Fred M’membe is missing the point; President Hichilema is trying hard to reunite this nation

Fred M’membe is missing the point; President Hichilema is trying hard to reunite this nation

Whenever most politicians write or make certain pronouncements, they lamentably fail to raise issues of substance other than goading the President into confrontation, notable among them, Socialist Party leader Fred M’membe, once a capitalist running a thriving business empire spanning from newspaper publication, courier services, trucking business and real estate’s, among others.

For instance, commenting on the press briefing hosted by the President at State House the other day to address a number of burning issues where he took time to warn that issuing careless tribal remarks shall soon be a non-bailable offence attracting a lengthy jail term; M’membe woke up with the following observations, “The problem of tribalism cannot be simply looked at as a problem of speech (tribal hate speech). There’s a need to look at the practices (tribal practices) that trigger the tribal talk. An audit of Mr. Hichilema’s appointments to various positions in state and government institutions will reveal very serious tribal biases.”

M’membe knows deep down the pit of his heart that he’s being economical with the truth. It is common knowledge that this former capitalist-turned-politician has always harboured corrosive hatred for President Hichilema since taking over from the late founding leader of UPND, Anderson Mazoka. Before former President Edgar Lungu ‘obliterated’ his, The Post Newspapers, he effectively used it as a weapon to demonise, scandalise and humiliate the party to such an extent of lampooning it as a “Bantustan!”

In our book, One Zambia One Nation; how various Presidents have navigated around the issue since Independence, we present empirical evidence of how our respective Presidents have tried to help reunite the nation by embracing every ethnic grouping in their governments or not. In the interest of space though, we shall restrict ourselves to NOMINATED MPs. There may have been two compelling reasons why our forefathers saw it befitting to introduce the aspect of nominated MPs: (1) in the case of the appointing authority hunting for individuals with exceptional abilities or capabilities to sit in their cabinet and such isn’t readily available in parliament, they may extend the search outside the August house and (2) in the event of a winning political party failing to secure parliamentary seats in certain parts of the country, a president may nominate individuals from those particular regions for the sake of enhancing national unity.

As they say, figures don’t lie; we shall leave up to the readers to conclude for themselves which Presidents have always gone an extra mile putting our “One Zambia One Nation” motto into practice as of course envisaged by our forefathers. Please refer to the tables hereunder:

Kaunda’s nominated MPs (1988 – 1991)

Name	Region of origin
1	Pickson Chitambala	Central
2	Frederick Chomba	Northern
3	Lameck Goma	Eastern
4	Malimba Masheke	Western
5	Benjamin Mibenge	Northern
6	Alex Shapi	Luapula
7	Lazarous Tembo	Eastern
8	Alina Nyikosa	North western

NB: Although he was born of Malawian heritage, Kaunda obviously chose to identify himself as a Northerner. You can see from the above that he tried to distribute the nominations fairly across all the regions.

Chiluba’s nominated MPs

Name	Region of origin
1	William Harrington	Minority
2	Katele Kalumba	Luapula
3	Kabunda Kayongo	Western
4	Mwami Maunga	Eastern
5	Godfrey Miyanda	Eastern
6	Zilole Maunga	Eastern
7	Hosea Soko	Eastern

NB: Chiluba was literally rejected in the entire Eastern province as they overwhelmingly voted for UNIP. Instead of sidelining people from the said province as some sort of punishment, he went ahead and nominated a majority of individuals from the province as MPs.

Mwanawasa’s nominated MPs

Name	Region of origin
1	Enock Kavindele	North western
2	Emmanuel Kasonde	Northern
3	Mundia Sikatana	Western
4	George Kunda	Central
5	Kalombo Mwansa	Luapula
6	Ben Kapita	Luapula
7	Vernon Mwaanga	Southern

NB: Mwanawasa never left out anyone in his appointments of nominated MPs, including those from the northern parts of the country where he was literally rejected.

Banda’s nominated MPs

Name	Region of origin
1	George Kunda	Central
2	Kalombo Mwansa	Luapula
3	Situmbeko Musokotwane	Western
4	Chileshe Kapwepwe	Northern
5	Boniface Kawimbe	Luapula
6	Daniel Munkombwe	Southern

NB: Just when everyone thought Banda would reinforce the “Umodzi Kumawa” syndrome by solely nominating his kith and kin as MPs, he broke the ranks and extended his search beyond his province of origin.

Sata’s nominated MPs

Name	Region of origin
1	Alexander Chikwanda	Northern
2	Sebastian Zulu	Eastern
3	Ngosa Simbyakula	Northern
4	Robert Sichinga	Northern
5	John Phiri	Eastern
6	Joseph Kasonde	Northern
7	Solomon Mbuzi	Eastern
8	Panji Kaunda	Northern

NB: Sata was unashamedly tribal in his appointments! It’s a national scandal; out of our 10 provinces, how come he was only able to see caliber in individuals from two particular regions – Northern and Eastern provinces? This mustn’t be allowed to happen at all moving forward.

Lungu’s nominated MPs

Name	Region of origin
1	Davis Chama	Northern
2	Edify Hamukale	Southern
3	Nathaniel Mubukwanu	Western
4	Raphael Nakachinda	Southern
5	Bwalya Ngandu	Northern
6	Joyce N. Simukoko	Northern
7	Godfridah Sumaili	Northern
8	Richard Kapita	North western

NB: Although Lungu largely ‘populated’ his nominations with people from one particularly region just like his predecessor, at least he was decent enough to rope-in a few individuals from the so-called Zambezi provinces as colouring flowers.

Hichilema’s Nominated MPs

Name	Region of origin
1	Felix Mutati	Northern
2	Charles Milupi	Western
3	Doreen Mwamba	Northern
4	Peter Kapala	Luapula
5	Lukando Mufalali	Western
6	Elias Mubanga	Muchinga
7	Mutinta Mazoka	Southern
8	Elias Matambo	Copperbelt

NB: Although Hichilema was given votes in the northern parts of the country as President, he was unfortunately denied MPs. Has he given them a cold shoulder? Zero! He has gone ahead and apportioned 50% of his nominations to the very regions that never gave him MPs