BY: VIVIAN MUBUKWANU
FRANK BWALYA DESIRES TANTAMEMNI POLITICS
“When UNIP lost elections to MMD, UNIP members rushed to join the MMD. And when MMD lost to PF, MMD members found it easy to join PF! But when PF lost elections to UPND, nobody wants to defect because of akaso mu UPND.” -Frank Bwalya
So Frank Bwalya wants a society of handouts for the citizens. Shame on him. My elder Brother Fred Mmembe must be worried he has a liability in his Central Committee. Zambia deserves better. How are we going to develop as a nation if life in Zambia will be based on handouts? This kind of thinking by Frank Bwalya and all his kind is wanting the citizens of this country to remain poor. It’s sad that whilst the UPND led government is determined to fight intergenerational poverty there are those that want people to remain in abject poverty.
Life maybe a little challenging right now but we all just need to work a little harder. It’s not over. Every living being must do exactly what is necessary even at the weakest point to help us build up. It’s not over for everyone to depend on handouts. We need to keep pushing. How can we build on handouts? How can we grow on handout?
Frank Bwalya’s politics that is grounded in the tradition of handouts came to an end on the 12th August 2021. With little resources we traversed this country. The message was not of handouts when in government but that of hope and a better life with a well-managed economy. The people accepted and made that change with no hopes for cash plates as was the case. Politics is an ever-changing entity that adapts to different political, cultural and economic contexts. The UPND style of politics seeks to change society way of thinking and unlocking new ideas for a better life for all. It is for this reason we have free education and increased Constituency Development Fund (CDF).
Frank Bwalya has no choice but to adapt to the new political landscape without handouts that serves the best interests of the citizens and our nation. What is important going forward is the way our government distributes funds or deal with proposed laws affecting the day to day lives of people, which ultimately influences their attitudes and actions. Consequently, politics holds the power to change public sentiment and attitudes towards political phenomena, and this must be taken into consideration during political reasoning not cheap thoughts of cash handouts as desired by Frank Bwalya. I hope he did not run away from priesthood because he wanted to be receiving the handouts.
Let it be known by Frank Bwalya that any person who depends on handouts will not prosper in life. President Hakainde Hichilema in his “MOTIVATIONAL TALKS” is encouraging us as citizens to start businesses, get some skill or some sort of work instead of waiting for politicians to give us handouts, “TANTAMENI”.
The habit of people depending on politicians to get money has not helped anyone over the years. That is what led to the emergence of, CAREER THUGS, NATO FORCES, FAKE COMMANDERS, AMELICANS you name it. People need to create a future not lining up to receive a coin.
To the youths who think Frank Bwalya is a “prophet” please distance yourselves from such politicians who want to use you to gain politically. The state resources he wants to dish out if he ever gets to the corridors of power are accounted for. Any “TANTAMENI” with state resources is theft and criminal. We are seeing for ourselves how they are lining up at the Drug Enforcement Commission (DEC) and Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) offices to be interviewed as though they are looking for employment all because of “TANTAMENI”.
It is unfortunate Frank Bwalya a former priest has long forgotten most people living in extreme poverty don’t want a handout—they want a sustainable way to provide for themselves and their families. They want the pride of hard work. It for this reason why compassion’s programs aren’t focused on hand outs, but on developing people. We need to empower our young people and their parents to have the skills, determination and hope to lift themselves out of poverty. We want to enable them to live up to their full potential and do so with dignity. What dignity is in handouts?
Learning vocational skills is key to survival. Even those that have grown up desperately poor, have got the opportunity to attend vocational training in plumbing, painting, bricklaying, sewing, baking, carpentry and many others using the enhanced CDF. A well-managed CDF can help our illiterate mothers in the villages that didn’t have skills earn an income once taught for instance baking skills to start a bakery. They will be able to send their children to school and their mindset transformed from one of fatalism to hope.
The majority of our people were born into a seemingly endless cycle of intergenerational poverty. It is therefore important we present them with a chance at sustainability not saying the UPND government is stingy. The UPND is just a political party like any other in the country. It has no money to dish out as Frank Bwalya suggests. The UPND is just a vehicle that has been entrusted to run the affairs of the Republic of Zambia on behalf of the Zambians even those that did not vote for them.
Father Frank Bwalya please learn something from this; “If you give a man a fish, you feed him for a day. If you teach a man to fish, you feed him for a lifetime.”
Am off to Ndola again. Kabushi get ready. Bo’Jangles here I come