LUNGU NEEDS TO BE TOLD TRUTH THAT ‘SIR YOU HAVE FEACES ON YOUR BACK’…self proclaimed bootlickers will not do that, says Panji
By Patson Chilemba
Using a Bemba proverb “munshebwa aile namafi kubuko”, Colonel Panji Kaunda said President Edgar Lungu needs to surround himself with people who will tell him the truth that ‘sir you have feaces on your back’.
And Col Panji said government must remove the floor price on maize in order to encourage more production of the commodity, which will in a way curtail on smuggling the government was always complaining about.
Speaking with Daily Revelation, Col Panji said what the ruling party needed was a party that was strong, democratic and corrupt free. He pointed to some of the projects that have been carried out by government, which were now quickly wearing out despite huge public investment, like the Ndola road.
He said the road that was built in 2016 was almost completely finished now, and very soon the government would be calling for new tenders to redo the roads, which would again attract more corruption.
Col Panji said things in the country were not well, including in the ruling party where the new comers were new like Lusaka Province minister Bowman Lusambo, were now trying to run roughshod calling themselves bulldozers.
He said in times such as this, the President needed to surround himself with people who will tell him truth to his face and not the self proclaimed bootlickers.
“Munshebwa aile namafi kubuko. He needs people who will tell him ‘sir you have feaces on your back’. But a bootlicker will not tell him. Let’s have leaders who say ‘this cannot be done’,” Col Panji said.
And Col Panji said the government needs to set priorities right in the agriculture sector to curb the smuggling of maize, saying it was not every farmer that relied on the FISP programme.
“But at the end of the day we want to determine how much we must pay them without taking into consideration the cost. At border areas the price is high…if you control price at the expense of the farmer you are forcing farmers to break the law,” Col Panji said. “We have capacity of producing 20 million tonnes per year, but we only have 3 million. But if we opened the market up I’m sure production will treble. Three farmers were shot dead to stop smuggling recently. It’s a policy we must change.”
Col Panji said the country had been trying to subsidise consumers since his father Dr Kenneth Kaunda’s time in office, thus affecting producers in the process.
He urged President Lungu’s administration to bite the bullet now, as that is what leadership entailed, saying the move would be risky in the short term, but will in the long run spur more production and subsequently reduce the price of maize.
“We must find other ways of protecting the consumer and not punishing the producer,” said Col Panji.
Asked if his own father would support what he was suggesting, both now and if he were still president, Col Panj said: “He (Dr Kaunda) was once asked what is it he regrets the most. He said we subsidised maize for too long. Leadership is not about taking the easy way out.” -Daily Revelation