Friday, March 29, 2024

Mbeba Economics – the failure of leadership in Zambia

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Elias Chipimo speaking at the press briefing at the NAREP Secretariat
Elias Chipimo speaking at the press briefing at the NAREP Secretariat

By Elias Chipimo Jr

Yesterday I spent part of my morning with an old man as he moved around in a field searching for traps that he had laid to catch mbeba (field mice). He is well past retirement age. He has no pension. He has no income.

He owns one bicycle. His only source of accessible protein and carbohydrates is the few mice he traps each day and the little rain-fed maize he managed to farm on an illegal plot of land.

How did we get here? 50 years since we completed our nation’s walk to freedom, we are facing a major energy crisis, our kwacha has weakened to the lowest levels in our history, costly by-elections continue to rob our treasury of scarce resources, joblessness haunts the average home. We are now accustomed to living with poverty, poorly educated children, an outdated constitution, a bloated civil service, a huge and ever growing national debt, corruption on a scale hardly seen before and a political system that concentrates power in the hands of the few who routinely abuse it with impunity.

Given this background, it is amazing that there are not more of us running through the land looking for field mice.

How many more jobs need to be lost before we realise how serious the load-shedding has become? How many more trees need to be cut down to provide charcoal for the millions of homes that no longer have regular power? How many more businesses need to lose money before we wake up to the reality of life under the Patriotic Front?

Judging from their responses, the PF seem to feel that everything is alright. Earth to PF:
– people are being laid off because of the unstable power supply
– the cost of living is rising because of the high costs brought about by our failing kwacha
– by-elections have robbed the nation of the money you have been borrowing on behalf of our children and grandchildren
– instead of working for the nation, your ministers spend their time camped in the field campaigning to win every by-election.

In the middle of all this, you dare to arrogantly complain about the opposition attacking your incompetence?

NAREP may not have money to dish out to every voter whose support we need but we have a power more potent than the money and corruption that seems to pervade our land. We have the power of prayer and the conviction that one day, God will answer the prayers of the silent majority and give us a leader who truly fears Him.

A leader who will put country before Party and nation before self. A leader who will seek to truly empower his people not because of the riches and fame he he can gain from being elected but because of the selflessness and sacrifice he is personally willing to undergo in order to deliver on the fading hopes of our nation.

Elias C Chipimo
President
National Restoration Party
25 August 2015

10 COMMENTS

  1. This I disagree with:
    NAREP may not have money to dish out to every voter whose support we need but we have a power more potent than the money and corruption that seems to pervade our land. We have the power of prayer and the conviction that one day, God will answer the prayers of the silent majority and give us a leader who truly fears Him.
    One day? We might as well stop complaining, because God know what we need but he keeps giving us incompetent leaders!
    Elias, you can think better my friend. God does not play in the political arena

    • iwe zambia,,, is another place, they dont vote for normal leaders,,,, ,,, ka lungu told zambians he had no vision,,, every other political leaders in that presidential race had a visions yet zambians chose visionless mbeba,,,and now indeed mbeba economics

    • i agree, remove this god concept from your words. this is what makes us subservient and docile. get out there and fight harder, God is for white people. that is why his son jesus christ has blond silky hair with blue eyes. In all your modern life of modern religions, have you seen a God or messenger who looks like an african? buddha, allah, muhamad, vishna, jesus etc. There is a reason for this my friends. we are better off praying toour own gods who answered prayers like ingombe ilede, famous chief monze the rain maker. these christian things are white man made religions. Dont believe me, think about this: Ati on the next day he created the stars etc. ninshi were was he? obviously on earth for him to realise that this is a new day, that it is dark or night pantu in space the sun does not…

    • YOU MAY DISAGREE AS IT IS YOUR RIGHT TO THINK OTHERWISE BUT THE TRUTH IS THAT THE STATEMENT IS TRUE. WHEN ZAMBIANS WILL REALISE THAT THEY NEED GOD’S HELP TO FIND A GOOD LEADER AND TURN TO HIM TO SEEK HIS HELP HE WILL ANSWER THEM ACCORDINGLY.

    • @Ndobo, first of all why did your friend Elyashi Chipimo go for Mbeba, is it the delicious of it or was for to understand what Edgar went from in his 20s? How many Mbeba did they catch with his old-man friend?
      To me there is nothing wrong with going trapping mice, even here in America I can do it, I don’t just have license for it. I have for fishing.

    • God helps those that help themselves!

      The time for Zambians to stand up and say ENOUGH to these selfish swines is coming soon.

  2. Blah Blah Blah Blah… Elias you are too obsessed with the idea of you in plot one and this blinds you from the potential you have to make a meaningful impact to the chaos we all know exists.. Humility sir – Build NAREP by having some representation at ward level, then on to parliamentary level and then possibly a focus on the Presidency..

  3. Elias, since you have no MP in parliament, why don’t you just join PF and try to fight your battles from within? Your party obviously will not go anywhere why don’t you join PF which will be here for sometime. Or you could join UPND and be made Vice President of the party. You are a far better bet than GBM who thinks with his money and not brains. To be honest, I think you need to make a decision soon, otherwise stop wasting our time with these media briefings. Try to eat mbeba, it will expand your brain power.

  4. After reading the word economics in the headline, I was eager to read on the economic strategies NAREP has for Zambia, but alas, ma rabishi yeka yeka

  5. God has already made his decision. He has given us the power to vote. If we use that power & our collective wisdom “wisely” we will get ourselves a good leader.
    Actually that good leader is ourselves & the guy in state house is a figurehead we are supposed to “manipulate” to stir the ship called zambia in the right direction.

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