By Sara Imutowana Yeta II
I do not hate President Edgar Lungu, but I hate his visionless leadership style because it is not leadership at all.
His visionless leadership has destroyed the economy and people’s livelihood or means of securing the basic needs of life.
Almost every day, I get a call, or message, or email from relatives asking for financial support to meet their basic needs such as food, shelter, education, healthcare, and transport.
Even people that I never thought would contact me for help are affected.
When I ask them why they are not able to meet their basic needs, their response is the same, that the economy is bad therefore difficult to make a living.
I never used to have endless financial support requests during Sata, Banda, Mwanawasa, Chiluba and Kaunda’s regime.
The question is, why now?
The answer is easy, Lungu has destroyed the conditions that allowed people to use their capabilities to secure the necessities of life.
He has also destroyed people’s ability of self-reliance turning them into perpetual beggars or panhandlers unable to engage in rewarding economic activities to meet their basic necessities without needing other people to help them.
Every month, I emit half of my salary to people who were once able to meet their own basic needs before Lungu came into power.
This is one of the reasons I hate Lungu’s visionless leadership.
Therefore, when I tell people that Lungu is a useless president, my call is based on how I am indirectly and agonisingly affected by his visionless leadership.
It is not because I do not want to share the proceeds of my hard work, but helping people who have been foolishly put into a livelihood predicament by a visionless president.
Why should I be the remedy to the effects of visionless leadership?
He has stripped people of hope and dignity, and if we do not act now on this situation there is a danger that poverty will also strip people of their humanity.
It rubs me the wrong way to wake up every morning to the fact that we have a visionless president not benefiting the country in any way but pushing people into the abyss of poverty and turning them into beggars.
In all conscience, Lungu is of no purpose to the country and incapable of functioning as president.
He has nothing to offer and a liability to the country.
In 2015, when he said that he has no vision of his own but will follow and be led by the will of his party, he was telling us the truth that he was ill-prepared and unfit to lead as president.
This is how visionless leaders behave. They embrace a populist approach to cover their incompetence and uselessness.
He is the most pathetic president we have had with sight but no vision.
He is therefore not worth to be counted upon to lead the country to any better conditions and ways to have socio-economic development.
He lacks the required combination of in-depth understanding and profound desire to provide value to the country.
To make things worse, he lacks self-confidence and wisdom to take charge and show what the country needs and what must be done to develop.
His lack of vision is freely displayed through his infinite weaknesses.
It is lack of vision that he cannot acquire knowledge and skills required to be an effective president.
As a result, he has no capacity to understand not only the current situation, and the situation he found the country, but identifying what the country should be, and how to get the country into the desired situation.
Having relations call me every day for support is the most painful aspect of having Lungu as president.
His leadership is nothing to write home about because he has put the country into a dire economic situation.
When Lungu leaves office, he will be the most troubled and lonely former president for destroying poor people’s livelihood.
He is not going to enjoy his retirement for failing to create a vision to drive him to care more, do more, sacrifice more, and understand more than others the plight of the poor masses.
He has not only failed to motivate the public but his cadres as well.
There is nothing for his cadres to be proud of and adopt from him as theirs.
Besides, there is also nothing for them to commit and work hard on to achieve.
He has put a dent on the presidency and the primary reason for national leadership.
Never, and never again, should we allow a visionless leader to lead the country to enrich just a few and push the rest of the population into systematic and tragic poverty.
We must demand that our next president explains his vision fully, why it is essential, his goals, course of action, and plans, and how his vision will make the country more relevant and sustainable into the future.
We need a president with convincing passion and clear vision that can bring hope and help to the people.
A president able to inspire us all to act with purpose, and work toward a common goal and contribute to moving the country forward.