PATRIOTS for Economic Progress leader Sean Tembo says there is no question that Zambia has underperformed over the past 56 years or since independence.
In a statement, Tembo stated with regret that after attaining self-rule on October 24, 1964, instead of building on the economic strides that had been made by colonial masters, the country regressed instead.
He noted that Zambia’s per capita income today was approximately 1/13th of what it was at the time of gaining independence.
“The meaning of this is that today, Zambians are 13 times worse off than they were on 24th October 1964. Does that mean that we Zambians are incapable of governing ourselves? Should we beg Britain to recolonise us so that our economic fortunes can be restored to pre-1964 levels? What is wrong with us? Why are we unable to properly govern ourselves? Is it the black pigment of our skin? Is it the shape of our heads? Or perhaps the accent of our speech? Really, what is it?” Tembo asked.
He said there were several underlying reasons why Zambia had not been able to make economic progress, prominent of all reasons being the fact that the country had been choosing less-than-optimal leaders.
“Yes, our past presidents and current President did and has done what they could within their capacity. However, the problem has been that they never had much capacity. They were not the best of what was available,” Tembo said.
He said instead of choosing an optimal leader, at every juncture, Zambians chose to satisfice.
“And this is exactly what l wish to address in this submission. Why have we failed to pick a Winston Churchill or a Franklin D. Roosevelt among us? Someone who can turnaround our national fortunes enough so that even if we were to subsequently have less-than-optimal leaders, our upward trajectory would not be reversed,” he said.
The PeP leader said Zambians have been too assuming in their selection of leaders and have consistently failed to ask hard questions to people that aspire to lead the nation.
Tembo said with the foregoing, the end result has been that the country have always ended up with leaders that appeared great while in opposition but turned out to be totally completely disastrous once they were ushered into office.
“When l was visiting my wife’s home village called Mutitima, deep down in chief Mporokoso of Mporokoso district of Northern Province at the beginning of this year, my grandfather-in-law told me a proverb which I did not understand, but going by the expression on his face, I could tell that it was an important proverb which l needed to get translated as soon as possible. The old man said ‘Ici kwanka bacimwena ku mampalanya’. Upon quizzing my wife later that evening about the meaning of this proverb, she explained to me that it loosely means that you can tell the character of a person by their behaviour,” he said.
Tembo said the country was where it is today, having regressed its per capita income 13 times since independence, because of citizens’ failure to see the telltale signs of poor leadership.
“Take the current President for example. Before Mr Lungu became President of this Republic, it was reported that he was disbarred as a practicing attorney because he misappropriated a client’s money. Put in a layman’s language, President Lungu stole money of a client. That is a fact. It does not matter whether one loves or hates President Lungu, the fact is that he stole money of a client, while practicing as an attorney. However, as a nation, we decided to bury our heads in the sand, much against the Bemba saying that l came across while in Mutitima Village of chief Mporokoso that ‘icikwanka bacimwena ku mampalanya’. We saw the telltale signs of lack of accountability in Mr Lungu, and yet we decided to still proceed and make him President of this Republic,” he said.
Tembo noted with shock that the country is stunned that President has failed to account for public resources, given his background.
Further, Tembo recalled that when he and his government decided to spend $40 million of taxpayers’ money to buy grandmotherly-looking fire tenders, the nation was again shocked.
“But why are we shocked when we saw the telltale signs from the beginning? Did we expect Mr Lungu to have a sudden change of character and stop ‘ukutola indalama ishabene?’ Ati ‘nachitola fye’,” he said with regret.
“We have an individual that some people think is a saviour of this country, an individual whom some people think can liberate us from the current mismanagement, corruption and looting of the Patriotic Front Party and its government. But the question is; who is this individual and what is his character? Are there any telltale signs of crookedness in this individual, the way it was with some of our past leaders? Are we ignoring those telltale signs and assuming that this time around ‘icikwanka tatwachimonene ku mampalanya’?”
The PeP leader said he has never believed the story peddled by the ruling Patriotic Front that this individual sold the country’s mines at a song to foreigners during privatisation, thereby enriching himself and impoverishing the country.
He, however, said he believed that the decision of selling the mines was a decision made by the then Frederick Chiluba administration and that the said individual was nothing other than an implementer of a government decision and therefore the individual had to be absorbed of all blame related to the privatisation of ZCCM assets.
“In other words, I believe that the PF and its government have been engaging in cheap politicking on this matter,” Tembo said.
He, however, said amidst all this wailing by the PF against the said individual (UPND’s Hakainde Hichilema), there were a few things that were factual.
“For example, it is a matter of fact that this individual bought a house from one of the parastatals that he was appointed as a liquidator in Kabulonga, and proceeded to live in this house for a prolonged period of time until he decided to shift to his current abode. That is a fact. It does not matter whether one loves or hates this individual, that fact will remain just that: a fact. Now, I want to make clear at this juncture that I am a PACRA duly accredited insolvency practitioner myself, in accordance with the Corporate Insolvency Act No. 9 of 2017, just like I have been for the past 16 years. Of course, before the Corporate Insolvency Act No. 9 of 2017 which restricts insolvency practitioners to practicing Auditors and Lawyers, every Peter and Robert could be an insolvency practitioner and that is how this individual found himself as a Liquidator for the bank in question. Anyway, I know for a fact that when a company appoints a liquidator, that individual takes charge of all the decisions of that company,” Tembo said.
In other words, Tembo said both the board of directors and the management of a company that has been placed under liquidation were suspended and all decisions related to the winding up of such a company were made by the appointed liquidator.
He said the import of the scenario under consideration, where the said individual was the liquidator of a parastatal bank and he proceeded to sell one of the bank’s assets, a house in this case, to himself was that he was effectively the seller and the buyer of the said house.
Tembo noted that a liquidator was supposed to always act in the best interests of the company under liquidation.
“Now, you do not need to be a corporate governance expert to realise that this was a clear case of fraud that happened here. It is my strong belief that a person who would make a better president of this Republic is someone who, when faced with a predicament of whether to put the interests of the nation or his own personal interests first, will decide to do the right thing and put the interests of the nation first,” he said.
Further, Tembo noted that the said individual was presented with this scenario, but instead of putting the interests of the nation first by selling the parastatal assets in question in an arm’s length transaction with an independent buyer and thereby fetch the highest possible price for the said house, he decided to put his personal interests above those of the nation and decided to sell the parastatal house to himself.
“Now, I am not saying that simply because this individual behaved in such a crooked manner several years ago then he still has such a crooked streak where, if made President, would put his own personal interests above the interests of the nation. No. There is a possibility that this individual has since reformed and his actions in yesteryears can be attributed to youthful exuberance. But again, why take the chance? If an individual is crooked in small things then the chances that he will be crooked in bigger things are very high. Remember how we ignored Mr Lungu’s theft of his client’s money, and how we thought it would not affect his accountability of our public financial resources, and how we have proved ourselves wrong,” Tembo said.
The PeP leader further said the country was desperately in need of a savior to redeem its citizens from the current poor leadership of the PF.
However, Tembo insinuated that Hichilema was by far not that saviour.
He urged Zambians to search somewhere else for a saviour.
“And I say that out of my deep undying love for this nation, the nation of my forefathers and the nation of my born and unborn children. “ici kupempula bacimwena ku mampalanya”,” said Tembo.