A 100 Days of Lies, Deceit and Roundabouting
We have now clocked 100 days under President Hakainde Hichilema. This is a fair enough period for us to assess his governance style, social and economic policy frameworks and the tone he is setting for his administration.
All world leaders have been assessed using the same benchmark. What they said during campaigns and what they did in the first 100 days in office. From President Joe Biden, President Trump, President Obama to Prime Minister Boris Johnson and President Ramaphosa, all these leaders were assessed in their first 100 days and there is nothing unfair about doing this assessment to President Hichilema.
We have the right to check on his deliverables especially that when his predecessor choose to anchor his campaigns on truth and what the PF government had achieved in the area of infrastructure development, President Hichilema choose lies and deceit to be the hallmark of his campaigns.
Now that we have reached the 100 day milestone, it is only fair that we give a honest assessment of his reign thus far.
For the first time in our history, we have a President without direction. Even a fresh faced Kenneth Kaunda and his comrade in 1964 appears more ready to rule that President Hichilema and his team. They are directionless, heavy on speeches and thin on action.
How does one explain the fact that a man who spent close to 20 years in opposition still doesn’t have a government fully set up 100 days after being inaugurated. All the key strategic positions are still being held by people that served under President Lungu whom he perpetually referred to as thieves?
Now the words methodical and meritorious have disappeared from his vocabulary because he has found that the words were redundant and did not mean a thing after Zambians analyzed his key appointments which have been below par.
What is methodical about appointing Denny Kalyalya as Governor, what is methodical about recalling Remmy Kajoba to Police Headquarters? What is methodical about appointing a bunch of men and women who can bring a defective document to Parliament to debate the Estimates of Expenditure for State House by referencing to the 1996 Constitution, a document that was long repelled. Something this tragic has never happened in the life of Parliament and this can only be explained by the fact that President Hichilema’s government doesn’t know whether its going or coming, they are simply roundabouting!
President Hichilema has spent a good portion of his first 100 days preaching. He is more of a motivational speaker than a President. The downside to that is that his long speeches have become rhetorical and boring.
He has gone to bed with the IMF and they are now forcing him to start implementing policies that he opposed whilst in opposition. The reality of running government has now dawned on him and he is now forced to sound unintelligent, clueless and dataless. All the slides, frames and spreadsheets he shared with us on how he would lower the cost of Fertiliser and Fuel have now disappeared.
The only strategy remaining is to paint President Lungu and his people black with a corruption tag hoping that he will be the only one who will appear whiter without any blemishes. As noble as it may be, endless talk about a non existent fight against corruption will do very little to lower the cost of living.
As we forge ahead beyond 100 days, the Head of State ought to be reminded that governing a nation is far remotely comparable to managing small businesses. It is very complex, tedious and requires a level of deeper understanding which in our current Head of State appears to be in short supply.
With the IMF running our treasury affairs, our advice to Zambians is that let us all prepare ourselves for turbulence. It shall not be an easy ride.
Hon. Bowman C. Lusambo
02.12.21