When we say Zambia
needs a good constitution with adjusted powers of leadership, the recent case
of 160 nurses who were dismissed by a hubristic health minister is the reason
why. In a country where the constitution serves the interests of its citizens
and not protecting the selfishness of leadership, differences like protests
over entitlements of working citizens are adjusted by legislative and judiciary
establishments. In the end it was supposed to be the courts or parliament
deciding over the fate of nurses and not brute force of ministers—Dr Joseph Kasonde
and his Labour counterpart Fackson Shamenda
By Nyalubinge Ngwende
The political inheritance of
this country remains a curse that makes the yet so near people driven constitution continue to seem
so far and unattainable from one political administration to another.
Through out its election campaigns in the opposition
the Patriotic Front promised the Zambian people a good constitution. In fact,
it gained more sympath from the electorates when it condemned the colossal sums
of money that the Movement for Multi-party Democracy was spending through the National
Constitutional Conference (NCC) to amend the country’s 1996 constitution.
The Patriotic Front leader
Michael Sata also refused his members of parliament from participating in the NCC,
while those who went ahead to defy the part position in the name of fulfilling
their parlimentary duty were ostracised from the opposition party and tagged as
rebel MPs who had joined the ruling MMD in the plunder of national resources
while Zambians continued to wallow in poverty.
At one public meeting, Sata
even witnessed one of his confidants, Samuel Mukupa, tear a copy of NCC draft
constitution, portraying it as a useless document that did not represent the aspirations
of the people. Sata promised the country a new constitution adopted through a
constituency should he be voted into office. The stance of Sata and his party
attracted the sympathy and support of religious institutions like the Catholic
Church, the civil society and workers among teachers and nurses.
Inarguably, the view that the
MMD had wasted national resources on a bad process that did not give Zambia a
constitution contributed to Sata going to win the September 11, 2011 election
and amassing about 60 seats in the national assembly.
Today, even the
representatives of the church movement and civil society that gave full support
to President Sata to win the election are stunned by his u-turn on the
constitution.
Addressing people of Mansa
Central after returning a parliamentary seat in by-election caused by the death
of Patriotic Front member, Kennedy Sakeni, Sata said Zambia does not need a new
constitution, but only amendments to the defects in the existing one.
This statement by Sata is a
complete departure from the false hope he created among Zambians when he
constituted a Technical Committee on the draft of a new constitution.
The draft constitution
written by the TC is a completely new document with new inclusions in broader
areas coming from stakeholder consultative meetings held across the country.
It is folly that today President
Sata wants piece meal amendments. If that is what he wanted why didn’t he just
ask Zambians to vote on the clauses that they wanted amended which they would
have done judiciously instead of wasting time and money to allow district,
provincial and national consultative meetings where people suggested
introduction of new laws in the constitution. So all the good things that stakeholder
consultative meetings adopted as the way they would need Zambia to be governed
are useless in President Sata’s view?
After this one fails, it will not be the people
of Zambia to blame but President Sata joining in cursing the nation to yet
another failed constitution venture.
It is a curse given to our
new national at Independence by our colonial masters and inherited from our own
free successive governments that have made a people driven constitution
unattainable in this country, 49 years after attaining self rule.
To stop this curse, it will
take more than our religious beliefs, political affiliations and positions that
divide the civil societies we belong to, to purge this curse from this land
called Zambia.
What it will take is the
courage of citizens to delete completely everything that we were given by
colonial masters and inherited from the first indigenous Independent government
to build a free Zambia, and claim unalienable rights bestowed upon us by GOD to
be each other’s brother and sister keeper.
It is when we come to this
juncture of being each others' brother and sister keeper that we will not allow
ourselves to think that we should barter away our natural rights to a political
party voted into office. Our political affiliation with the ruling party will
no longer blind us to think that we should trust the leaders that they mean
well. For that we will never go to sleep and think that a freely elected
government in the two hands of a President has the legitimacy and legality to over
rule 26 million pair of hands.
We will always be reminded
that all we do when we vote for a government is to pledge orderliness in the
protection and enjoyment of the GOD given rights—right to life, property and
liberty. This we will agree can only be done through the rule of law and not
rule by law. The former ensures that the strength of governance is through
judicial and legislative establishments while the latter is wrongly misplaced
by leaders to assume use of political power to trample over what the citizens
should claim as rightly theirs.
 |
| President Sata (r) and Justice Minister Wynter Kabimba. |
A constitution is not for a tenure
of office by a few leaders, but it is for the 13 million Zambians today and
their children to come. It is in the constitution where the citizens write the
blueprint of the governance they aspire for. It is in its statutes that they
draw the true guardian to protect the people in the exercise of their rights,
which are bestowed by GOD and no one else, not even those in government should
choose to skew these rights to serve the selfish interests of tenure—the
inherent curse that has led Africa to destroy their nations.
From the constitution we
derive our means by which national wealth is created, managed and equally
appropriated to every citizen. It gives the citizens, from whom the President
and members of his cabinet draw their powers, to hold leadership accountable at
every moment other than on election day, and ensure leaders justly execute the affairs of the nation.
In such a state of
constitution governance, a government minister cannot have powers to fire 160
nurses over a dispute involving distortions in emoluments because such
differences are adjusted by legislative and judiciary prescriptions that the
people agreed upon.
Therefore the awkward thinking of a sitting
government should not limit the people of Zambia to write in their constitutions
statutes that meet their aspirations today and in the future.
The dogma of the Patriotic Front
manifesto and its ideological myopia should not become a defining factor of the
kind of constitution the country needs. Zambians demand a constitution that
will:
1. Allow
them to start electing their President on a 50% +1 majority vote
2. Allow
strong provincial councils as structures of governance to decide on appropriation of budgeted finances
3. Allow
for dual citizenship
4. Parliament
that approves national debt
5. Appoints
ministers outside parliament
6. Commissions
and parliament to approve appointments to the judiciary and chiefs of key
investigative and law enforcement institutions
7. Hold
political parties accountable on their democratic practices, including regular
election of leaders and sources of funding
8. Voting
system for representatives that ensures minorities are well represented
9. Allows
the house of representative to impeach a sitting President
10. Allow for its
adoption through a national referendum
11. Full package of
social, cultural, economical and political rights that are judiciable
Zambians are now alert and
will not allow destructive politicians to destroy their aspirations of being
properly governed, safety and happiness to all its citizens regardless of where
they find themselves or live today.
Therefore a new constitution
short of the 11 demands above and many more must be a letter to retire someone
to Chitulika village so that they go and get initiated to democratic politics.
NN
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