Your foreign trips have no value – GBM tells HH
…if you cannot solve a single domestic public policy problem, why travel?
Lusaka, 17.12.2022
Aspiring candidate for the position of president of the Patriotic Front, PF, Geoffrey Bwalya Mwamba, GBM, says the foreign trips by President Hakainde Hichilema are irrelevant to the needs of the Zambian people.
Mr. Mwamba says more than a year in office President Hichilema has been out of the country countless times spending millions of taxpayers’ hard-earned income and yet he has never solved a single domestic public policy problem in the country.
“When he signs one MOU after another while announcing astronomical figures as expected foreign direct investment, he thinks he has justified his foreign trip”, Mr. Mwamba observes while adding, “What he does not know is that MOUs do not always lead to tangible benefits for the public”.
Instead, the veteran politician says most MOUs the President signs, or his Ministers sign benefit multinationals while in a few instances employ a few Zambians in addition to the corporate tax paid.
“This is an elitist approach to national development which still leaves behind the majority Zambians in abject poverty”, Mr. Mwamba says.
He has advised President Hichilema to invest more in domestic policy by solving real and immediate national challenges that include energy problems, the absence of basic and life-saving drugs in the country’s health facilities, the shambolic farming input distribution exercise, reckless cancellation of contracts that would have solved some of the problems he has created, and many more.
The former Defense Minister says investing in foreign trips at the expense of engaging with domestic challenges is no different from wanting to run even before someone can learn how to sit up. The President, Mr. Mwamba says, is yet to learn how to govern at home, so he must not invest as much as he has done in foreign trips.
“The President is under the illusion that he has to attend every international engagement and yet the majority of the foreign trips he has made can be handled effectively at minimal cost by government officials with the relevant negotiating skills and the right mandate”, the former Defense Minister says.
He has urged Members of Parliament to demand that the Minister of Foreign Affairs issue a ministerial statement informing the nation of how much the President’s foreign trips have cost the nation so far and what benefits, if any, have accrued to the nation.
