I HAVE always known that my President’s character is not from without. I knew there must have been some famous people in history that he takes after.
Thanks to one minister’s flawless memory.
Michael KAINGU: “Mr Speaker, the attributes of President Edgar Lungu are many. He has demonstrated to this House and many Zambians that he is a courageous Head of State; he is an inspiring leader. Mr Speaker, President Lungu’s speech to Parliament can only be equated to that of John F. Kennedy when he was being inaugurated. President Lungu’s speech reminds me of Abraham Lincoln when he commented on the slave trade. Yes, the speech reminds me of Frederick de Klerk when releasing Nelson Mandela. It reminds me of what Nelson Mandela said on his release and it’s close to all the speeches that Barrack Obama has made.”
That was the nicest thing anybody ever said about my President.
Unfortunately for me, even Google couldn’t help figure out in what context Honourable Kaingu said this. Because when I searched for, “Why Kaingu likes John F”, I was lucky the police were not nearby to see the search results and pictures that popped up.
Anyway, after I figured that Kaingu was a bad search word for the Internet, I tried leaving out his name and searched, “Speeches: President Lungu Vs President Obama”
For that I got: “President Obama makes strong decision against underage drinking – White House”
For my President I got: “President Lungu makes his decisions while drinking – Alexander Chikwanda recording.”
Still determined, I tried using different search words: “Famous quotes by Barack Obama related to Edgar Lungu”
Well, this is what I got for President Obama: “Smoking marijuana is not any different from drinking alcohol. Marijuana is even less dangerous in terms of its impact on the individual consumer – Business Insider.”
For my President I got: “I enjoy my beer, but I am not a drunk. I am as sober as a priest – UK Telegraph.”
Obviously this is not what Honourable Kaingu meant when he measured my President speech in Parliament.
So I tried a much more specific search, hoping surely, this time I would get close to Honourable Kaingu’s picture.
So I keyed in: “Frederick de Klerk speech on releasing Nelson Mandela from Prison in comparison to speech by President Edgar Lungu of Zambia”.
The results for Frederick de Klerk were: “In pursuance of my national address to Parliament, I am now in a position to announce the release of Mr Nelson Mandela. We would all like Mr Mandela’s release to be in a dignified and orderly manner.”
For my President, the closest related search result was: “I signed the order to release General Kanene two days ago; I don’t know why he is still singing in prison; commissioner general, I hope he will not sue you.”
Not exactly what I was hoping for, but I felt I was really close.
Next, I tried, “How Nelson Mandela’s speech matches with President Lungu speeches”.
Results were straight forward: “Nelson Mandela addresses the International Press Institute congress over the State of South Africa and his political future – February 1994”.
For my President I got: “President Lungu refused to feature on BBC TV in New York following Zambia’s collapsing economy”
I don’t easily give up when I am busy behind the scenes; so I tried one more time, but OMG, I had to quit the search after I started getting treasonable result.
Can you imagine; when I started typing: “Comparing President Lincoln…”
Google’s auto-complete quickly suggested: “The assassination of president Abraham Lincoln…” I said, ‘What the hell??’
That’s it for today
One Response
What ?