FELLOW ZAMBIANS, IN THE ABUNDANCE OF WEALTH WE CELEBRATE GRANTS—AND WE ARE TOLD THIS IS PROGRESS.
So the President has proudly announced that Zambia a country swimming in copper, cobalt, emeralds, fertile land, water, sunshine, and abundant human capital… is now excited….excited! To receive a USD 2 billion grant. We now find ourselves in a national conundrum.
A grant.
Not revenue generated from our mines. Not value addition from our farms. Not industrial growth driven by sound, people-centred policy. A grant.
And this announcement comes from a man who proudly calls himself an economist.
Bob Marley once sang, “In the abundance of water, the fool is thirsty.” Today, Zambia fits that lyric perfectly. We are rich, yet governed like a pauper. Blessed, yet administered like a charity case, standing comfortably on untapped wealth while confidently holding out a begging bowl.
While Zambians wait for jobs, affordable mealie meal, better roads, and serious economic reforms, Community House is busy polishing constitutional amendments that nobody asked for, nobody needs, and nobody trusts. Instead of fixing policies that would make Zambia productive and self-sustaining, the President would rather remodel the Constitution as though it were a personal renovation project.
We are now expected to celebrate foreign assistance as a major achievement, five years into power. Is this the same leadership that promised light weekends, economic miracles, and investor confidence anchored in competence? Or did “light weekends” simply mean light ideas and lightweight priorities?
There is nothing wrong with international cooperation. But there is everything wrong when a resource-rich country starts clapping for grants while ignoring its own goldmine. A serious government would speak about how Zambia is earning, producing, exporting, and adding value not how it is being helped to merely survive.
Is it not ironic that we voted for leadership, vision, and sound economic sense, only to be presented with a professional grant announcer? On principle, there is no such thing as a free cup of coffee someone, somewhere, always pays the price.
Yet even as we borrow and depend on grants, the same leadership is aggressively pushing Bill No. 7 to expand constituencies, increase public expenditure, and deepen the burden on a country already struggling to stand on its own. Zambia, twasebana.
So yes, clap if you must but clap carefully. Because if this is what economic genius looks like, then the joke is no longer funny. The joke is on us.
Simpamba Abraham
Together We Can
Ichalo Bantu!
Iwe ka Simpamba.I would have applauded your write up if we begun receiving grants from 2021.
Now,shut up and observe what UPND in going to do with the grant.
“In the abundance of water…”If Bob Marley had known there would be fools,he would have sung that song
*he would not have sung that song.
Fools like you should not be allowed to open your mouths. Did those resources just come overnight or they have been there all along? You are the fools that finished Mukupa selling to China all by yourselves. You couldn’t even get grants because you didn’t know what to do when you went into government because you were visionless. Instead you went and borrowed and failed to payback during your 20 years in power. Your former boss and his friend Bonanza even had the audesty to steal money via Turkey to buy helicopters. We know you and it doesn’t matter what games you are going to play no one is going to vote for you stupid idiot.
Ba Simpamba, what have you done to unlock the so called wealth? This resource rich narrative will remain a pie in the sky as long as we Zambians lack the adventurous spirit of entrepreneurs.
We expect someone to come and wave a magic wand and translate that potential into actual wealth. Well ba Simpamba, there is no such wand and as long as you sit on the fence and whine about being resource rich but poor, we will remain beggars.
Nothing ventured is nothing gained.
Well said