By David Kapoma
REF: YOU ARE EQUAL TO THE TASK
Mr. President it has become very clear that our country is not stable in many ways than one. Even without the benefit of any opinion poll, I am deeply convinced that many Zambians will agree with me on this. I am sure Mr. President that many Zambians are concerned but do not have a way and means of expressing themselves. There is no shared understanding of what exactly has gone wrong with our beautiful land. It is very difficult Sir to know whether our country is moving forward, backwards or sideways.
So today Mr. President, I just want to make a single appeal to you as the father of our nation, with love and in outright good faith, in humility and in the interest of our nation.
Mr President, first of all I am for the idea that you must be facing a lot of challenges. But I assure you Sir that you are not alone as many Zambians are facing even bigger challenges. Many people who have their hopes on your stewardship Sir are almost lost and feeling abandoned in a wildernesses we have created for ourselves as a nation. Sir we have not helped you enough as citizens. Those who support you Sir agree and support you whenever you make a decision. Good or Bad. When you made a GOOD decision to increase electricity tariffs and make them cost effective, they supported and when you made a WRONG decision to reverse such a good decision, again they supported you. The minister of education announced the scrapping off of meal allowances for the students and your people supported it and when that was reversed they supported.
Mr. President I am almost sure that even you yourself must be getting surprised some times when those that support you agree with you on certain decisions. It must be very confusing for a leader in your position Sir to tell if your people are supporting you on merit or simply to please you and keep their positions. Mr. President I feel for you and I know this is not an easy feeling if at all you feel confused sometimes.
In the past few weeks Sir, we have experienced unexplained shortage of fuel and mealie meal. I will not remind you about the shortage of electricity that we have been experiencing for some time now and I know we are now used and adjusted ourselves. Mr. President our currency is still performing very bad against international currencies. Our country is spending more than what we are making, as a result we have resorted to excessive borrowing. Violence and intimidation among political party cadres is the order of the day. Our civil servants do not have a pay day anymore as it used to be sometime back.
The war on corruption is almost lost. Cadres from both the opposition and ruling party have taken over the show and they do whatever they feel like doing including committing crimes in the presence of the police. Sir our police force has become toothless and can’t be professional anymore due to paranoia.
It will however, be unfair Sir to blame you for all the challenges we are facing as a nation as most of them your government inherited them from those that were there before you.
Unfortunately Sir we can only manage to point a finger at you when things are falling apart. As you put it last time when you addressed us through our friends from the media Sir, the back stops at you and the responsibility is really yours. The amended constitution Mr. President states among other things that a citizen of this country has the right to a decent meal. But most of our people are going without a decent meal with some of them not having shelter, thereby spending nights in the cold. Being a lawyer Sir am sure you know that this is a violation of human rights according to the very constitution your able office made law.
Sir it is becoming very difficult for us to explain to our friends from the other African country when they ask us about what has happened with the country they knew as the mother of peace and order in Africa. They see disturbing pictures of those that are active in politics being assaulted. They hear sad stories of political intimidations and tribal talk.
Sir many Zambians especially those close to you can’t say and will never say what I am saying because they are afraid, while others have to protect their jobs. It is a case of seeing which side of the bread is buttered. Mr President, Zambians are no longer at ease because they know they deserve better than this.
Just this week Sir you swore in judges for the Constitutional Court and the prayer of the Zambian people is that those you have appointed will do their work professionally and help restore order. Mr. President you just handed over the housing units to Zambia police and we must acknowledge the efforts. I want to believe Mr President that you are equal to the task.
Mr. President as we start our Easter, celebrating the life of our Load Jesus, I hope that you will choose to continue serving one master. You cannot serve two masters at the same time and succeed. That is a key doctrine of the Christian faith that I know you profess Sir. It is a key element of virtually all faiths and even the law of nature. It has to be one master at a time. Either you are serving the Zambia people or serving your personal friends, relations and interests. It can’t be both. And as far as I know you Sir, I can judge that you are committed to serving the Zambian people as evidenced by your leadership.
I must mention Mr President, that your government is doing very well on infrastructure development and I commend you on that.
Mr. President I finally want to appeal to you to ensure that the country is united before the next general elections. Our political cadres don’t need to crush every time they meet. Don’t allow this to happen when you are still the father of our nation. I know you can put a stop to this lawlessness Mr. President. You are EQUAL to the TASK. I ask that you embrace a bipartisan approach to our problems as a nation. Our Job Mr. President is to ensure that we give you enough support as you do your best in moving our country from the pits of poverty.
I know you have a mammoth task Sir and a busy schedule but I hope this open letter will somehow reach you or those close to you. Please use the positive spectacles to read and see through my reasoning.
Mr President, we can’t run to nowhere. We are all here to help. Together we can redeem our nation.
Yours in national interest.
This letter is written in reverse psychology lol
“Those who support you Sir agree and support you whenever you make a decision. Good or Bad. When you made a GOOD decision to increase electricity tariffs and make them cost effective, they supported and when you made a WRONG decision to reverse such a good decision, again they. supported you.”
Interesting observations from Kalaki…..“As his reward for destroying the Zambian economy Lungu has given himself a hefty salary hike.”
“Lungu has just commissioned 48 new police houses in the desperate hope of collecting 48 votes in the coming election.”
“A PF-MMD alliance? Can nothing and nothing add up to something?”
“Rather than embarrass herself by trying to discuss gender issues in New York, Esther would do better to return to her market stall in Lusaka.”
“Don’t ask how South Africa ended up with Zuma. Ask how Zambia ended up with Lungu.”
Khikikikiki…..@Spark Jarrow….the author could be a primary or basic school teacher, not sure whethet it this is a vote of thanks or an appeal really.lol
I am not sure why the letter writer apologetically does so. This is the mentality we must get our from and hold the president responsible for the crap that is going on in Zambia. He is employed by the Zambian people and like any employee who is under-performing, a pink slip MUST follow. If the president is not up to the task, he needs to relinquish his position, but oh no, this will not happen for obvious reasons. Is it normal to further a wonderful life for someone else while you live in the gutter??? Fear will not take us anywhere, its time we started calling a spade a spade so that every single Zambian can have bread and butter on their tables and not just a select few. Shibukeni!!
I agree.
I don’t even know whey a president is considered a father of the nation. Zambia has founders and those, in my view, are the ones that deserve to be called fathers and mothers. These others are simply political leaders. Kwasila!
This are all sensible facts that a sensible leader MUST heed and rethink his/her position
Truth be told: Except for President Mwanawasa’s team, Zambia has not had a competent team of leaders. The current team of President Lungu is the worst and they know it. When we find the competent team it will show! For as long as we continue playing games with leadership, the country will not achieve much!
“The back stops at you”
The ‘buck’ stops at you too for this poorly written essay. Had you taken time to read through and correct some glaring grammatical and spelling mistakes. No one can take you serious if you are this careless.
Ati …. “Load Jesus” … !!!!!
He is fully loaded!
The LT editor is equally to blame for not reading through…they are turning into ZWD that posts everything straight from the sender without editting!!
we r going backward,you can see for yourseif idot.
Mr President you will hence be voted out for lack of leadership bwana!
Jesus was a Load, huh? Mulekwatako umucinshi like abembas say. You mean you couldn’t even proof-read your load before flushing it before our eyes shuwa!?
We are in trouble as a nation
Instead of patriotism and loyalty, we have flattery and treachery. Just as the author writes, extreme opposing ideas can not be both right. Politics of the belly reigns supreme in our society.
Thus the problem get the Message don’t concentrate on unnecessary Spellings and others, Message is good and Clear. English is not our his Mother tongue and your brain has the capability to pick the message as long as the wrong spelt words have the First and Last letters in the correct place and read as a Sentence. Lets be serious as a nation and tackle issues!
Check this;
Most tongas if not all are SDA.
Most tongas if not all are UPND.
Most tongas if not all are tribalists.
Most tongas if not all vote for UPND
Most tongas if not all dont like ECL.
Kikikikikikik!! Pwa hahahaha!
It’s apparent that you’re a hard-core and passionate tribalist.
Comment: HEMr President! You are the Prisident for all and we all are at the mess of your leadership. However this presidential initive thing of yours is dividing the nation in that the benefitiaries are from same regions viz muchinga, eastern, northern, luapula and CB. We havent yet seen chanda kabwe in other places such southern, western, central and north west. These people equally yearn for your initiative sir
TO A SMALL PERSON LIKE ME ,MY COMMENT IS ….ITS A GREAT LETTER WHICH THE HEAD OF STATE NEED TO ANALYZE AND WORK ON.TO THE AUTHOR… I SAY BRAVO .THAT’S GREAT CALL A SPADE BY ITS REAL NAME.NO NEED TO BE POLITICAL OR TRIBAL WHETHER THE AUTHOR IS TONGA OR NOT .THERE IS A LOT FOR THE HEAD OF STATE.WE NEED PEOPLE LIKE THE AUTHOR WHO ARE LEVEL HEADED NOT OTHERWISE.THANKS FOR THIS GREAT ZAMBIAN WITH AN ANALYTICAL APPROACH. I THINK THE AUTHOR HAS A MASTERS DEGREE AND NOT G12 CERTIFICATE.CONGRATULATION ONCE AGAIN FOR THIS IMPORTANT MESSAGE.
I stopped reading when I came across this: “I just want to make a single appeal to you as the FATHER OF OUR NATION.” What a load of CRAP mentality!
Don’t be silly all tribes are the same. I’m Tumbuka yet I hate the talk of tribalism. We are all created by God who put tribes and races to his own pleasure. A person who talks about tribe hates what God has placed both on earth and heavens. If you have no ideas to talk about stop wasting your time writing because we are created by God in his image and we have tribalists they are satanists.
Amano mambulwa
I thank u man for yo analysis but u couldnt hummer the nail, the fact is that president Lungu has failed to govern this country this includes his advisors who arent doing their task, look at political cadres bhaviour whom do u blame?its the president who has failed to provide leadership cos his focus is to force political intimidation through the use of the police by forcely applying the POA targeting upnd so that hh and team doesnt accorded any space to carry out party mobilisation whilst his failures called advisors like kambwili,mumbi phiri, j kapata are busy campaigning, znbc has lost credibility frm majority zambians due to its biased coverage towards opposition parties such as upnd,rainbow, Df, fdd, mmd et’ail, so let the president perform his duties which he swore to uphold
The message is ok bt it has come at a wrong time it’s too late, the only solution is to remove this government yabupyani.where on earth everyone is crying teacher,police,army,nurse,Doctor ,miners and many more. Wht more fwemalofwa can we manage? Voting out is the only solution .
It is this type of reasoning and hypocrisy Zambia is not developing! PF has damaged the Zambian economy and poverty levels have worsened. How can you say Mr. Lungu is equal to the task? He has failed period! He needs to be replaced!
Typical UPND campaign material. You cannot hoodwink us Sir, we are not fools, far from it.
The Statement in your letter that ” we don’t know what has gone wrong in our beautiful country” gives you away. If you live in Zambia and you are a true Zambian patriot, you should know what has gone wrong. You should know the about copper prices, causes of load shedding, low water levels in our dams for electricity, poor performance of the kwacha and other things, you should know that these problems are not unique to Zambia, the region including South Africa have similar problems. Your words are clearly lifted from the various campaign material by HH, his cadres, his allies like the Post which have been EITHER deliberate campaign lies, falsehoods and twisting of facts, OR total fabrications…
Typical UPND campaign material, including the false name David Kapoma. You cannot hoodwink us Sir, we are not fools, far from it.
The Statement in your letter that ” we don’t know what has gone wrong in our beautiful country” gives you away. If you live in Zambia and you are a true Zambian patriot, you should know what has gone wrong. You should know the about copper prices, causes of load shedding, low water levels in our dams for electricity, poor performance of the kwacha and other things, you should know that these problems are not unique to Zambia, the region including South Africa have similar problems. Your words are clearly lifted from the various campaign material by HH, his cadres, his allies like the Post which have been EITHER deliberate campaign lies, falsehoods and…
….this author also….he is behaving like a rogue….despite the negatives he has pointed out he still cant tell if as a nation we are going forward or backward..??…why is he addressing the president as if he is the master….he is your servant for heaven sake…..just tell him off with an authoritative stance not an apologetic one…..how do you support someone who is taking you out of pity of poverty into a crater of poverty…??
..one more thing….how do you expect political violence to be ‘quenched’ when ECL’s mentor in Sir Robert Mugabe…???…we all know what has been happening to Tsvangirai..and his supporters…Zimbabweans and Zambians are Siamese twins..they have same DNA…can easily be intimidated, gullibility features and fear of authoritative rule….if Zambia had to be subjected to what Syria or Iraq is going thru…just a drop of one bomb anywhere…I can assure you no one will come out into the streets for two weeks until soldiers go door to door persuading them to go for work….
Kapoma is just the man. Young but fearless and always on spot. Keep it up Sir. I hope the President will pick something.
Forgive my sperrings. Inglish came through the seas. But am sure you got my point Ba PF. Namumfwa bane…
Useless letter from a useless man
My belief is that the unedited letter is intended to deliver both the message and passion rather than the eloquence. The open letter is written by a modest person delivering a passionate message rather than an elitist. LT has done well not to edit the open letter because this way it has had maximum impact. IT’S A LONG WEEKEND FOR SOME PEOPLE WHO ARE IN A HARRY TO CRITICIZE.
The auther has a point but he is a bootlicker, simply tell Lungu that he has failed than biting about the bush.
A lot of Zambians are myopic in thinking. The do not travel outside the country and do not even read papers and watch news. Zambia is not an Island. What you see here is also experienced in other countries. Can anyone name one country in the world where food prices have dropped. Many countries surrounding Zambia survive on Zambia. These include; Malawi, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Congo, Angola and of late Botswana. Yes Botswana, if you doubt go to Kazungula Border and see what is happening. For the first time some groceries, including things like cooking oil are cheaper in Zambia than in Botswana.
But because of ignorance, some people think things are worse in Zambia. Are there any Zambians risking their lives across lakes trying to run into Europe? No, so be happy you are a Zambian…
We can easily increase prices of electricity, fuel, mealie meal and water to economical levels, but there is the moral and social responsibility every government takes to reduce the suffering on its people. If one day pure capitalists take over this country, people will cry and remember the current leadership that is more caring.
The problem with the way Zambians analyse things is that we always want to use feelings and emotions. I would like to say that PF is where it is today because of the late Michael Sata. He is also the reason why its supporters like the one who wrote this letter is still suppporting the party. Michael Sata was a great leader, however when i say great leader what i mean is that he managed to develop a personal relationship with his suppporters, a personal bond that is hard to break. However, as a president who Zambians entrusted to manage the countries resources, he failed to manage them well and this is the reason why even Lungu is having a hard time governing this country. Think of it this way, both Mwanawasa and Sata died while still in power, but who had a hard time taking over ruling…