Zambians now want solutions

 By Daily Revelation Editor

This is not the easiest of times for Zambians. Fuel K35.56 per liter, load shedding 12 hours everyday, Kwacha K26 to US$1, cheapest 25 kg mealie meal bag K230 with the most expensive going at over K330. Speedy resolutions will be highly welcome.

It is undebatable that all the above issues plus others which have not been mentioned were the subject of President Hakainde Hichilema’s constant commentary when he was an opposition leader. In addressing himself to the above issues, Hakainde promised on all of them that their numbers were going to swing downwards and not upwards, including the price of fertilizer which he said he would reduce from around K700 to K250. 

Let’s address each of the mentioned items one by one. On fuel, Hakainde said he was going to remove middle men and some taxes to ensure that the price of fuel he called very expensive at that time, at K17, was reduced to less than K12 per liter. On load shedding, he said such was not acceptable as climate could not be used as an excuse for the crippling load shedding during Edgar Lungu’s time, saying desert countries never gave such excuses. On the US$ to Kwacha ratio which reached its highest depreciation at K23 during Edgar’s time, Hakainde said the Kwacha would supersonically appreciate on account of investor confidence in him.

On the price of mealie meal, Hakainde said he was going to reduce the same from the “expensive” K120 to K50 per 25kg bag.

Of course there were other promises he gave which he has fulfilled like restoring the meal allowances for university students, free education up to Grade 12, paying retirees and ensuring an uptick in the enrollment of teachers and medical professionals for instance. However, for Hakainde or any President they will always be judged on the promises they have not fulfilled, those things they consistently claimed they would fulfil. And it just happens that most of them are touching on the troubling escalation in the cost of living.

It can safely be concluded that Zambians will not see the lower prices Hakainde promised. 

This now should begin to speak to the conscience of Zambians in terms of raising a premium on both the kind of leadership and on the promises given to them.

Today, we hear opposition leaders highlighting and rightly so, reminding Hakainde of his promises. But we must not give them the benefit of raising those issues for political gain without offering any tangible solutions and programmes they would implement if they were given the opportunity themselves to govern.

As a people we must now graduate from the chimwela type of politics we have embraced all along. The leaders we elect into office must be anchored on their substance. It should not be about how they appear, how they dance, which tribe they come from, how tall or short they are. That must not be allowed to play any further role in how we choose leadership.

If a leader for instance is promising that they would reduce the price of fuel, Zambians must demand tangible ways on how that leader would go about addressing that particular problem. And those raising deficiencies in how the Hakainde and his administration are going about handling issues must explain how they will address the same problems rather than just raising condemnation. We surely can’t allow ourselves to continue moving along the same path we have been riding on. Aikona! Awee! It’s too much.

Zambians need solutions as opposed to empty rhetoric on national matters. What must unite Zambians together more than anything else on the ideas, workable ideas being offered by being by potential leaders.