Bowman Lusambo writes;
Traveling on empty coffers
It’s another week, so that means another foreign trip by His Excellency President Hakainde Hichilema.
As we come to terms with this new reality, we should always remember that this is a man who told the whole world in a BBC interview that his administration inherited empty coffers.
In the same interview, this man told the entire world that he will run a government that will be serious on prudent management of public resources.
Since he formed government, he has travelled more than any other President in the history of this great nation over the same period.
11 foreign trips in five months against only two in-country trips, this clearly shows where his priorities sit.
No matter how his sloppy PR team attempts to justify his insatiable appetite for foreign travel, President Hichilema is just a liar who doesn’t stand for anything.
A few weeks ago, he was in South Africa launching a book by Dr Greg Mills titled “Expensive Poverty” and one of the chapters in that book speaks to the need for African leaders to cut on their foreign trips. Now you have a man who was Guest of Honour at a book launch that speaks against the same things he is doing. In simple terms, such people are referred to as hypocrites.
Traveling for each and every business summit and conference does not guarantee economic development. There is a Zambian Embassy in Brussels with a full staff compliment including a Trade Attaché, if President Hichilema was serious about prudence in public financial management, he would attend the summit virtually from the comfort of State House or Community House while the Embassy Staff in Brussels attends the summit physically.
At the time of his death, President John Magufuli of Tanzania made 10 foreign trips in his seven years in power but Tanzanian GDP continued to grow at an average of 6% a year. There is no correlation between too many foreign trips and economic growth and we expected a man who claimed to an Economic Manager to know this.
President Hichilema now claims to be a self appointed Chief Marketing Officer for Zambia, no Mr. President, Zambians didn’t vote for you to be globetrotter in the same of Chief Marketing Officer, they voted for you to sort out Zambia’s problems.
Mr. President, your endless foreign trips are making you appear clueless and turning you into an absolute liar. We challenge you to direct your Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Development to avail to the nation a complete list of your traveling party just as you used to demand from previous administrations. The story about you traveling with lean delegations is not true as we know that party officials are also sneaking into these trips.
Most importantly, If you believe that the Zambian treasury was empty, why are you jumping on every available plane on the runaway?