HUMAN Rights activist Brebner Changala is wondering why President Edgar Lungu has decided to stay away at a critical moment in the country.
He says Zambians need to know if their President is unwell.
“There’s something the media is failing to do or has neglected to do at this critical time…is there an embargo or what? It’s extremely unusual for the President to be absent at a time we’re dealing with a pandemic, when the economy is crumbling and when police and a minister [Bowman Lusambo] are brutalising citizens…. Why has he [President] disappeared from the public eye? The two times the President has addressed the nation, it has been through a recorded address. Where’s the President? Why has he decided to stay away?” Changala wondered. “Of late, the Vice-President [Inonge Wina] has become active in terms of visibility and yet she’s older than him [President Lungu]. We are seeing an elderly woman in Vice-President Inonge Wina exposing herself to this disease but where’s the principal? If it’s about quarantine, it should be the Vice-President who should be secured because she’s advanced in age. If he’s unwell, let the nation know. Zambians need to know where the Head of State is. What has happened to him? The media must take an interest. Why should we just be addressed by [health minister Chitalu] Dr Chilufya and [information minister] Dora [Siliya?”
He wondered why Vice-President Wina was gallivanting around the country yet the Head of State had ‘quarantined’ himself.
“If you see Dr Chilufya in his daily updates, he mentions President Lungu three or four times but ask him where is the President? Why is it Dr Chilufya conveying the President’s orders?” asked Changala. “The commands must come from the Commander. You can’t go to war on an order from a corporal! The order must come from the President himself. Even the tone of an order, if it comes from the Head of State will be different. Where’s the President?”