PRESIDENT LUNGU HITS GROUND RUNNING

>>But Stumbles over Unfinished Cabinet Appointments<<

By Nyalubinge Ngwende
January 26, 2015 will be a day Zambians will remember for many reasons. One reason being that it is a day, in four years, that a sitting President has held a press conference and interacted with members of the press on the State House grounds.

President Michael Sata never held a press conference since September 2011 when he was elected until his death on October 28, 2014.

However, Edgar Lungu has broken that legacy set by his predecessor and today held a press conference to announce appointments to his cabinet, a day after taking oath of office at the Heroes Stadium.

The conference, for one thing, set the tone of the kind of leadership that Edgar will provide to the country— a seemingly open system that can be subjected to public scrutiny; at least if that means being able to subject himself to the media questions on various national issues and providing adequate and rational answers without getting angry with the ‘messenger’.

Without disappointment, Edgar took questions from the media while upstanding. That shows he wants to be a President who engages others on national issues as a firm leader and on an equal standing—he shall not be an arm chair leader.

The President also hit the ground running, but not without a stumble.

During his maiden speech after being sworn as sixth President of the Republic of Zambia, Edgar announced that ‘I want to give you a new constitution’. To that effect he immediately appointed Dr Ngosa Simbyakula as justice minister.

Later during a ‘victory’ luncheon at state house, Edgar announced that he had dissolved his cabinet subsequent to the earlier appointment of a minister to the same cabinet.

While this appointment and the dissolution of cabinet is an indication that the new President has hit the tarmac running, logic finds the order of things confusing.

The new President has stumbled especially: first appointing a new minister of justice on the podium, then later going to announce the dissolution of cabinet.

Which must have come first between Simbyakula’s appointment and dissolution of cabinet might not matter, but it looks like the continuity of late President Sata’s frugal way of doing things is back. Hope reversal decisions may not take precedent again.

To avoid this Edgar must show some orderliness in the manner he is going to handle his duties. There must be a plan and decorum in doing these things.

Maybe this may seem to be asking too much from the new President? But orderliness is one of the virtues of leadership. It helps the leader exhibit thoughtfulness and intra- and interpersonal consultation before final decisions are arrived at.

Another stumble is that for some days, the country will be without a full cabinet. It will be the President, his vice Inonge Wina, home affairs minister Davies Mwila, foreign affairs minister Harry Kalaba, health minister Joseph Kasonde, and finance minister Alexander Chikwanda.

He did not tell the nation whether he was keeping the key position of defense minister to himself.

This means for weeks or several days to come, the Zambian cabinet will only comprise Wina, Chikwanda, Mwila, Kasonde, Simbyakula, and the President. That is how the sixth President starts his business with a cabinet of six.

Lungu is also pandering to opportunism by repeating the same problem of appointing members of parliament from the opposition without consultation with the leadership of the party where such appointees are being poached. In this case is the appointment of opposition United Party for National Development (UPND) Solwezi Central MP Dawson Kafwaya as Northwestern Provincial minister.

This approach to so called inclusive government lacks its merits as it promotes opportunism and just fans animosity between opposition political parties and their members of parliament.

Inclusive government must not come at the discretion of a President alone in terms of choosing whom he wants to appoint to his government. There is need to consult the political party that has its members being sought to serve in government who should propose names.

Unless a particular political party does not cooperate, then such action could be understandable.

This is another stumble that Edgar was supposed to avoid in every way…at least just to show us that as a ‘Jubilee President’ he wants to do politics of reconciliation. You cannot reconcile without talking to others.

We are going to wait and see if this was not a stumble but a slip-up and the new President will do things much better; orderly and in a manner that reconciles the country’s political tension while seeking a better and energetic team of ministers to work with to revive Zambia’s economy.

NN 

 

‘SCORPIO’ VOTED ZAMBIA SIXTH PRESIDENT

Will Edgar Lungu Deliver A Militaristic Rule Or A Judicious One? 

 By Nyalubinge Ngwende

It would have been better to have United Party for National Development (UPND) leader, Hakainde Hichilema, win the Presidential elections in Zambia.

EDGAR CHAGWA LUNGU!

Hakainde, otherwise known as HH, and his UPND team together with those who endorsed him put up a formidable campaign; it is the name of the game, a winner had to emerge.

The election is over despite four constituencies of about 91,000 voters remaining. UPND leader HH has already squealed “Edgar Lungu steals election” on the party’s website.

HH claims the election result was predetermined in favour of PF’s Lungu. Whatever that means, this vote had predictions.

The major prediction is one fact that cannot be ruled out: based on the love of the Copperbelt and Northern Provinces still have for Patriotic Front (PF) and late President Michael Sata, and the endorsement from former President Rupiah Banda for Edgar Lungu.

Edgar has won it, but there is still a lot to see out of this victory.

When I looked in the stars I saw Edgar is Scorpio, otherwise an Eagle. There are problems of full use of military ways in Edgar.

The nation still remembers the way he handled those deportation in Gestapo style. These deportations involved the Rwanda Priest from the Eastern province and some business brothers from Italy.

Lungu also behaved in a very illegal way over former President Rupiah Banda’s passport which was held by the state, refusing Banda to travel on international engagement on which he was invited in his capacity as former head of state.

He, however, still realises about people he has stung, but seems to say “it was their own fault”. Look at the way he got back to Rupiah Banda and asked him for huge assistance in the election.

Edgar was grounded and his campaign was running to a standstill, but when Rupiah Banda happily came forward and endorsed him, the PF candidate was airborne and looked organised again.

Was a big deal cut between Edgar and RB? What is that deal? We will never live to know, Edgar is a secretive Scorpio—whose way of doing things is so subliminal psychology, bordering on manipulation. That is the true nature of a Scorpio, it does not go for the target, but it attracts the target to its ‘shrewd’ ways. 

Some people say God was in Edgar’s favour, I say the stars were. He is Scorpio born on November 17, that is his Sun Sign and that is Zambia’s Sun Sign, too. What a coincidence, Zambia is also seen as an Eagle Nation, a perfect selection of the symbol by the founding fathers of the country.

Some people think the Eagle as national symbol was just an accidental pick, but Zambia is Scorpio, whose symbol is also an Eagle.

Edgar also militated his way to the PF candidature, putting blinders to anything that was happening on the both sides of the path, crawled all his way to getting what he wanted as those who opposed him got stung.

Those who stand in Lungu’s way will be fore warned to get the heck out of the way and if they do not, the man has the ability of sticking out his bite.

Edgar Lungu will have to learn to run an open government. On this he has even a lot of problems as can be seen from the way he behaved on the little task of releasing the road map on the constitution making process.

When UPND got out its roadmap, the whole PF campaign team alleged the opposition stole a government roadmap and told police to investigate and bring people to book.

Scorpios also makes people with a good understanding of the law, but may overprint the concept of justice to a point of using it for restitution. They are jealousy and seek revenge.

These are general characteristics, but let us wait and see if they manifest in our new President. Do not get surprised next time you see certain things come out exactly like analysed here. Bon Voyage!

NN