It’s unfair to draw Zambians from the many issues affecting them

By Daily Revelation Editor

In the midst of skyrocketing mealie meal prices, the wayward Kwacha which seems to be moving along in autopilot fashion and the extremely high fuel prices, it’s saddening that the nation’s precious time is being wasted with police having gone on rampage arresting opposition leaders.

These arrests are clearly taking away the nation’s attention from the many untold hardships Zambians are bearing at the moment. 

Zambians must not be swayed nor play this game where their attention is  drawn away from the very important matters affecting them but must remain firm on holding accountable those in our government to deliver on their electoral promises.

These are matters which should actually be keeping our President and his officials awake at night 

President Hakainde Hichilema promised a lot to Zambians including that he would reduce the prices for the staple food to K50 per 25 kg bags, fuel to less than K13, and that fertilizer would be purchased at K250, and that he would preside over the appreciated Kwacha. All those things are trending in the very extreme opposite of what Hakainde promised, with the cheapest 25 kg bag mealie meal going for K230, fuel K30, fertilizer over K1000 and the Kwacha fast speeding towards K24 to US$1.

Besides these issues, we thought these arrests of opposition leaders were a thing of the past, going by Hakainde’s own worst experiences on the matter and what he promised he would do once elected as President. Alas, we see opposition political leaders now ‘changing shifts’ in terms of appearing before police stations and police cells. This clearly is not a good sign for democracy, and the huge onus is on Hakainde to ensure that such does not continue so that focus is on the main important issues of bread and butter, as well as building a flourishing democracy, something which all the stakeholders, including those in the ruling party and opposition, are key in building towards.

Otherwise, it’s very unfair that the nation’s conscious should be drawn towards the police stations and courts given the very extreme suffering that seems to be worsening by the day.  

The national struggle right now should be about ideas on how to improve the welfare of Zambians. When Zambians see Hakainde, their conscience should speak to how his policies are helping to alleviate the many challenges Zambians are going through. When they see Fred M’membe, Harry Kalaba, Edgar Lungu, Sean Tembo, Edith Nawakwi or any other opposition leader, their memory should not be drawn towards how they were arrested and transported to some police station, but what their agenda is if they were elected.

There is so much that needs addressing such that if all focus were placed on that no single minute would be wasted on arresting opposition leaders.

Zambians are surely in a hurry to see their fortunes change for the better. Patients are dying in UTH and other health centres across the country every day because of lack of drugs and other medical supplies, the distribution of farming inputs is still ongoing and one only hopes that they will reach  the desired beneficiaries in time for the farming season. 

Please allow the opposition to flourish in the country. Zambians vote in order to ensure that there is no continuation of the politics as usual but to address the very real challenges affecting them.