Indeed, anything short of what
the people need will be an animal driven constitution because it will represent
nothing but the greedy of those who have no human heart for this country that
has waited for a lengthy time for a constitution that inspires everyone
regardless of their political station in life.
By Nyalubinge Ngwende
Yawning! This is because
President Michael Sata and the Patriotic Front government are seriously BORING,
more especially over the constitution making process. The President and PF are
really disappointing and disgusting.
Nobody objects to the fact that
the PF government is borrowing heavily to invest in education, health and road
infrastructure as well as create more civil service jobs. So long as each
community will have a school where our children can go (albeit without quality
teachers and high failure rate), every child will have a place in a university
for a piece of paper called a degree (sadly so without skills that produce
anything in the economy), and construction of a health centre at every other corner
of a village bush path (where government fails to deploy health personnel and
put equipment required to save a mother in need of obstetric emergency), the
wastage matters little.
Those are Patriotic Front government and President Michael Sata’s choices. The wastage may be forgiven because our President is trying his best on things that he little understands and we were warned by former President Kenneth Kaunda that he, Sata, could not make a better President but a governor who needed someone to supervise him. We did not listen!
Those are Patriotic Front government and President Michael Sata’s choices. The wastage may be forgiven because our President is trying his best on things that he little understands and we were warned by former President Kenneth Kaunda that he, Sata, could not make a better President but a governor who needed someone to supervise him. We did not listen!
But when it comes to the
constitution, President Sata will not fool us. The building of roads,
universities, more schools and health facilities come to mean nothing if the
citizens are enslaved by political tyranny that refuses to hand them a
constitution meant to unleash their full liberties and broaden opportunities
for citizens, regardless of their geographical position on the global map.
A people driven constitution is
our choice and not that of PF!
We know that government has the
duty to guide the formulation of a new constitution, but it is really boring
when President Sata and his Justice Minister Wynter Kabimba thinks we the
people do not need to care about which direction the constitution making
process must take. After all, a constitution we are making is not for the PF
and President Sata, it is for the 13 million Zambians at present and the more
children to be born tomorrow there after the PF and Sata are long swallowed in
the harsh reality of history. The worst could be the hottest part of hell!
When civil society activists are
talking of a people driven constitution, they mean a good document that will
stand the test of time; with statutes that meet the aspirations of the people
and one that the people themselves will agree to.
Zambians want the clauses like 50
plus one, dual citizenship, the removal of the parentage clause that restricts
presidential candidature only to citizens with both parents who are born here,
while those with one parent who is not Zambian are barred. They also need the
Bill of Rights to be judiciable and the reduced powers of the President.
Further it is their desire to clear the gray areas that have come to compromise
the judiciary, in order to ensure clear lines of separation of powers among the
three arms of government.
 |
| Yaba! |
It is BORING to continue
reminding President Sata that he told the country he was going to deliver a
people driven constitution within 90 Days of assuming office. Sir, we are now
in the third year of your government and months are piling since the Technical
Committee you appointed to draft completed their job. You are blocking them from
releasing it simultaneously to you and the general public.
We will object to any further wasteful
expenditure that may result from the failure of President Sata and PF giving us
the constitution that he promised he would deliver.
This is why it is so BORING to
listen to you President Michael Sata challenge civil society, the church and
other citizens pushing for the enactment of a new people driven constitution to
state whether they have ever seen an animal driven constitution.
Indeed, anything short of what
the people need will be an animal driven constitution because it will represent
nothing but the greedy of those who have no human heart for this country that
has waited for a lengthy time for a constitution that inspires everyone
regardless of their political station in life.
Such selfishness is found among
animals—the monkeys—which a Russian philosopher presented as thoughtless and
always trying to work alone. With a bunch of bananas hanging from up high, the
monkeys could have easily reached the bunch by putting the crates available on
top of each other. Alas, in the monkey world each primate chose to carry and
stand on its own crate, ending up not getting any because of greedy.
NN
No comments:
Post a Comment