State of the Nation address by FDD President Edith Nawakwi
Ladies and gentlemen of the press, we meet here today at a time when our country has reached an irreversible economic crisis under the Patriotic Front leadership.
The crisis is now being felt in every home as you fill that brazier with your little charcoal; it is being felt as a young mother gives birth on the floor of a dark clinic; it is being felt on that bus as you try to negotiate a bus fare with the conductor; it is being felt in the evening as you turn on your television set and watch the useless news from ZNBC.
The reason for this crisis is that we have no leadership. And I want to clearly state that leadership is not about individuals; leadership is about the collective. The collective that we have in the Patriotic Front Government cannot direct, inspire and assist us secure the future of our country.
Four years ago when the Patriotic Front took office, a bag of mealie meal was K35, today it is K75. When the PF took office, the exchange rate was K4.9 to a dollar, today it is over K12 to a dollar. When they took office, the bus fare from Kalingalinga to town was K2.8, today it is K5.
Four years ago when the Patriotic Front took office, a bag of mealie meal was K35, today it is K75. When the PF took office, the exchange rate was K4.9 to a dollar, today it is over K12 to a dollar. When they took office, the bus fare from Kalingalinga to town was K2.8, today it is K5.
We are all feeling the absence of leadership in this country. This country has no leader. We have no President.
President Edgar Lungu’s solution to our economic crisis is a prayer meeting to ask God to intervene. But the Word of God in Second Thessalonians Chapter 3 verses 10 and 11 is very clear: a lazy man does not deserve to eat. James chapter 2 verse 14 teaches us that faith without action is dead. Even Jesus, in Matthew chapter 17 verses 26 to 27 when he was confronted by the tax collectors he did not fall on his knees and prayed that the tax collectors go away, he acted. He sent Peter to go to the sea to catch a fish and out of its mouth get the coin to pay the tax collectors to avoid trouble.
[pullquote]The current economic crisis is self inflicted; it was deliberate and calculated in an extremely patriarchal partisan manner[/pullquote]
Who is our Peter today? We don’t have a Simon Peter here. It is therefore important for each one of us to take it upon oneself to be that Simon Peter that this country desperately needs. You have the sacred duty to choose a party or a group of political parties that have the vision and ability to end this crisis and lift this country out of the mess that the Patriotic Front has plunged us in.
Yes, it is important to pray, but in our prayer we must be very clear about what we ask God to do for us. God will not come down from heaven and put mealie meal in our homes. God will not come down from heaven and end load shedding.
God will not come down from heaven and put mealie meal in our homes. God will not come down from heaven and end load shedding.
God has done a lot for us. He has blessed us with all the natural resources any country can dream of. That is why the Chinese, the Lebanese, the Rwandese are all flocking to Zambia because we are a blessed nation.
If Edgar Lungu is calling for a prayer meeting to ask God to reveal to us who amongst us should take over as our leader, I ask all of you to go to that prayer meeting. But if President Edgar Lungu wants us to ask God to end load shedding, I ask you to all shun that prayer meeting because it is a mockery to God. God has no technology. He gave us land, He gave us water, He gave us minerals and He instructed us to conquer the earth. He gave us the ability to produce electricity from the sun, the wind and the water.
If Edgar Lungu is calling for a prayer meeting to ask God to reveal to us who amongst us should take over as our leader, I ask all of you to go to that prayer meeting. But if President Edgar Lungu wants us to ask God to end load shedding, I ask you to all shun that prayer meeting because it is a mockery to God.
We have tried from the opposition to raise alarm; we have attempted to reach out to Government in the understanding that even though they are in Government, we are all in leadership. And in that understanding, as a Party, we wanted to inspire a position where national issues are above our petty political affiliations.
Today there is no tribe. We are all Zambians, bred from the same umbilical code.
As a country, where we are now requires that we appreciate that we are all leaders and each one of us has to start thinking about how we are going to get ourselves out of this economic quagmire that has been created by the Patriotic Front.
The current economic crisis is self inflicted; it was deliberate and calculated in an extremely patriarchal partisan manner.
The PF have excluded all of us from being involved in the management of our country. When I say all of us, I mean the student, the teacher, the miner, the maid, the policewoman keeping vigil on the street, all have been excluded. Our understanding as a Party is that leadership is a collective; hence we must all be involved in the governance of our country. And the people who must create that platform of inclusiveness are those in the echelons of power.
Where we are today requires strength, courage and an unwavering resolve to face these economic problems head-on. In fact where we are now is much better than where we were in the 1980s. The 1990s were worse! We can use the lessons of the 1990s and the late 1980s to re-craft the future of our country.
If you recall, in the 1990s copper prices were below 2000 Dollars per ton. Today, the lowest is being quoted at about 6000 Dollars. In 1990 almost all the mines were closed. We never had China; we were depending on foreign traders who could come to Zambia and brokerage traders on our behalf. Today we have the privilege of having mining companies selling copper outside Zambia in any way they want.
The lessons of the 1990s should be an eye opener to all of us that copper will never be a solution to eradicating poverty in Zambia.
Members of the press, we called you here today to tell you that time has come for us as a country to develop a strategy which excludes copper as the main driver in our program of poverty eradication and national development. To do that requires that someone provides leadership and it is clear to all of us that, that leadership cannot come from Edgar Lungu and his Patriotic Front.
The leadership that we need is for someone to understand that our future lies in Agriculture, in Energy and in the sweat that each one pours individually in our households, in our fields, in our laboratories, in our markets, on our rivers. Let us not ever again think that going underground or digging up our motherland to create dump sites and mosquito ponds will wash away our poverty.
To move to that stage we as FDD are suggesting the following:
- The public servants who are charged with the responsibility to think on our behalf should from today onwards know that the solutions for our future will never come from us politicians. Politicians will never ever resolve the issues that have kept us an impoverished lot. I expect from this conference that the public servants at the Ministry of Finance and I am specifically referring to Mr Fredson Yamba who has the track record of having grown up in the Ministry and clearly knows what has to be done; I am referring to the Governor of the Central Bank; I am referring to the Permanent Secretary at Ministry of Commerce, the Permanent Secretary at Ministry of Agriculture and all the trained men and women in the productive sectors of our economy, I am referring to a public servant at ZESCO; am referring to anyone who takes a salary from people’s sweat; anyone who deep inside feels that we should salvage our country, I am pleading with you: find a day this week, sit together and give us the blue print for our future.
- How do we resolve the Energy crisis? You know the answer Mr. Managing Director at ZESCO. The only challenge is that politicians are telling you what do. For once, forget us politicians. Move ahead and do what is right for the country.
- The Governor at Central Bank: Governor, you are educated, you have seen the world, and you have managed Africa on behalf of multilateral institutions. Don’t wait for IMF and the World Bank to bring a noose and tie it around our necks, raise the alarm that we are desperate for help to restructure our Financial and Economic Sectors. You are the only one who can raise the alarm to the IMF and The World Bank. No politician, certainly not our current nominated Member of Parliament Mr. Alexander Chikwanda will raise the alarm, for fear of embarrassment.
- Mr Yamba, you know what has to be done. Austerity measures must not come when we are completely down on our knees. You sure have raised alarm before that there is serious inconsistency in policy pronouncement and policy implementation by the Patriotic Front Government. How consistent should the policy be? You know the answer. None of us in Government and out of Government has the knowledge and experience that you have. Help us! Give us a menu of things we need to do and if we fail to support you to implement that list then blame us as wayward politicians. I believe that even in the naivety of the political leadership of the PF, given your strong position with a clear list of things that must be done to correct this economic situation, they will probably wake up. But for as long as you leave it to those politicians in PF, whose time and perspective is limited, this country will remain a basket case. Greece had the European Bank to fall back on; we have nothing, not even a SADC Bank. We only have the forests to run to.
President Lungu’s collective is saying only Jesus can save us from this economic conundrum as if the Bible in Second Thessalonians chapter 3 verses 10 and 11 is not clear enough that, those who do not work, those who are lazy should not eat.
We need a clear policy direction. You public servants have had prescriptions from politicians for far too long. Prescribe now what has to be done to save Zambia from this economic abyss. Whatever your prescription, it must be a prescription that does not rely on copper as the solution to our economic problems.
It is clear to us as FDD, that PF want the status quo to continue that is why they are not doing much as a Government to make sure that people register to vote in the 2016 general elections.
We are calling upon every Christian, every Muslim, every Buddhist, and every community leader in this country to take up this God given role and inspire your people to realize that choosing the right leaders is a God given duty. When you choose bad leaders you commit sin because when there are bad leaders people suffer.
Just like Moses cried out to the children of Israel in Deuteronomy chapter 1 verse 13 to choose for themselves competent leaders, I beseech you my brethren: go and register as a voter and choose amongst yourselves wise and discerning leaders in the 2016 general elections.
Thank you.
May God bless our country.
