Maravi

Time for 'individual messiahs' is gone, says Aka

Time for 'individual messiahs' is gone, says Aka
By Mutale Kapekele
Tuesday January 15, 2008 [03:00]

VETERAN politician Akashambatwa Mbikusita-Lewanika has advised Zambians to look at ‘a national team of leadership’ instead of focusing on individuals in the country’s search for the next president as the time for ‘individual messiahs’ is gone. In an interview last Friday, Aka said it was wrong and misleading for anyone to look at individuals with leadership qualities before coming up with what he called a national team of leaders with a vision of taking the nation forward.

“Zambia needs a good team of leaders with a good national programme,” Aka said. “When people focus on individuals and positions, they are misguiding themselves.”

He said what the country needed could be likened to a good soccer team, which did not just depend on the captain but on team work.

“If a soccer team just concentrated on the captain, it would not reflect well on the pitch. Spectators would rightly conclude that the team is not capable.” Aka said. “So the number one thing is to reconstitute a national programme of goals that will transform the country politically, socially and economically.”

He said before looking for the ‘captain’, it was important for the country to be in harmony with itself collectively, purposively and to wean itself from a dependency syndrome.

“Right now Zambia is grossly behind many nations such that talk about our independence is a joke,” Aka said. “We are too dependent on donors that we can’t work without their help. We even have an unequal position in SADC which we chair. The same goes for other groupings like COMESA and other countries within and outside Africa.”

Aka said changing the country’s disadvantaged position could only be achieved by a ‘national team’ running a national programme.

“Such a national programme cannot depend on one person regardless of their education, knowledge, community, religion, gender or relationship with people,” he said. “It can only be fulfilled by a real national team who must bring all their knowledge to the table.”

He said after the country had come up with the right team, then a clean and incorruptible person, in fact and image, could be considered for presidency.

“That person should be clear-minded with distinctive competence, skill and knowledge. They must be committed as a matter of deep conviction to national programmes,” Aka said. “They must be compassionate to those sections of society which are backward, disadvantaged and under-privileged. They must be courageous and self-sacrificial in national service.”

He said the candidate must not be a coward, a bootlicker, without a backbone in the face of more powerful forces or majority opinion. Aka said it was time for the country to move from the system of having “individual messiahs” and the assumption that one person rules. He said the country should move away from having status quo managers to transformers who had a vision of moving Zambia from the status of a ‘good beggar’ to a respected nation.

And Aka said what was happening in the PF was the mirror image of the country’s political immaturity and lack of a democratic culture. He said events in the PF should not excite other political parties as all of them had some degree of undemocratic tendencies.

“Whatever is happening in the PF should give nobody pleasure to witness. None of our parties are immune from undemocratic tendencies, ideological confusion and political immaturity,” said Aka.

“Unfortunately, that is what we are as a country. All political parties must look at this issue as the rotten nut from the heap of nuts and remember that the perception of the PF by the people will go for all political parties.”

Labels: AKASHAMBATWA MBIKUSITA-LEWANIKA

posted by MrK @ 6:05 AM