ZAMBIA is being ruined as our President accumulates titles, says Ackson Sejani.
Meanwhile, Sejani, an ex-local government minister under president Frederick Chiluba, says President Edgar Lungu is spoiling the case for lawyers who would to aspire for the Republican President.
On Saturday, the Lusaka City Council conferred on President Lungu the status of free man of the City of Lusaka.
Sejani said when all titles are in, Lungu wants to be called something like: “His Excellency the President General Doctor Edgar Chagwa Lungu, State Counsel, Free man of the City of Lusaka”.
He adds that if titles were food, no Zambian would be starving.
“Unfortunately, there is no correlation between these titles and performance and in fact, one can argue that leaders obsessed with titles are bad performers,” Sejani told The Mast.
He recalled that the other year, President Lungu was given an honorary doctorate by the University of Zambia for reasons only the institution could understand.
Sejani also recalled that “only last month Mr Lungu was proposing to be called President general to distinguish him from other smaller presidents”.
He said “unfortunately or fortunately” nobody has so far seconded the President’s wish to be called President General.
“When all titles are in, Mr Lungu wants to be called something like His Excellency the President General Doctor Edgar Chagwa Lungu, State Counsel, free man of the city of Lusaka,” Sejani said.
He noted that it could be argued that as political leaders accumulate needless titles, the countries they lead are being destroyed.
Sejani indicated that title obsession was also a trait associated with dictators.
He said by the time Uganda’s despot Idi Amin was exiting that country’s political scene, he wanted to be called field marshal Idi Amin, old Dada, conqueror of the British empire.
“In spite of these lofty titles, he left Uganda in ruins,” he noted. “We are seeing this obsession for honours and titles also grip our own President. In the meantime, the country is being destroyed legally, politically and economically right before our eyes.”
He explained that on the legal front, citizens were witnessing unprecedented breaches of the Constitution by a man who is said to be a learned lawyer – President Lungu.
“His performance as a lawyer in that office has been so bad that he is actually spoiling the case for lawyers who are aspiring to occupy that office in future,” Sejani said. “From the high of Mr [Levy] Mwanawasa to hit rock bottom under Mr Lungu is truly astounding.”
He said Zambians were still gripped with the fact that President Lungu misled his ministers to illegally stay in office and thereby accumulated illegal wages.
“Well, the courts have ruled that Mr Lungu was wrong and the ministers he misled must pay back the money. Instead of Mr Lungu being brave enough to face his ministers as he did when he was misleading them, he decides to throw them under the bus using his spokesman to convey the bad news to his people,” Sejani said. “There are lessons to be learned by those who are wise here. The lesson is that you follow Mr Lungu’s interpretation of the law at your peril.”
He added that right now the President is busy “accusing” the Constitutional Court of having allowed him to stand for a third term in August 2021, “when no Zambian remembers this to be the case.”
Sejani cautioned that ministers who are parroting Lungu’s stance must be careful, “since they say once beaten twice shy.”
He regretted that Zambia, on the political front, “is in a real mess.”
“Democracy and its central tenet, elections, are taking a real battering under Mr Lungu. His latest assault to democracy is to take it to jail in literal and figurative terms,” Sejani said. “His decision to allow criminals and death row inmates to take part in our election to determine the leadership and future direction of this country is frightening, to say the least.”
He added that: “one is made to wonder what kind of future that it will be which will be shaped by prisoners.”
“Maybe these PF leaders know their next destination is prison and so they want to be able to influence things from behind bars by electing leaders who will pardon them of their numerous crimes in future elections,” he noted.
“Under Mr Lungu, the electoral process is rotten where people’s genuine concerns are not being addressed. Nobody is checking on kids and foreigners registering as voters.”
He is worried that nobody is asking why reports of foreigners registering as voters were only coming from those PF stronghold provinces like Luapula and Eastern, bordering other countries.
“We do not hear of Zimbabweans registering as voters in Southern Province, Namibians and Angolans in Western Province nor Angolans in North Western Province. But we hear of Congolese in Luapula and Malawians and Mozambicans in Eastern Province. Why is this so?” he wondered. “Why is there nobody investigating the registration of kids, what is the meaning of this project? Everyone knows that no kid will come to cast their vote on election day in front of all the observers but somebody still finds it profitable to register kids.”
Sejani asked if there is a scheme to use personal details of children who have allegedly entered the Electoral Commission of Zambia (ECZ) system for some underhand activities.
On the economic front, Sejani complained that Zambia is grappling with a crippling debt crisis which is turning people’s lives: “into living hell.”
He said most of the borrowed money has been consumed by corruption, such that even the so-called infrastructure projects are sub-standard.
Sejani pointed out that some projects, like the Alick Nkhata flyover in Lusaka, were falling apart soon after commissioning.
“This is the cost of corruption,” he noted.
He indicated that load-shedding continued to cause havoc in the lives of many Zambians.
“But we have a President who is insulated from it by literally moving with Zesco wherever he goes. As a result, Mr Lungu has not experienced the bad effects of load-shedding,” Sejani said. “I was wondering why all of a sudden we had power for two days continuously in Choma a few days ago. When I inquired, I was told that it is because Mr Lungu was in Choma; he moves with Zesco power wherever he goes.”
Sejani noted that: “truly, as soon as he left Choma, dark days also returned.”
“Surely, this is not the way to run a country where power only follows one man while the rest of the citizens are made to grapple in darkness,” said Sejani. “Zambia is being ruined as our President accumulates titles.”