Fellow Citizens,
On Monday morning, I watched our President, Dr Hakainde Hichilema invoke the Bible when he said, “hunger is biblical and that he was not a Magician who can end poverty with a magic word”. The Zambian leader likened the current hunger disaster to the proverbial Egyptian famine that lasted seven years as espoused in Genesis 41: 46-57.
From that perspective, President Hichilema openly acknowledged the problem at hand we face-a national famine and indirectly, he exposed his leadership inadequacies to feed and manage the nation by misinterpreting our good biblical scriptures. I feel profoundly sorry for him and remain deeply touched by over 6 million Zambians threatened with hunger due to HH’s poor leadership and bad government policies.
There are things President HH can learn from the past PF administration and myself in terms of policy and political leadership in the agricultural sector. Like the story of Egypt’s ancient Prime Minister, Joseph he cited in the Bible, my government had sound policy direction, leadership, foresight, preparedness and effective governance personnel to grow, feed and stock surplus maize, wheat, soya beans, groundnuts, fish, cassava, rice, and other crops in times of plenty to rely on and use in times of drought. In the Bible story, Joseph had seven years of plenty which saved the next seven years of scarcity and hunger. This was the policy style of my government.
Honestly, droughts should never be used as an excuse for bad leadership and poor policies.
In 2018, after experiencing a crippling drought, I put together a competent team and gave it one major task—“grow our maize reserve and food security to an extent that Zambians would not starve during any future drought”. From 300,000 tons of maize in 2018, we increased the harvest to 433,000 tons in 2019 and kept increasing the harvest to more than 3 million tons by 2020.
Clearly it was our distinguished political leadership that made a huge difference. When we left office in August 2021, our maize strategic reserves record stood at over 2 million tons, ensuring Zambia´s food security for the next two years or more in case of drought. I remain proud of this record as former President. Had I been in power today, Zambia would have still been feeding from our own strategic maize reserves and the price of mealie meal would have been much lower than the current K380 or K420 depending on where you are buying the commodity from.
How did we achieve national food security with strategic reserves? My government decided to increase and double maize production countrywide. We increased our national budget for the agriculture sector. Importation of Agricultural equipment was made tax free; we decisively ensured that the distribution of seed and fertilizer was timely everywhere. FRA was funded to buy farming outputs on time. We partnered with traditional leaders, farmers unions, women cooperatives and everyone.
In short, we worked smart and strategically, planned for both years of plenty and years of scarcity. We made honest and practical policy decisions. We didn’t just talk; we walked the talk.
As a President, my team ensured national food security was a reality, regardless of the rainfall pattern. I want to advise Mr. Hichilema to avoid getting into ´denial mode´ regarding the food crisis that has been worsened by his own poor leadership. The Zambian government was foretold about this drought in 2022 when we had strategic stocks of maize left by my administration. Records show that our president rejected timely expert advice not to export maize due to his arrogance and ‘know it all’ attitude. Yes, he reject expert advice!
We are in this food crisis mainly because the current administration exported all our emergency food stocks, leaving no reserves for our people to feed on in times of drought like these today. During the press briefing, Mr Hichilema missed an opportunity to expressly apologize to Zambians for exporting our maize reserves abroad and intentionally starving our citizens who had huge maize reserves in stock. It was extremely wrong and ethically inhumane to prioritize commerce over human life!
When he addressed the nation, our president needed to share with Zambians practical solutions to the current food crisis and disastrous drought. Instead, he chose rhetoric and empty promises again. Regrettably, while six million Zambians face starvation for the first time in almost sixty years, their own president (HH) is dramatizing everything before the eyes of poor, helpless and hungry citizens by ´mocking’ that he is not a magician to feed them. Again, this is a gesture of cruelty and so unacceptable especially for a man who condemned our every effort to produce enough food for our people and made huge empty promises in 2021.
In 2026, Zambians must bring back leaders who do not only care for them, but also respect human life and possess experience to ensure food security and availability is a reality. Leaders who made sure that basic commodities such as mealie meal, sugar, salt, tomato, electricity, water, cooking oil, petrol were cheaper and affordable.
Soon or later, PF and our comrades in UKA will seek to offer a tested, trusted, honest, united and reliable leadership for our people. ‘UKAN’ Zambians!
God bless you all.
H.E Edgar Chagwa Lungu.
Sixth President of Zambia
President of Patriotic Front (PF)
United Kwacha Alliance (UKA) Member
Great message, YOUR EXCELLENCY! The senior SDA church elder has chosen to blasphemously twist scripture to suit his personal curcumstaces of waning political fortunes. It was clear from the silence of his audience when he posed a question to it that no one believed what he was trying to say. People now know him for what he is: a lying and very deceptive human.
Muna Kaliba you are talking rubbish PF loser iwe. F*ck you don’t what the Bible contains ba PF idiots imweee
Bono Tondolo. You are just a conman like you your Demi god. Though I didn’t like ECL, on agriculture policies, he extremely did well. HH has lamentably failed on agriculture and Mining policies.
Let us vote these tribalist conmen out in 2026.
It’s you who with your Defunct TuPF crimminals are tribalists
Vote wisely vote for HH7 in 2026/31
Indigo Tyrol you a son of bitch mwana wamuvigololo stop promoting tribalism munyero wamaiwako have you run out of ideas chikala for you to resort to tribalism? check out in the archives and see the appointments of PF criminals the way it was panyo pamako mwana wagalu
Better to sleep on an empty stomach than being a hell.
Ka faza ni on!
Corruption
Cadres
Regionalism/tribalism
Visionless
Musonda you are another PF criminal idiot. Your PF Kelenka President got maize from farmers on Nkongole iwe. You wanted hard working farmers to lose you PF idiot. The New Dawn government had to sell maize to pay farmers for their produce PF Kembo iwe. Abash guntrotting and Panga Wielding PF criminals forever.
Mwanya ba makaka, 2026 Kuya.
Muna Kaliba your one vote is too insignificant to upset tables PF idiot iwe. Abash guntrotting and Panga Wielding PF criminals forever.
Keep on dreaming PF criminals are gone and dusted on the ground only a dull person can talk about PF criminals.wait the ruling from court
First and foremost is to say, yes there were certain things PF did which were good but there were alot of things PF under Lungu which were very very bad, terrible and deadly which a good leader like HH cannot whatsoever dare to learn from them.
Things like,
1. Killing his own people in day light cold blood.e.g. Nsama Nsama, Lawrence Banda, Mapenzi Chiwulo being or are few examples
2. Collecting maize products, soya beans and other farm produces from the farmers without paying them, as this was very bad and also deadly because farmers could not manage to grow again as expected in the next farming season because of not being paid for their supplied products to government under FRA.
3. Not paying retirees and Council workers for more than 6 to 7 months as this was also deadly because people could not manage their families when they were not being paid what was due to them and that which they have worked for.
4. Giving many bags of fertilizer from the pool of FISP which their PF cadres used to have more than even 100 bags just one person thereby draining the national treasury with impunity.
5. Allowing cadres to steal money from government by collecting levies from markets and bus stops instead of the councils.
6. Not allowing opposition leaders and their party members space during elections to compaign
6. Allowing cadres to burn a legal tender in form of money with impunity under the leadership of Edgar Changwa Lungu.
7. Tribalism and regionalism at its peak under the leadership of Edgar Changwa Lungu.
8. Freezing employment under Public service while secretly employing cadres on tribal or regional party lines.
9. Retiring civil servants based on regions, tribes and surnames, hence dis- advantaging them and others to be part of Zambia
10. Careless borrowing, overpricing of contracts, stealing from national coffers under their corrupt tendency and being a drunkard president.
What can be learnt from them.
1. The mill plants that were spread in most communities at least to help citizens with where to go to mill their maize.
2. Partially ( the intention for infrastructure development was good ) but the implementation was something else. Overpriced, regionalism and corruption.
3. Beating and killing opposition members wearing their party regalia especially the ones who were in red colour.
Diarrhea of words.
Good or bad policy, famine will still be there. Jesus himself said there will be famines in divers places in these last days. We all learn from experience, if UPND sold the emergency stocks, I am sure they have learnt a lesson. Otherwise it shouldn’t be a song, may be that same maize could have already finished by now. Zambians have not failed to produce enough food, it’s the drought which has failed them especially that the highly productive areas like Southern, Eastern and Central provinces were among the most affected ones. These difficulties are very temporal, very soon they will be over. Remember that you have to go through the desert before you reach the promised land. Yes, food can be expensive but I don’t agree that there are food crisis in Zambia.
How I wish this man could be sincere for once! He starts off by telling lies that ALL the Maize was exported when in fact not!
It’s dirty politicians like these that make Zambian politics toxic!
Why is he crying over spilled Milk?
Didn’t he do elementary School mathematics?
When you export One Metric tonnes of grain and import another One Metric tonnes of Maize, net export is ZERO!
What he is not telling us is what necessitated the export in the first place!
Has he forgotten how they ransacked the Treasury before leaving office? If ECL was a good man as he always wants to claim, he should have left enough Forex in the Treasury for his successor to have a smooth start! Now, being the thief he is, he wanted to sabotage his successor before he could even get started!
Without the sale or export of grain, we were going to see the worst fuel shortages in the country!
The right decision was to export!
If someone sold everything to FRA, they deserve to starve for lack of seriousness!
When you sell your Maize to FRA, it’s no longer your Maize.
Household food Security is the responsibility of respective households! It’s not the responsibility of Boma to feed me!
It’s shameful to survive on handouts!
Let the lazy ones starve!
The wise grow their own food!
Drought should not be an excuse!
Plant again under irrigation!
I fear for the intellectual wellbeing of people who listen to time wasters and energy drainers like ECL!
You are wasting your precious creative energies!
What do you achieve by complaining? Will the exported Maize come back because you are complaining?
I hope the government won’t develop called feet and stop farmers from exporting.
Well, we made dollars!
Allow farmers to export something to make money also!
Those who shun farming can continue complaining and listening to empty tins!
Come August and September, we smart farmers will be harvesting another crop of Maize!
Half of it is already booked for export!
A people that don’t value farming will always beg bread!
If this man knew how he irritates me . . .
All he says is out of bitterness.
He should at least mind his health, lest he fails to pull through to 2026.
At least get to 2026 even if you will not be on the ballot box.
Kikikikikikiki
Stop fulling yourself
Everyone knows that we drought
Remember that the rain is coming and we are going back to our farms God with us Zambia will have a bumper harvest that will be before 2026 election
Are you going to use this hunger as your camping message?
But boss ECL, the drought in your time was mild.This one we are experiencing is worse and you may remember that you were dislodged from power in August almost end of month you left most farmers in paid for their produce they supplied to FRA.Now how were the farmers going to be paid without selling the grain you left.We saw a lot of farmers crouding the banks especially in eastern province where there was a lot of maize.Keepinig maize for long may not be safe it can go bad hence selling.But this drought however,has taught us all lessons in many areas.
I supplied maize to FRA and was not paid in time.I only got paid after ND government came in and I was paid after my maize was exported.
Yes thats what I am from telling the big man.HH waku leka fye.Thats why some people think he is a magician and blame him for everything including weather issues.It is getting cold Iam afraid some one will blame HH just wait.
Lungu has no scruples nor shame to even talk like this.
You have never grown maize, not even a backyard patch, so what do you know about maize storage?
You collect maize from peasants, give them promissory notes while they wait for their payment for two years and get ruined financially and you are proud of it?
You didn’t invest in any silos, not even one, so where is maize supposed to be stored? On slabs, and for how long can it last on slabs?
Stop talking about things you don’t know.
Any PF criminals with farm and does something at his farm?