GOOD BYE MR PRESIDENT
On behalf of my wife, my family, the New Generation Party (NGP) and indeed on my own behalf, I would like convey our deep and heart felt condolences, to the First Lady (Dr. Kaseba Sata), my friend Mulenga Sata, the Sata family, the Patriotic Front family and indeed all Zambians, on the loss of our Republican President, Mr. Michael Chilufya Sata.
In 2001, when you formed the PF Mr. President, I was already president of the New Generation Party, though by then, it was called the United Front for Development & Democracy (UFDD). You invited me to your house in Omello Mumba Road, in Rhodes Park. I was very excited to meet with you because you were the first high level profiled politician that I was going to meet and discuss national issues with. For 3 hours, you shared with me your vision for Zambia and asked me to support you.
I, however, refused to support you Mr. President, explaining that as a young leader I was very disappointed that you supported Dr. Chiluba’s third term bid, as a result, I was very doubtful that you would uphold the Republican Constitution when elected President of Zambia. At the end of our meeting, you told me two things which up to now still linger in my mind. You said “ Do not fear to speak out your mind when things are going wrong in the county” and you also said “ Well you have refused to work with me, if you become cantankerous, we shall meet you on the street.”
Little did I know Mr. President, that was the first and last meeting, I would have in my life time to discuss national issues with you. Yes, I think I was one of the longest and consistent critics you had in your ten year quest and campaign to be President of Zambia. I believed very strongly that you could not make a good President and that there was no way, even God could allow you to be President. At one time during interviews I even said “ I can not see God’s hand in your desire to be President”. Come that day, 23rd September, 2011, I was shocked, God allowed you to be President through the Zambian people. You defeated a sitting government and the incumbent, President Ruphia Banda, together with all of us who supported him, to become the fifth President of Zambia.
There are three lessons that I learnt Mr. President from your election and I would like to share these lessons with the Zambian people, especially, the New Generation, the young and upcoming leaders. My first lesson is that indeed God’s thoughts are not our thoughts. The criteria God uses to chose Presidents is different from the criteria we people use. Romans 13, is very clear, “ all leadership is from God”. My second lesson is that we must not fear to speak out when things are going wrong in the country. I wish to, however, add that we must speak out, criticize constructively, with respect for all people. The last lesson I learnt from you Mr. President is that indeed “winners never quit”. Had you given up the fight when the going was tough, you would not have been President.
On succession, Mr. President some people, including some leaders in your party, are saying that you did not choose your successor to take over from you, especially in light of your failing health in your last days. I beg to differ, I think you clearly showed us that you wanted Hon. Edgar Lungu, to take over from you if anything happened to you and you could not continue as President for whatever reason. I think those who are saying that you did not choose Hon. Edgar Lungu, it is because they want to be Presidents themselves or they have some one else in mind for the job.
You knew very well that Hon. Lungu was your Defense Minister and Legal Chairperson in your party when you also appointed him as the Secretary General and Justice Minister. As if this was not enough, during your last days, you appointed him as the Acting Republican President by handing over the instruments of power every time you left the country. They say action speaks louder than words and I think you spoke very loudly, as far this issue is concerned. Even, me as President of my small party “ The New Generation Party”, if I gave all the above responsibilities to one person, it would simply mean that, that person was my chosen successor.
Having said the above, I am not saying that I am endorsing Hon. Edgar Lungu. I still have to hear what vision he has for the country. I am not a member of PF, the PF members will choose who their Presidential Candidate shall be and Zambian will also decide who the next President shall be. My point is, though PF has a choice to choose another person to succeed you, they should not say you did not have a preferred successor.
Mr. president, as you noticed, from the time you became President, I withdrew from active politics, restraining myself from commenting and criticizing you, as expected of an Opposition Leader. The reason was simple, I criticized you for 10 years, from 2001 to 2011, such that by the time you were elected President, I had nothing new to say against you. I realized that the Zambian people knew you very well and they voted for you just as you were with all your strengths and weaknesses.
After loosing the elections, I decided to join my family (wife and children), in the United States, where I still am as I write this press statement. It was not to run away from some crimes I committed as some people assumed. In 2012, I briefly came back to Zambia, just to clear my name and I asked the Zambian people to support you and give you time to do what you can to develop Zambia.
I must say Mr. President that your winning of elections actually turned out to be a blessing in disguise for me and my family. It gave us an opportunity to bond together even more as a family. My wife occasionally jokes and says “ President Sata is my hero, he made you sit down with your family.”
Not only has my family bonded together, God has also opened up business opportunities, which, had we won the elections and stayed in Zambia, I would not have known about. I must also say, when I came to the USA, I had time to think about my country, and how best we can address our problems. Leaving among the Americans and being exposed to the first world, and constantly thinking about the problems back home and in a quest to find solutions, I think God has given me answers to our problems back home. Our number one problem is poverty, and I believe God has given me the answer.
At one time Mr. President, I called State House to speak with you and share some of the solutions, but as the system is, I was not given access to speak with and share the ideas. At the appropriate time, however, I will share this with the Zambian people. How I wish you were around to hear what I have for our country, the answer or how to tackle poverty.
To the Zambian people, I just wish to echo, what many have said, let us maintain peace, before, during and after we bury our President. We have been through this route before, we managed it, and we can do it again. We are looking forward to the PF to provide the leadership we so much need during this time and especially, during the campaigns. Most of us Zambians are worried because of the violence you have exhibited by matcheting each other, and other innocent people during the three years you have been in power.
Let us remember that, God already chose our President for this time, even before he was conceived in his/her mother’s womb. Violence will not help us as a country. We want the Presidential Candidates that will contest, to tell us why we should vote for them? What will they do for the people? Let us remember that our number 1 problem in the last 50 years, has not been a person, it has not been Presidents Kaunda, Chiluba, Mwanawasa, Banda or Sata, it is poverty. It is not even Fred Mmembe or the cartel as some people may want to believe, it is poverty. People have gone, and will continue to go but Zambia and the problem of poverty, if not addressed, will be with us always.
The PF government must allow all those who want to contest to campaign freely. We do not want to see what has been happening in the past where opposition Leaders are stopped from campaigning. If you do that, or you engage in violence, I can promise you that you will be the first political party to rule Zambia, not for one term, but for only half a term. You may think that Zambians are docile and you can manipulate them, not when you play or temper with their peace.
Finally, let me conclude by saying good bye Mr. President, Rest in Peace and may God bless Zambia.
Humphrey Siulapwa
New Generation Party
President
Sorry I’ve got no time to read this long message…
Without Edgar Lungu no candidate can win in PF mark my words.The rest are just dochie bags clowns.Also the pagan M’membe should mind his own business.The sangoma in SA has predicted EL as the upcoming presido///
GBM,Chishimba Kambwili prone to heart attack,Wynter Kabimba stubborn/rude plus the cd count is toooo low (HIV AIDS),HH – freemason plus his wife Mutinta has cervical cancer,RB too old with mud cow disease [sic]on his knee plus his wife Thandiwe has cervical cancer,Guy Scott too old with some elements of madness,Mulenga Sata novice yet to prove it thats why his late dad could not even appoint him in his cabinet.**And the chosen one HON.EDGAR LUNGU – intelligent,dutiful,smart,focused,neutral & fit.As for EL being a drunkard thats irrelevant & he has no sugar/diabetes after raw Zambia rates number one to beer drinking in Africa////
That guy can worst our time. Even the widow, even though she has now all her free time. She won’t be able to read all that lamentations. Too long Sialupwa.
This is not a long article. If you cannot read such a short and straight forward article, how do you hope to contribute meaningfully to Zambia’s socio-economic and political development. Ideas are generated and written for others to copy, replicate and improve upon. No wonder people like you cannot support advanced education. If you want to know why countries have advanced just look at their educational infrastructure. They have huge universities, polytechnics and research organisations.
Well, for you, even what I have written is “too long”.
Good to hear from Mr Siulapwa. Your friend, Dr Cosmo Mumba continued to play the role you did, with PF. Come on young politicians, have a spine. If you are consistent, people will start seeing the potential and support you. Unite.
Nonsense, Sata is dead and the dead do not read.
@Czar Obviously Humphrey Siulapwa is too dimwitted to appreciate that fact! Sata is DEAD and he cannot read your longwinded writing!
BLA bla bla bla my wife, bla my family bla should …. bla
Humphrey, you only needed the last sentence!
“let me conclude by saying good bye Mr. President, Rest in Peace and may God bless Zambia.”
Chapwa! We dont need all the other bullsh!t!
Mr Siulapwa… A number of people share(d) your sentiments about the Late Sata but as you said he was elected to the position… 42% of the electorates… and we all have had to live with that decision.
Thanks for your sound and honest advise to Zambia…. bullying of the opposition should cease with immeidate effect. PF cadres keeping pangas should surrender them.
No money in the pocket….
Who is “we”?
Just speak for yourself. Siulapwa is a Zambian entitled to his opinion. 14 million Zambians cannot think alike. If you do not like democracy go to Somalia. I do not have to like Siulapwa to read what he writes. As a matter of fact it is good to know the thoughts of those you are opposed to in order to effectively compete against them. Just look at how PF managed to take every idea out of UPND after Mr Lubinda left that party for PF taking the UPND Manifesto with him!! Why do you think the late President quickly elevated him? He brought into PF a well thought out Manifesto. It also explains why PF and UPND, two ideologically divergent parties almost formed a Pact. The original PF Manifesto could not have sold because it was very communist.
ba siulapwa just continue smoking dagga. Stop talking about our late president for you had nothing good for him. By the way where is edward mumbi and Edwin lifwekelo?
Please note that according to the bible, the dead are not conscious of anything. So how can one write a letter to a dead president, the best you can do is to write an obituary. And I see this in the memoriam messages in newspapers where people are literally addressing the dead with messages like we miss you. And the pastors never preach such things in church, they preach tithe and look at the women and some f00lish women give in.
If MAN is to survive on this planet, is to stop the delusion, and move forward as rational, THINKING human beings. Take note: the most productive and peaceful countries in the world, are those that the majority is non-christian. Just the opposite for highly religious countries…more people have been murdered in the name of religion,than by any other cause…combined! Think about that for a minute…
Very true Chimwemwe religious differences have caused the world s biggest death toll. In the name of God people have killed millions and they continue
Yes! I also broke free of those chains of delusion! This IS your only life…live this life to the fullest!
How can one say the problem in Zambia is poverty which has nothing to do with former presidents. Poverty in Zambia has been created by vision less leaders. It requires leadership to move people out of poverty. Yes people must be proactive but leadership must enable
Religions are behind mankind retardation and failure, while the good and the bad are human characters, religion comes with “instruction” to do the good and abstain from doing the bad, but human nature is that when something is prohibited it is the most wanted, so over thousands of years, human were most probably wanting the bad that their religion prohibited and doing it even in discretion, which means human most likely committed sins while believing in their religion, thousand times more if there were no religion at all that existed and gave them instructions.
When you tell a baby NO don’t eat this piece of paper, it’s not good for you, he will try harder to eat it, that’s the human nature, when religion comes and says do this and don’t do that, it’s confusing for the human being..
Christians, I mean Spirit-led (Holy) Bible-reading Christians are not confused. They are very clear about human thought, behaviour and attitudes. They have good explanations based on the Bible. If you are open-minded go to church and listen and ask questions. Do not close your mind to reason.
For your own information the USA was founded on the Christian faith and prospered. When prosperity came, people started thinking they did not need God. Sad. We cannot exhaust this argument here. Just know that there are varying worlds views regarding human development and each one can only be understood in its own context. Religion, Christianity included, played positive roles in human development. Please stop exposing your little knowledge or most of your ignorance.
Fûck your religions creating war, division and hatred. Science is real while you religious a s s h o l e s deceive people – scientific men are HELPING the people.
Would God really allow to have His own spiritual Son to appear in human form to be stripped of his dignity and then crucified by the hands of his own creation, and watch humanity systematically persecute, torture, torment and killings of millions of other human beings in Christ’s name. The same would apply for other religions also. Why would God have such religions be founded and have humanity slaughter each other in Gods name, its just not logical. However we recognise right and wrong, good and evil. So if there is an evil and a satan, then religion would have to be the work of the devil.
What this guy has confessed to is that Sata had just that little bit more edge and just that little bit more smarter than him. His party was formed before Sata’s evil PF, then he ran away to US and attempted to solve poverty problems by long distance phone calls. As an example to upcoming young politicians he has educated them in how they shouldn’t adopt his approach if they want to achieve goals in life.
Poverty is a disease that we all are aware of . How can we address this problem with sober minds? Yes our beloved president is yesterday and with the lates. Generally, educated always thinks they know the solutions to the problems but actually they are the problem to the solutions. Corruption is now white collar and not my grandfather and mother in shangombo or chitwansombo. To address this disease we need to be level headed . Stop people from urbanisation by opening up these untapped areas through road infrastructure so that they accessible. To make investment in these areas attractive by lowering taxes so that the investors can utilise their investments to the benefit of the local populace with good monitoring of what they are doing to avoid abusing this
Essentive. Pres. sata did
This new site sucks!! Please ba LT the older one was much better. That’s my opimion anyway.
I think that if you are going to say a word about a Dead person, then you had better make sure it is respectful.
You had all the time to criticise him in life, too late now. Get a grip, Humphrey old boy! Silly and overly long!
Why tell lies when someone dies, the old man was a joker and a liability not liked when he was alive….why beat about bush just bury him and get on with it…you can not keep a corpse in such warm climate for 2 weeks!!
Ati ka president-new generation party, my foot….Aka ka mudala ni kamuselela kwa kaba; No agenda, no vision, no ideas, a coward (living far away from the problem), and blowing hot air from his back side, REALLY!!!!! Just shut the f#@k up iwe ka siulapwa and sit down somewhere!! shoooot..
A little Cobra in the making! Zambians, if you allow yourselves to be spat at ever again then you really deserve the leaders you elect!
Mwalosheni mwetukwasu kwilala! Abakwasu bachula manige ukulila. Ala bamfumu chilibipile mwishibe tulishele nkumbabulili!!
I feel like you’re beating about the bush. Here’s what I’ve got from this
– you were the leader of a little-known unsuccessful party which gave up as soon as you didn’t win
– you have connections with the Satas (tenuous if you ask me) so we should heed your personal ramblings.
– you are successful in the US – Zambians must realize that they have lost out.
– you think Sata was a terrible leader but you are afraid to say so
– You are hoping to be recognized as a great mind and so be considered in a future government (despite your atrocious spelling).
I’m loving the new UI LT.
#OneZambia
Instead of jus passin ur condolences,u r busy slayin the dead president,braggin abt hw well u r doin in the u.s wit ur nu business.Baficolour bamo mashilu sana ayi
Instead of jus passin ur condolences,u r busy slayin the dead president,braggin abt hw well u r doin in the u.s wit ur nu business.Baficolour bamo mashilu sana
Jus pass ur condolences and stop braggin abt hw well u r doin in u.s.a,
Welcome back Mr President