By Sikaile Sikaile
ANYONE WHO THINKS CHELLAH TUKUTA IS SPEAKING FOR THE MAJORITY OF ZAMBIANS STRUGGLING ECONOMICALLY IS NAIVE.
Indeed, Levy Patrick Mwanawasa knew our mindset as Zambians of short memory. I have a serious problem with people who are not consistent in life, and I have seen this problem in our nation. When I say CHELLAH is not and cannot be an ambassador of our economic struggles or spokesman, I am not saying that there are no economic problems majority Zambians are facing; that is not true. Those of you who follow my page economically will agree with me that I have been very consistent in sharing my thoughts not only with the former government but also with the new dawn administration, especially on food security. Several times here, I have advocated for serious measures in agriculture, which I feel are being underutilized.
For example, in 2022, I was interviewed by The Mast Newspaper in a headline called “Citizens are clocking economic-wise.” I even went as far as making irrigation suggestions to the government as a sustainable approach to agriculture, considering climate change issues.
The question is, where was CHELLAH to advocate for us who have been struggling to date? CHELLAH was in the government with three prominent job opportunities and very close to the president. If he was smart and meant to speak for us ordinary citizens, it was around that time that he should have engaged directly with the president and shared his thoughts. Is he going to claim he was blocked from accessing the president? Absolutely not. Because we all saw how much the president loved him but he consistently refused to change. We all have challenges in life but when an opportunity is given to you and requires your behavior adjustment do the best to change.
Did CHELLAH do this? Absolutely not, because there was food in his mouth. This is why I said speaking for your own stomach and speaking for vulnerable citizens are two very different things. Some of us, if we had this behavior of jumping like a frog from one organization or government to another, we would have been billionaires under PF, as they dangled all kinds of carrots to us using taxpayers’ and borrowed money to advance their political ambitions and not serve our nation. This is why you see us in this debt, and you are forgetting that the money they used to flash to you as handouts was borrowed money, which Hakainde Hichilema is striving to pay back on behalf of the PF and we Zambians.
No one is here to defend HH or UPND on the economic status of our country, but some of us are here giving you facts because we read and remember the history of our country. We have a lot of people in Zambia who masquerade as speaking for the people, yet they speak for their stomach. We have some people today even under the UPND government holding big positions who participated in destroying our economy with the ruthless PF, and I don’t take such people seriously even when they are talking. To me, those are the wrong characters who cannot be our spokesman. Let them say they are speaking for their stomach.
If you ask me today why I advocated for a change of government, priority number one was my freedom that PF illegally took away from me by plotting to kill me. Economic issues are secondary needs for me because I was born a farmer and I will die as a farmer, but I am very concerned about the economic situation that the majority of citizens are facing.Let us have principles, not after you lose your job and team up with other desperate people to claim to be citizens’ spokesman. Let those who have been consistent speak for us. Just last week, I wrote to the Minister of Agriculture, telling him the consequences that we will face as a country due to the dry spells and offered various options for solutions. Not only that, this farming season, I planted 65 hectares of white maize, which so far is okay, and we have begun planting winter maize to connect production from rain fed maize.
My goal is to ensure that my district doesn’t starve. If the worst happens, I’m ready to cooperate with the government to ensure that this food is all preserved for the community to ensure food security.
People like CHELLAH, if they were organized youths, they would have advocated for our interests as young people in the country to be empowered with agriculture equipment, but he was busy dancing on social media and engaging in gossip that had no economic impact on our nation whilst in a country with huge agriculture mechanization. Ask him what business opportunity he solicited for our country while in Brazil. Some of us, even without any position in the government, but out of patriotism, we are pushing for huge opportunities outside that we look forward to benefiting the entire country. Soon you will see the results. That is what thinking for the people is all about. Not when you are fired at I’m advocating for suffering citizens. We are suffering, yes, but you are a wrong advocate, sir.
HH did his best to transform your mindset sir. Your job was to behave well, stick around with him, and share our problems with him and bring us feedback on what the president is thinking. I could have taken you seriously if you did this but you turned into those people who don’t pick up phone calls for the youths who put them where they are today. Try something sir, not this gallivanting you are doing for your own benefit.
Ba PF, today you are clapping for CHELLAH, who not long ago insulted and called you all kinds of names. Today he is a darling, since he is nursing his dismissal wounds. Even if you are desperate, try something new, please.The truth of the matter is that the economy is not doing well, and we all know the problem, but we want to politicize it. Even those who caused it are now acting like angels. The president was very clear after assessment, and told us how the first few years will be hard. If he was a play boy borrowin from Zumani Zimba’s description of ECL, HH was not going to open up to the country and no single day has the man denied that we are suffering economic wise. Right now let us offer alternative solutions to the problems especially food security.
So, let us read to understand when someone posts something, people. I saw a lot of you saying you don’t support me on this one in the morning post. In fact, I do not expect everyone to agree with me on these platforms. If we fail to agree with God, who created us, by sinning each day, who am I for you to agree with on everything I say?
SIKAILE C SIKAILE
Sir,I totally agree with you. You are such a great thinker and analyst. Your points are clear,brief and to the point.You are not criticising the powers that be but speaking openly on what is obtaining on the ground.Chella is something else,fooling those who are busy waiting to be fooled but as for you,you are busy offering solutions and ideas to the government, keep it up sir.May our good Lord Jesus Christ continue to increase you in all you are doing.God bless you sir
I adopt this as my own
To some extent, foreign service was like a lottery, where you had tukutuz and this one who is always having selfies, foreign service must for once redifine it’s purpose
Sikaile Sikaile, you are very free to express yourself eloquently to defend the government as you have always done but this will not change the feelings, anger, hunger and despair that the majority are facing.
The only thing that will give hope to the majority is when they have food on the table and decent jobs to support their families and loved ones period.
Chella tukuta may not the right person in your eyes but to people he is saying what they are going through and the hardships that they are facing each day the wake. You pack 400 civil servants at cabinet, more than 500 police officers just because they come from the northern, Luapula, Eastern , muchinga . Do you know these were bread winners and for your own information you have destroyed many families and make yourselves difficult to vote for. Mark my words
Chellas class of people are criminals like lungu, hh was blind to keep a crocodile near him, his lucky he was never near a water body it could have eaten him. But I am one of your team on your analysis.
Do it more often maybe the attitude of Zambian dancing and clapping for thieves might end. That why I say in 2026 it not political elections it’s the citizenry calibre check elections.
The sooner people realise that government is not there to put food on their family table, the sooner they will have peace of mind.
It is folly to expect the government to feed you. The best the government can do is to create a conducive environment for people to thrive and the current government is doing its best to do that, especially considering the extensive damage done by the PF regime.
On a practical note, if you can, try to grow as much of your food as you possibly can. I have a small plot of about one lima (50x50m) on which I have a house but I also grow enough beans and groundnuts to last me one year. In addition, I have banana, orange, guava, lemon, natje, avocado, litch, pawpaw, mulberry trees as well as granadilla. Pawpaw doesnot take up much space and gives lots of fruit for the family after the rains.
There is so much we can do to feed ourselves. By the way, I started growing my own maize for nshima when Mr. Lungu came to power because I did not trust him and I have continued this practice because I don’t want to trust someone else to feed me until the situation improves to make such blind trust meaningful. I can afford mealie meal even at K500, but sometimes it not the capacity that matters but rather availability.