By Patson Chilemba
Former Finance minister Ng’andu Magande says young children must start contributing to the production of food rather than busy saying “unga wadula (mealie meal has become expensive)”
And Magande said he pities Finance minister Dr Situmbeko Musokotwane having to present the National Budget as the situation in the country is not easy.
Speaking with Daily Revelation Media, Magande said instead of young children just surfing the internet and shouting “nshima, nshima”, they must now be made to start contributing towards production of the same nshima, saying in his case he already knew where his food was coming from by the time he was 6 years old.
The former finance minister said there were no children rights when he was growing up “except to have the right to have food.”
“What we do is that nearly everybody even a child out there in Mwinilunga, they know things are not cheap, prices are going up. What therefore, we want to hear is, what is the solution?” Magande asked, and that as for mealie meal it is important to know that not everybody, himself included, grew up having to depend on that commodity but on sorghum, and therefore, the reason why people in his area were not complaining too much about prices. “So for me even a child, as I was growing up as a child I was told ‘look after this sorghum, the goats should not eat it because this will be your food tomorrow.’ Now at five years, six years I already knew where my food was coming from and for me I am saying instead of these young people going to the internet and just saying ‘nshima, nshima’, they must now start singing songs about how they can contribute to growing this nshima. And the opportunities are there.
“Whether they will say, no but we are young, if they say we are young because of child rights, when we were growing up we had no child rights except to have the right to have food. My father said you will only have a right to eat food that you have contributed to produce. So even these people, young people now who are busy saying ‘ah unga wadula’ and so on, they should know how this unga is coming onto their table. And if they do that by the time they are 10 years old they will have a small maize bin with perhaps four bags of maize and four bags will take them six months to eat. I think those are the issues that I would perhaps like to share. They are my views but I feel that there is too much now of everybody being an expert, just shouting, mealie meal has gone up. That song is an old song now. We have heard people (singing). What are the solutions? What are they proposing?”
And Magande hailed “the courage” by Finance minister Dr Situmbeko Musokotwane to present the national budget in this very difficult environment.
“It’s a very difficult environment and I really pity him because it’s not a very easy situation, and I just hope that the Ministry and the government has spent time just to explain what has happened in the last two years of UPND government. Because that is extremely important,” Magande said, urging the government to devise ways in which to tap into the early rains in some parts of the country already. “At the same time we know that you need this kind of information to gather your thoughts and to start planning what else to do.|”
Magande said the government must also explain to Zambians how far they have gone in debt restructuring, saying as the campaigns were happening for the 2021 general elections, a lot of candidates were talking about how they would handle the debt problem.
“And we can’t just keep quiet about it now. We want to know. How far have we gone? And that will give the people courage that we are still on this long journey. That’s what we need to know,” Magande said. “So I hope I will see something there explained. Perhaps since this is the bigger thing, there could even be a chapter on debt restricting in the budget to explain to us what exactly is happening.”
He said he would not consume his energies about people who were saying to the government, “but you promised you promised.”
“A promise does not mean that once I promise you, ‘okay I will do this next time you come’, I don’t mean (that does not mean tomorrow). If you come back tomorrow and say ‘you promised me an animal’. Just to get to Choma is very far. So if you want an animal for Christmas you know it can’t be now. It can be tomorrow or it can be even the other Christmas when the situation will even be worse,” Magande said.
Magande said the issue now was about knowing the problem and finding the answer.
He said he was happy that the introduction of Daily Revelation to the print media industry would result in the enhancement of information to the consumers of the news.
“I have seen that Daily Revelation which was online has now gone print. It has gone active now in the physical. So it will be found now in most of the places where people go to buy their scones, where they go to buy their sugar and so on. The Newspaper really has grown up in terms of coverage of stories and I have been one of those who encourage newspapers and other media to spread even up to the community level,” said Magande. “So I think what (Patson) Chilemba is doing with his colleagues is a very good idea and I would encourage other people also to come forth and give us the other side of the stories as they happen in the communities.”
Magande urged other Zambians to venture into various productive activities, even if they may not have specialization in any given area.
