PRESIDENT Hakainde Hichilema says late former Secretary to the Cabinet Dr Sketchley Sacika was cut from the cloth of citizens who believed in national unity.
During the funeral church service for Dr Sacika yesterday, President Hichilema lamented that some citizens were engaging in activities that could disintegrate the country, something that the late Dr Sacika could not support.
“Dr Sacika was cut from a cloth of citizens who believed in national unity. One day, we had a difficult meeting in this alliance issue, and he was a chairman of FDD, if I remember correctly. After the meeting, he realised that this was a difficult situation and it was difficult to patch up this situation. He didn’t call me to his house, but he came to my house in Kabulonga and said, ‘HH, let’s have some drinks’, not alcohol unfortunately in our house there is no alcohol. After a while, I read his mind on what he was trying to do. He says that that meeting didn’t go on well but don’t worry about personalities, let’s worry about what is good for the country and what is good for Zambia, [which is] national unity [and] we have to soldier on, and we soldiered on,” he said.
“I will leave the details to speculation but it’s a theme of looking at a problem around the issue of national unity. I see young citizens these days, even older ones, loosely do things to disintegrate the country. I don’t think Dr Sacika would support that kind of behaviour. So let’s learn from him to work towards building our country. As his son was saying, [some] people are different from us but the thread of national unity will [always] bind us. You may speak different languages but it’s not an issue, you may look different from us but it’s not an issue. They may be shorter, some taller [but] it’s not an issue. We have a common intersection; the interest of our beloved country”.
The Head of State said Dr Sacika was a distinguished figure in debate and consensus.
“It doesn’t matter which way you look at him or you looked at him in agreement or in disagreement with him. At the end of the conversation, if you were a decent human being, you will say this man is distinguished in debate and in consensus. We can learn a lot from him. Because of who he was, not just to the family but to us as a nation, it is befitting that he gets the status of the funeral that he has received,” he said.
President Hichilema encouraged young people to prioritise education and learn from Dr Sacika’s dedication and service to the country.
“I ask our young people to focus on education when the opportunity avails itself, learning from Dr Sacika your levels of comfort and ability to perform at any level improves. There is no question about that. Serving as deputy secretary to the cabinet, rising to be secretary to the cabinet and serving our citizens is an onerous task. I want to say to the colleagues that are serving today that once in a while you reflect – I am doing what others before in this office were able to do to serve the people of Zambia. Once in a while we [should] ask ourselves, are we providing the best that we should? [And that] is expected of us. Are we fair enough, are we diligent, are we putting in our best?” said President Hichilema.
