HICHILEMA IS MORE COMMITTED TO THE INTERESTS OF BRENTHURST FOUNDATION THAN THE COUNTRY
STATE HONOURS AND AWARDS
I insist that it was wrong and against the Honours and Awards procedure for the President to confer ‘The Order of The Eagle of Zambia’ 1st Division on former Liberian president Ellen Sirleaf Johnson, former Nigerian president General Olusegun Obasanjo and former Sierra Leone president Ernest Bai Koroma.
The President said the former Heads of State were honored for their contribution to the growth of democracy. He said the three leaders have distinguished themselves in their own countries, on the African Continent and beyond, for their unrelenting efforts to establish and promote democracy and good governance, as a prercusor to improving livelihoods of their people and other Africans. This is not true because it was not the correct and true reflection of those former presidents in their own countries. There people look at them differently.
These were certainly not Zambian state awards but personal awards of the President to his Brenthurst Foundation associates. It is wrong for the President to take national matters as personal business and to act against State House housekeeping rules and government procedures. The President abused his position to reward his associates for his personal benefit. And this is not the first time he is abusing this authority. Previously conferred medals on UPND cadres. Now he has done it for his three foreign backers from the Brenthurst Foundation. It is not done like that anywhere.
We urge the President to be committed to Zambia as he is to the interests of the Brenthurst Foundation.He has the right to honour his associates but he should not do it using State House or any other government institutions. And why did the President only honour those connected to the Brenthurst Foundation? Former Tanzanian president Jakaya Kikwete, former Zambian vice-president Inonge Mutukwa Wina and late former Zambian president Rupiah Bwezani Banda also played an important role during the transition from PF to UPND government. They all played a key role in facilitating a peaceful hand over of power. Why not honour them?
Zambia should institutionalise its Honours and Awards so that they are not handled by anyone single person but the committee at Cabinet Office and the community should be fully involved at all stages. The President’s actions must be vetted. We should not vests all powers in one person who has no sense of national interest and who is taking Zambia backwards.
We wonder who advices the President on matters like these.
There’s need for service chiefs from Zambia Army, Zambia Air Force, Zambia National Service, Zambia Police and Brig Gen John Bulawayo rtd, the chief of protocol, to help the President on matters like these. We advise the President to remember honouring and rewarding our deserving men and women in uniform who are protecting the sovereignty of this nation and are doing well in peace keeping operations.
Fred M’membe
President of the Socialist Party