The Zambia National Students Union (ZANASU) has appealed to the leadership of President Edgar Lungu to help resolve this issue by opening doors to his office and his administration for students to directly engage him on this matter.
ZANASU Information and Publicity Secretary Assa Williey stated one of the consequences of Government decision to remove meal allowances is the possibility that female students from poor families will sent into prostitution in order to find money to sustain themselves while studying in public universities.
“President Lungu as a known champion of female empowerment would not want to see this situation which will contribute to raise in contraction of sexually transmitted diseases including HIV/AIDS which puts pressure on the treasury in mobilising resources to procure anti-retroviral drugs,” said Ms. Williey.
Ms. Williey said President Lungu cannot continue to let Higher Education Minister Professor Nkandu Luo to continue experimenting with provision of higher education by her policies that are putting this administration at odds with the very people he promised to serve when he assumed the Presidency.
“We ask for sobriety and reasonableness from our elected representative. Professor Nkandu Luo has failed our youthful Zambians. She has put her personal fights against students ahead of the national bigger picture and that of the PF administration which was elected on the basis of the pro-poor agenda. Minister Luo’s style of leadership has proven to be one where she wants to show she has unfettered power to make any decision believing no student as a client must have a say, as long as such decisions fulfill her ego,” she said.
The students umbrella body has reminded President Lungu that he has an opportunity to interact with leaders who were in the former ruling Movement for Multi-Party Democracy (MMD) who should bring to the table vital lessons of times when some Ministers decided not to tell the truth to the Head of State on the situation on the ground and advised him to be wary of ministers who never help Presidents to govern best by listening to the correct views and cries of the people because such Ministers has nothing to lose having been in these offices for too long.
“We are very sure the Head of State has been following this discourse on removal of living allowances but we ask him to break his silence over the matter that will hinge on his shoulders and has potential to distance this administration from both students and their poor families for years to come,” said Ms. Williey.
Mr. Williey has also advised members of parliament to learn something from the Brexit debates in the UK House of Commons where they are able to remove their partisan jackets and put the interest of their constituents ahead of their own by holding the Executive arm in checks and balances and stated that the issue of a living allowance for students from poor families who study in institutions of higher learning must be neither be a PF or opposition issue but an issue that goes to the core of whom these Members of Parliament represent in Parliament.
Why don’t they just treat the meal allowances as part of the loan and give it to the students.
Does anybody care at all if students baleya kubuchende to find meals for a day? Govt cares about buying ARV where they can get cuts. More sick students get, the fat the pockets. Parliament is toothless. Those crowns debate based on eying 4 ministerial jobs. This time am voting in 2021
I didn’t vote for Tutwa Ngulube but this time I ll vote for him this time. Only MP who knows how to stand with his people before his party. Enough respect for him. For other MPs, awe sure. They have no brains of their own.
very well put together half baked nurses
YEAH TUTWA NGULUBE IS A MAN BUT LUNGU DOESN’T LIKE FREE THINKERS LIKE HIM. BETTER OFF WITH MPS LIKE WHO TELL HIM HE IS DRESSED IN NICE SUIT WHEN NAKED. THIS POOR DECISION BY PF COSTING THEM DEARLY SOON. MATTER OF TIME
PF MPs are robots with no minds of their own. Its difficult to be in a ruling party and looking for favours. Tutwa Ngulube is sane, no wonder he cant be appointed Minister. Robots like Luo are more helpful
Tutwa has poor reasoning, still childish. For now he will say anything against students in order to get a job. Eyes on the job. Students will be liberated by themselves against own leaders. Black leaders ain’t different with colonialists in mind
Lazy Lungu will give you allowances in 2021…
President Lungu realise ba Luo is decampaigning u than helping u 4 2021. U losing critical mass of voters
Do you honestly think Nkandu Luo made that decision alone? Without consulting the President?
Lungu can’t speak, he agreed with Luo. Teaching students a good lesson on how to vote wisely
My party has activated a button for self destructive mode. Happens when leaders begin to listen to themselves and not people whom they lead.
Wish we had an opposition to help them activate more such buttons but our current opposition is weaker anyhow
This is a matter of agency which requires some immediate attention however it’s a matter that can be handled by the two ministries & their respective ministers thus (higher education / finance). Take note that his Execellency the president is too too busy to every time handle matters whose jurisdiction is for the Ministers & their team unless they fail tremendously should bamwine comes in
Ya Lungu has no time for own people, he will ve time after 2020. What’s difficult with calling ZANASU and moribund UNZASU to assure em govt means well? Luo has decampaigned Lungu big time. Thats meaning of being untouchable.
Why bother appealing to this out of touch clown? Best they can do is follow him ku airport, thats were he seems to listen and yap.
Luo used a divide and rule to incapacitate UNZASU and other students. 2day, UNZASU had meeting with former leaders sent by Luo to plead with us not to support position paper coming in Parliament. She uses these former students to carry out her orders but these will contribute to PF 2021 downfall. Just difficult who to support but warranism has totally failed
speaking to someone who won’t listen to any citizen. wasting time. students only valued during election time
GRZ is broke, so Mwanakatwe got no idea wher to find money. Bt good these voters are punished so they learn. pls remove even everythng, u gotta good numbers to justify yo action. Dununa Reverse!
Students are completely lost, they think the instruction to stop meal allowance was from Nkandu Luo. It was from him
If Luo could not mind removing what students from university within her own constituency needs to survive, does anybody think other MPs from Kasama, Vubwi, Chilubi will care about how students will earn a living while studying. Agreed, decision was made by him
You think he will listen to you than members of administration? Luo is a god until 2021 when Zambians decides to pay her back.
vote wisely next time bane
UNZASU is dead. You see when we said vote Tamanga? ZANASU remains only student voice now. sad. You voted comedian. Again u will vote badly in 2021.
Dununa Dununa? One wallah,….
Lungu should also increase my dating allowance for about 3 or 4 of the women he’s posing with.I’m tasked with the sacred duty of bringing about future Zambians.
Nkandu is very dull that’s why she never made it to UNZA at the time there was no cheating to qualify to the learning lelearning institution then! She’s jealousy of those who make it to Unza, President Lungu please fire her now!
These guys have put themselves in terrible competition. Talk of shooting one’s own foot!!!!!!!!! Someone please campaign for the restoration of BC and we shall vote for you big time. Is it not not a loan after all!!!! Even our parents are now worried on how we shall get by at campus!!! These are very very poor people.
In Zambia it is like a lose lose situation, the win win comes on accident. When we ask president Lungu to let the ministers make decisions, the make useless ones on their own. Then the president is tasked to act, and we hound him for having too much control. I now know why president Sata said his ministers were all useless.
Have you ever thought of thousands of other students like you in other universities and colleges? Does govt provide meal allowances to them? Don’t be selfish. The reason for scraping off the meal allowance is to give more loans to other underprivileged students. Unza and Cbu are not the only universities in the country. Let us think for others and not being selfish. We all need help…! Mr President, don’t listen to these selfish students. We, the new beneficiaries of the extend loans will vote for you.