YOU CAN’T KEEP STATE SECRETS IN YOUR BEDROOM…it’s an anathema, Nawakwi tells HH

YOU CAN’T KEEP STATE SECRETS IN YOUR BEDROOM
…it’s an anathema, Nawakwi tells HH

By Fanny Kalonda

I THINK that politics in Zambia in terms of mobilisation has never been this easy because UPND are campaigning themselves out of office, says FDD leader Edith Nawakwi.

She says President Hakainde Hichilema is extremely insecure, angry and he doesn’t want any shred of competition and doesn’t want to be advised.

Featuring on Hot FM’s Hot seat programme on Thursday, Nawakwi charged that there is leadership poverty in the country.

She also said it is wrong for President Hichilema not to declare his assets “when in fact he is amassing.”

“He (President Hakainde Hichilema) has not declared his assets so we don’t know what he holds. We don’t know what his wife has. Now for him, it’s okay. He thinks it’s okay not to declare his assets but for his friend, if in fact you are a president and you travel, someone donates a K200 you can’t buy a house. Look we are in the opposition. How are we campaigning? We are campaigning by donations. I drive a VX, you think I could afford just to go to a shop floor and buy a VX,’’ she said. ‘’In this country, there is no law in any book that requires a political leader to declare the source of funding for a political party. Therefore, it is wrong for Hakainde not to declare his assets when in fact he is amassing. For me I say that the only reason he has refused to move from Community House is maybe he’s doing deals which he doesn’t want the state to see. The presidency has a certain system. In the presidential system you have people who keep diaries, people who keep documents. Now in your own house and bedroom how are state security assets being preserved? You see the President coming to work at 10:00. Is he working at his house? I mean we don’t know his routine because sometimes you are near this area you see him driving to work at 11:00. I think that we are paying for a no-show President, honestly. And it’s most unfortunate. What is it that he’s hiding which we don’t know? He has not declared his assets; he’s in his private house. He is travelling repeatedly. Is he doing transactions? Because it doesn’t tell us what he has to come up with. Is he doing transactions which are personal to his business? We don’t know.”

Nawakwi said Zambians are paying for a “no show” President who is rarely in the country.

“Have you ever seen any agreement and let alone the Vedanta agreement or whatever he has signed? We don’t know and honestly speaking, it’s the Secretary to Cabinet and their staff within State House who are the custodians of state assets. When I’m talking state assets, I’m talking about secrets. So you cannot keep secrets of the state in your bedroom. It’s an anathema. I mean are you telling me American presidents don’t have a better accommodation, they move to White House? Are you telling me that all these presidents who have lived, six of them, they didn’t have accommodation where they could stay,’’ Nawakwi wondered. ‘’Are you telling me that you are so important that your assets are a secret but he must follow me for owning an axe and say these are proceeds of crime? They follow you for even a car used in 2016. They are so petty but for them we don’t see them following up anyone else. They’re just following the opposition. So they have put the former president [Edgar Lungu] in a situation which requires that he comes back and addresses hunger. Addresses the looting which is going on in, now which is worse than under PF. And I have said repeatedly that this government will be the most corrupt government that this republic has ever

seen because they are not transparent. They’re just translucent. They do things behind our backs. We don’t know what they’re doing.”

And Nawakwi said the Pheluna Hatembo case is an embarrassment on President Hichilema.

“The insecurity in the President and the fear of competition… That kind of fear, insecurity is a worry. And this so-called Pheluna [Hatembo]

case is an embarrassment to the President himself. But this Pheluna issue is squarely on his head. He’s the one who abducted those people. He is the one who is sitting on farm 1924 and the other farms belonging to the late brothers, the Hambwalulas and the Hatembos. And these were assets mortgaged to Lima Bank,’’ she said further. ‘’They want to create a situation where all possible presidential candidates have court cases so when campaign comes you will hear that you are in Kabwe, you are in Ndola, you are at Chikwa Court.”

Nawakwi said UPND wants to think that they are the only party that are entitled to the country.

“What law have I broken to be perpetually persecuted in hospital? I’m sitting at home,

when he should let sleeping dogs lie he wants us now to tell the world that he is a collector of deceased persons’ estates. Now let me put it this way, he had said when he was in opposition that when the state security write a report to president Lungu, he sees it first. Did PF go after him and say this is espionage? What is espionage? UPND has created a new definition of espionage. For me what I know is espionage is that if I take secret information and sell to another country that’s espionage. But when I say Hakainde Hichilema is a stooge of the West that is not espionage,” Nawakwi said. “That is not a case which you can even follow because himself he has committed more felonies than anyone else will ever commit.

Because they never followed him when he said he receives state security information before the sitting president then got information, they should have picked him up and said tell us who in Office of the President gives you information. They just say let it go and say so if we follow him he’s going to cry foul as he would always do but for him if you sneeze,

espionage. You do this way, I mean look this kind of insecurity is not even giving him enough time to think about our country. That’s why we are in a state of mess that we are in. The economy is really the worst that we have ever seen. I know that the agenda right now for UPND is that they don’t want any competition.”

Nawakwi accused President Hichilema of being insecure and angry.

“I think we are all a bit worried about what the ruling party wants to bring to this country, a one party state. And for that we say that all political parties must refrain from telling the strategies that they have on air. Because then UPND says wow here they come let’s find a formula for destabilising them. You see democracy and poverty are not the same side of the coin. You can’t have this crunching hunger and continue to lie to your people, continue to be petty and think that people won’t have a change. I think that Zambians at this point in time have made up their minds that they want a change of government because here we have leadership poverty right now. There is no leadership in this country. There is leadership poverty. The people in power they don’t know what they are doing,” she said. “Hakainde Hichilema is extremely insecure, angry and he doesn’t want any shred of competition and doesn’t want to be advised. So even institutions under him are not being groomed. If you look at the case of the Registrar of Societies, the DPP, you look at the police, he’s not grooming any leaders to cement the democracy that we so much yearn for. But he is even inspiring anger in his followers and then we have this tragic incident of where police just open fire on an innocent child and this is a reflection of the bankruptcy of leadership in our country. When a leader is empathetic the followers, the people, the command around them will also show that empathy. When a leader is always angry, the people around him will think that vengeance is what Herod wants. You can sit with Hakainde Hichilema, he will be lying through his teeth.”

Nawakwi said President Hichilema has not been truthful about fuel, the kwacha and availability of mealie meal in the country.

She also expressed concern with the number of trips taken by President Hichilema.

“He has made 62 trips in two years while president Lungu made 37 trips in seven years. And you see the difference is that he’s doing two trips pay week. What time does he have to get over the jetlag, sit down and think about the mealie meal, the … in the hospitals? I noticed yesterday that his majesty’s government has given this government 1,000,000 pounds for anti-corruption fight to chase Bowman Lusambo, to collect a house there for K1 million. And yet that one million pounds could be used to effectively equip GO1 with the necessary supplies and provisions,” she said. “So the point I’m raising here is that this person has no priorities for the people of Zambia. When he has flown to Germany a week after the German President has been here I don’t know what he followed to go and do – whether he came to invite him. He would take seven days there, two days to fly, four five days to get over the jetlag. The week is over then he only has time to go to his farm, the next trip is by the corner. Truly, truly there’s a big vacuum in this republic. And we have a leadership vacuum and there’s no direction. I don’t see the economy turning around under his watch. I see us getting worse and worse and he is sinking this economic into the abyss. They perceive PF to be the competition but PF is not even the competition. The competition is the hunger in the stomachs. In this country when the people rise, they vote in earnest. You can be the most popular party but people vote and usually we are lucky people wait and plan and this one you will see to be worse than 1990.”

Nawakwi said President Hichilema does not want any competition.

“Hakainde Hichilema as an individual doesn’t want any competition and he will go to great lengths, that’s why I liken him to Herod during the arrival of Jesus Christ. He doesn’t like competition. He’s insecure. He’s just petrified about any shred of a possibility of someone rising,” she said.

Nawakwi added that Lungu’s come back was singularly inspired by President Hichilema.- The Mast