It’s not too late for HH to ‘love back’ USA
…and get a shot at saving 1.3 mln Zambian lives after the fact- Amb. Anthony Mukwita

It’s not too late for HH to ‘love back’ USA
…and get a shot at saving 1.3 mln Zambian lives after the fact

By Amb. Anthony Mukwita

11th May 25

There’s been a raft of mixed reactions since America’s Ambassador to Zambia H.E Michael Gonzalez announced that Uncle Sam was icing $50 million of its health aid package to Zambia last week amidst accusations of theft.

I was among the first people as an International Relations analyst that got into the cross-hairs of this raging debate, as Amb. Gonzales stated that up to 1.3 million Zambian lives hang in balance as a result of the annual aid freeze. He wept.
In a top news interview on the widely followed Diamond TV interview on Friday, I opined that the number of lives at risk were way way too many to just look the other way.

I said in diplomacy, from my education and actual practice, the door is never closed, it could be re-opened anytime for a better solution, meaning that President HH had an opportunity to revisit whatever differences he has over this sensitive matter with Uncle Sam.

I still stand by my opinion as a trained diplomat because like I said during the interview, diplomacy is all about ‘talking and talking and talking and talking’ until two sides of differing parties agree on everything or make concessions.

I believe today like I believed yesterday that if the Don HH put on his white gloves today, he could sit with Uncle Sam rep Gonzales and bring back that K1.4 billion to Zambia and save 1.3 million lives.
Reconciliation is what my entire life as a diplomat, an Editor in Chief, a business partner and family man, anyone that knows me beyond political lenses will attest to this. I don’t mind losing a battle of right or wrong if it leads to serenity.
In fact dozens of my columns always end with ‘make love not war’ and I add, ‘no one wins when everyone is losing’ in the game of governance and economic development.

Let’s face it, Zambia is a poor rich country (64% poor people out of 20mln), it needs aid from Uncle Sam and other partners before it gets its economic house in order sooner rather than later but in the interim, we have people depending on aid from abroad for health reasons.

We are caught between a hard place and a hard place.

SO WHAT MUST ZAMBIA DO?

In a stand-off like the one we are in with Uncle Sam, my advice which maybe counts for nothing is that the Don H has a key to unlock the life saving aid back on track, he is the boss.

Seas part when he gives the word, he has shown that he can do it when he puts his mind to it, for some of us, we just pen ops-eds, the heavy-lifting is left to those that call the shots, the mighty elected.
The gun manufacturer does not want a war to end because it ices his profits just like big Pharma does not want a cure to terminal diseases because if a cure is found they don’t make money.
A political identity benefitting from the Don H does not want to see a reconciliation with ECL.

A cash-hungry lawyer does not want a rich client to settle a case because she stops getting paid.

But when discussing resolutions in diplomacy, we inevitably have to discuss what went wrong, like I said candidly on Diamond TV, it doesn’t mean we concentrate on apportioning blame. Only God can judge me now.

Ba PK Chishala the professor of Zambian folklore music once crooned, “abatoba amayanda ilingi fipuba fye…ilingi in ba chibombebombe ilingi in ba jeneral worker. Bakaboyi batoba amayanda bengi ye. Bwana talipo kasahala kaletoba…”
So we have a choice as a nation, do we continue fighting or reconcile and make love not war? What’s your position?
I always say ‘make love not war’ and my appeal to Don HH and all you out there that are more intelligent than I am, ‘war, what it is good for? Absolutely nothing.”
Ba Don H can make some decisive decisions and save the 1.3 million Zambians that risk the ‘sound of silence’ or in English ‘death.’

If he just acts on the concerns the Americans have raised we can be good again, a win win for both, I am not talking total compromises.
That is what I was labouring to say in my interview on Diamond TV, reconciliation, not escalation.

I have no doubt the Don wants to end the impasse ahead of the 2026 polls, he gains an easy 1.3 million votes in my view if he saves these lives and wins back love from the USA.

The makers of “We are the World”, Quincy Jones ‘et al’ had a placard outside the studio for all the mega stars such as the King of pop Michael Jackson and others—leave your ego at the door.

‘Ine nalanda kwena epompelele’ and in my view, ‘I am the most flawed man on earth right now’ so you can take my two ngwe with a bucketful of salt but I still believe that only the Don H can stop the rot right now because he is the Don.

Also just remember the words of Henry Kissinger, ‘it’s a dangerous thing to have America as an enemy but yet even more fatal to have America as your friend.’
The divisions in Zambia today are so many they sit in households.

Let’s think of the people that could die if this dog fight doesn’t end when the answer lies in a peaceful end. No one wins when everyone is losing.
Listen to the most flawed man in Zambia. Me.

Amb. Anthony Mukwita is an International Relations expert and Published author.