Lessons on Cheks and Balances From A Maternity Ward

By Dr Nevers Mumba

Earlier this week, One of our members had an expectant wife due to deliver and they put in a prayer request asking that as Friends , family and the church, we form a prayer circle and just ask the Lord to give wisdom to the Doctor and his team, the midwives, the anxious husband and the family that were all worried as this was their first child and the mother was having complications. I learned a lesson while praying and pondering these events and I wish to share them here.

ZAMBIA TODAY

With everything that is happening in the country, talk about the talk of the town currently, Loadshedding! Talk of the Delayed fertiliser distribution. Talk of the fuel prices and talk of the recently increased minimum wage that small businesses and domestic households have to pay to their workers. You can add your own list of problems that we currently face as a nation. It is true that difficult times are upon us and the entire nation is currently dealing with these challenges at a personal level in one way, the other, or in some cases across many different fronts.
Today, against this background, I would like us to specifically deal with one question that a number of my followers have kept asking me over the past few months.

QUESTION.

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DR. NEVERS MUMBA, WHY DO YOU NOT OFFER “CHECKS AND BALANCES” LIKE OTHER OPPOSITION LEADERS TO THE CURRENT REGIME AND SPEAK OUT FOR THE PEOPLE AGAINST THE GOVERNMENT? HOW WILL YOU BECOME PRESIDENT WHEN YOU DONT ATTACK THE PRESIDENT AND HOW WILL WE VOTE FOR YOU IF YOU DONT ATTACK HH?
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So I see the nation of Zambia in its current state as being likened to a woman PREGNANT with child. Zambia is pregnant with potential. Potential in the form of its people, potential in the form of its raw material resources and potential in the form of its values and belief systems which places Christ at the centre of everything we do. Zambia is a Christian Nation and she is destined to achieve all of the following:

1. Be the Reginal Bread Basket due to our arable land and good weather patters.
2. Be the Regional Electricity Hub due to our natural water body endowments plus adequate sun and wind.
3. Be a premier tourist destination due to our God given tourism and historical sites couple with the warmth of our people.
4. Be a positive example of a Christian Nation that has fought and overcome the evils of TRIBALISM, CORRUPTION and an IMMORAL society.
5.  Restore our place as one of the fastest growing economies in the world by leveraging on education for all, agriculture for all, and technological advancement.

So back to the CHECKS and BALANCES.

Zambia is pregnant with potential. As of today, January the 6th, 2023, we have our nation allocated to a Doctor called Hakainde Hichilema with his cabinet and other leaders forming his “medical team”. His job is simple, keep the patient calm, hydrated, don’t give the patient panadol even if she experiences excruciating pain as it may kill the unborn child. Keep encouraging her to push and keep positive, and the Baby of development that Zambia is expecting Shall Be Saved.

Apart from the Doctors, the labour process requires Some more experienced hands such as midwives or maybe a mother or Aunt to the patient. An experienced hand, perhaps one that has seen it all, and understands the intricate process of birth and labour. It is this role that offers real checks and balances to the doctor even though the people outside the ward may not know or realise it. The role of the Experienced Midwife is not to shout and alarm the Doctor or the patient each time the contractions start, but to help the doctor and the patient with whatever is required and to keep encouraging the patient. A good midwife never joins into the sometimes wreakless talk of the concerned family members who are outside the ward waiting for the baby. A good midwife never entertains the childish bunter going on outside where they sometimes will baselessly accuse the Doctors of being uncaring, incompetent, seeking to kill their patient and being only concerned with charging money. A well trained and experienced Midwife will only concern themselves with the the bigger picture, that is the survival of the patient and the baby, indeed the baby must be saved and the mother must be Saved.

It is no different with some of us who have been privileged to become servants of our nation for many years not requiring a specific government role to execute our particular brand of statesmanship. We are National Midwives tasked to ensure that Zambia achieves her long term goals regardless of the pain and the challenges she faces while in labour.

I understand that if Zambia must be saved, our best bet right now is to offer support and pray that ‘DoctorHH ‘ gets his mathematics and national economic recovery blueprint to work, because this woman called Zambia has a baby whose pregnancy is in breach. As a statesman, I cannot engange in rubble rousing the citizenry over the current cost of living when I understand fully well that unless the extremely high National debt stock is dealt with, we will continue to feel the painful contractions of high prices.
As a Statesman, I understand that the teething problems of trying to restructure fisp and the entire range of farmer support logistics will take more than a year to perfect, but with the heart this President has for agriculture, it’s only a matter of time, the baby is coming and all these tears will turn into joy.

While some of our colleagues have insisted that the UPND government must immidiately subsidise fuel, cut off all sales contracts with our neighbors and even use Forex open market interventions to ease the pain of ZAMBIANS in the areas of High fuel Prices, Loadshedding and High Exchange Rate respectively, Our counsel has been that such interventions are like flooding a pregnant woman with painkillers. This does not work and could prove fatal. What we need is to monitor the Blood pressure and all vitals and ensure that we slowly allow the contractions to work naturally untill we have the baby. This is not bootlicking. It is called experience.

The responsibility of statesmanship does not allow me or any senior ZAMBIANS out there to be swayed by the careless ranting of rival interest groups outside the hospital who are preoccupied with picketing and complaining that the Doctor won’t manage and that the baby must be moved to another hospital and that the baby will die.

In other words, there is a difference between the words of the young, the inexperienced and the detached people outside who may even be working with the best of intentions, and the words of the experienced people that are called upon to provide a second layer of covering for the sake of ensuring that in the end, the baby is saved and the mother is also saved.

B-FLOW AND OTHER ACTIVISTS

This is the reason why our nation has different categories of leadership. Earlier this week, for example, my young man B-Flow took to social media to ask pertinent questions of this government. Questions about Loadshedding and other matters affecting the nation. He must never be silenced!!!! That is the role that young activists have. It is those questions that will filter back to the President through his staff and be dealt with. I am sure that the young man is very sincere in his checks and balances. I do not, however, think that Senior Statesmen of our experience will be caught asking questions whose answers we already know. Ours is to encourage the president to unlock the potential of alternative energy and find a middle ground as a balance for the short term.

So let us, therefore, engange each other fully understanding the differing and developing roles and rules of engangement. Let those interested in making noise do so freely, because this is provided for under the constitution and well protected under the current regime as demonstrated by the recent repulsion of the law on defamation of the President. All I can say is that with what we know, we have a Good President in Statehouse who is both focused, and competent in discharging a transformational agenda across the many areas we face challenges in as a nation.

When Senior Citizens and Statesmen start to play to the gallery and talking carelessly, they may confuse the President and the Citizens and like a careless Midwife, may end up disturbing the doctor, the patient and all the well wishers who are anxiously waiting for the miracle of life, and instead this may even lead to loss of life. We shall not allow that to happen.

This BABY SHALL LIVE.
AND ZAMBIA SHALL BE SAVED!!!