Govt of bootlickers, by bootlickers, for bootlickers

President Edgar Lungu with Copperbelt Province minister Bowman Lusambo - Picture by Thomas Nsama/State House

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Wonders shall never end in the PF government. Therefore, those who are still raising eyebrows over the quality of ministers who are being chased and those who are being hired as replacements, should stop getting shocked and start getting used.

We have found peace in the acceptance that the people who are running our country are scam artists; and scam artists are nothing but just that. They rob people by presenting a fraudulent offer and pretending that it is legitimate. Therefore, they can only surprise you when they walk away without swindling anyone.

In this regard therefore, the only people who are shocking us in the PF government are those who are condemning theft, corruption and abuse of office. We expect them to be stealing at will, like everyone else, since there is nobody in their leadership who loves the country enough to stop the looting.

The PF came into power with the best manifesto one could ever think of. They advertised themselves as a government of the poor, by the poor for the poor. But just like a scam artist’s intention, that was just a trick for the poor to become rich. Evidence is in their lifestyle to prove that they swindled the country and its citizens by presenting a fraudulent manifesto and pretending that it was legitimate.

They vowed to transform the country in 90 days. After the 90 days elapsed, they started laughing at those who voted them into office for thinking it was possible that a political party could change a country in 90 days. They offered lower taxes, but the Minister of Finance just unveiled a budget with increased taxes for citizens who wish to buy cement and build their own houses.

They promised more money in people’s pockets. But just last month, the President was on TV telling people that, “when we said more money in your pockets, we didn’t mean that we will bring it to your doorstep while you sleep, work for it”. But is that not what people used to do during MMD? Again, that was another trick by scam artists – presenting a fraudulent offer and claiming it is genuine.

Their slogan when they stood on the podium to campaign was “amaka, kubantu (Power, to the people)”. Today, those who are trying to give power to the people are being chucked out of the system. Actually, they are followed outside, threatened and silenced.

This is a government of the plunderers, for the plunderers by the plunderers; a government of the conmen, for the conmen, by the conmen. So how can we be surprised when amateur conmen are being replaced by more experienced fraudsters.

There can be no better explanation, than what we have stated above, as to why our President can decide to replace a minister who condemned the purchase of fire tenders, with someone who praised government over the same decision. To be frank, that is the real qualification that our new Minister of National Planning had. Yes, he may have whatever accounting degrees, but climbing on top of a fire truck and going on TV to say “I have inspected the fire tenders and they are state of the art”, is what got him the ministerial job. He is the complete opposite of his predecessor.

Let’s put it more plainly here. The minister whom the President fired, and was against the procurement of 42 fire trucks at US$42 million, is the one who (with his technocrats) crafted the Seventh National Development Plan. The minister whom the President has appointed, and felt the fire tender procurement was a fantastic idea, is the one who is expected to implement the 7NDP in 2018.

We don’t need to ask you dear readers if you think the Seventh National Development Plan will be implemented in the interest of the people of Zambia. Instead, we are inviting you to watch carefully and see how this 7NDP will be transformed into the seventh personal development plan.

Our President is recruiting everyone of like mind to get on board. It does not matter anymore which party you belong to. It doesn’t matter what political ideology you espouse. You don’t even need to be a professional in anything. If you can sing praises for the great leader of this great country, then go ahead and line up because you are the right person for the job; any job!

This is a government of the bootlickers, by the bootlickers and for the bootlickers. If you monitor the pattern, non-bootlickers are misfits in the PF. They have no place because failure to lick the President’s boots means challenging his authority. That is where the story of presidential ambitions comes from. Those who refuse to say “yes bwana” to illegal orders from the great leader are considered disloyal. They are treated as liabilities who must be done away with.

This is where we are as a country, under the most shallow leadership. How can we develop as a country where ba President, ni no bwino bwino, ba advisor kulya bebele, ba minister ni moko moko with bootlicking qualifications?