, ex-ministers, members of parliament and UPND cadres, as they have failed to pay the Food Reserve Agency (FRA). They said the same has resulted in FRA delaying to purchase the maize from farmers as well as the delayed announcing of the maize floor price.

It will be in our interest, and it should be in the interest of all Zambians to follow this matter to its logical conclusion.

But while the attacks and counterattacks will continue as politicians will go to any length to diminish the prospects of their opponents as much as possible, however, we do not agree with arguments from the opposition that President Hichilema has spent his five years in office without achieving anything. That simply isn’t true. President Hichilema has scored a lot of successes during his time in office, including introducing free education, school feeding programmes, and re-introduction of student meal allowances. Just the other day he was commissioning the new 100 megawatts solar power project in Chisamba.

President Hichilema also undertook the difficult task of restructuring the debts, which was not an easy task given the background the country was coming from where it even defaulted on some due payments on the debts.

It therefore follows that Hichilema has had his own successes. What should be for debate is whether those successes outweigh his failures, something the Zambian people will give a conclusive verdict on. But anyone suggesting that Hichilema has been doing nothing in office is definitely lying.

But just like we disagree with those saying Hichilema has achieved nothing, we also disagree with Hichilema himself when he claims that it was all chaos under the PF administration that spanned 10 years in office. PF definitely scored a lot of successes during their time, most notably in the infrastructure sector. But whether those successes outweighed the successes, Zambians make a definitive response to that in 2021.

This culture by our politicians to minimise the achievements of those they are seeking to take over from, or those they took over from is counterproductive to the interests of Zambians as the country has lagged behind and lost out on the time to make progress. Because the idea is to minimise the programmes of the previous administrations as much as possible, those who take over power simply refuse to carry on with some projects embarked upon by their predecessors, even when those projects are public projects and public resources have already been expended. 

There is nothing wrong with simply acknowledging other people’s successes while working to improve upon them. It’s as simple as that.