Chitimukulu, the paramount chief of the Bemba speaking people, says an individual’s life cannot change without his/her effort no matter which political party is in power.

And Chitimukulu says God created hunger so that people can work.

Chitimukulu said this on a live Radio Mano programme dubbed “ifikala cimbwi tefikala inama iikata”.

“Some people think that when a certain political party forms government it would make their lives better. There is no political party that would make an individual’s life better in a different way. The party would just find an individual as they are and then an individual would develop depending on their effort, that’s all. Maybe a party would give that individual an opportunity, maybe if the party notices that one has worked hard for the party and decides to reward them with the position of DC (District Commissioner), if that individual has not prepared a life plan, that individual would just come out with nothing,” Chitimukulu said.

“So you find that some people become very excited when a certain political party comes. In their thinking, in their short sightedness, they think that they are going to have a good life. You will never have a good life without putting in an effort as an individual. An individual’s life is theirs alone, no one can help them to make life better, every individual is born alone and will die alone. Therefore every individual should think about their life and how they are going to live it.”

And Chitimuku said politics had made some people lazy.

“The problem we have here in Bembaland is laziness because for us we talk too much and do less. When we hear about politics we say we are going to have a better life; if this party wins elections, we’ll be fine. They (politicians) would come and lie to people that they are going to do this and that, what are they going to do? Since PF came, things are fine, even when others come, things will still be fine, but not for you as an individual. Did you benefit when we got independence?” Chitimukulu asked.

“Because they were saying that things would be easier after getting independence. They were even saying whites are stupid they have not printed enough money but we had a shortage of goods despite having money. We had a lot of money but there were fewer goods to buy not even a newspaper. When you go to buy even beer they would first ask you to buy nshima, they would sell to you three bottles of beer and they would again ask you to buy nshima before selling you another three bottles.”

Meanwhile, Chitimukulu said God created hunger so that people could work.

“You can start an industry in agriculture at any time, what you need is a hoe, not fertilizer! Do sweet potatoes need fertilizer to be grown? Does chingofu (local sweet potatoes) need fertilizer? No, they do not need fertilizer, so an individual can start growing sweet potatoes. Today one can start a field of sweet potatoes and cassava but they don’t want, they are coming in town to beg and saying they are dying of hunger, which is a nonsense! Because the reason hunger was created by God is that we should be working, that’s so! That’s why God created hunger, it’s for us to work, because this human body does not want to work. Otherwise if there was no hunger we could have just been sleeping, what could be the use of working? The other reason for working hard is that we look at our families, what are we going to eat, what shall we do? When an individual starts being critical in thinking about their individual life, that’s development at individual level,” said Chitimukulu.