Maravi

We did not promise magic - Rupiah

We did not promise magic - Rupiah
Written by Chibaula Silwamba in Kasama
Wednesday, January 07, 2009 3:10:36 PM

WE did not promise that we will be magicians to solve all problems overnight, President Rupiah Banda has said. And Northern Province minister Charles Shawa has complained that farmers in the province have difficulties to access subsidised fertilizer due to low supply of the commodity.

Addressing his supporters and government officials who welcomed him at Kasama Airport on Tuesday for his four-day official visit to the province since his election in October last year, President Banda bragged that his government had started implementing some developmental projects he promised Zambians during his campaign for the Republican presidency.

"We promised you in the last campaign that we are aware that our country has many problems; that our people are facing a lot of problems especially those related to poverty. We promised you that we will do our best to help make the lives of our people better," President Banda said.

"We did not promise you that we will be magicians and that overnight, one month or two months after we have been elected all the problems of the country will be solved. Nobody can do that! We promised you that we will do our best and I am proud to stand in front of you that certain of these problems have been solved, and nobody can argue."

He said his government had reduced prices of fuel and was reducing prices of mealie-meal.

"We can stand in front of you and say that we promised we will keep the peace of this country and you have seen that the people of Zambia prefer peace to anarchy. Despite the calls by those others for people to go out there and demonstrate, the people of Zambia wherever they are have said they prefer peace, which we preach, to anarchy," President Banda said. "We promised unity of the people of Zambia. We promised to serve all the people of Zambia regardless of whether they voted for us or did not vote for us, that is exactly what we are doing."

He said Zambians had a constitutional right to elect whoever they wanted to be their president.

"But at the end of the day the majority will rule this country... fortunately for us we are the majority and those others are the minority," President Banda said. "There are nine provinces in this country. Despite the holiday I have had in Eastern Province, this is the first province that I am visiting to see the development programmes that we have started and most importantly to open a very important organ of our governance, the Auditor General's office."

He said the office of the Auditor General was very important in ensuring accountability in the use of national resources.

"When the Auditor General invited me, I told her, 'oh yes I'm going to Kasama.' I am here madam to open this office because we believe that we must be accountable to the people of Zambia," President Banda said.

And President Banda said there was need to open up the hidden tourism attractions in Northern and Luapula provinces.

"We want to open the Northern Province because we believe that the tourists have not seen yet the beauty of this country until they see the beauty of the Northern and Luapula provinces," President Banda said. "I am happy that the airport terminal building is almost finished and that this airport will soon be completed and we will see a lot of tourists coming in here; going to Mbala, Mpulungu, Isoka and all the wonderful spots hidden in the Northern Province."

And President Banda - in an apparent reference to his tribal cousin, Patriotic Front leader Michael Sata - wondered why some losing candidates in the presidential election were claiming that they were popular when in fact they got zero votes in some parts of the country.

"Most importantly I want to thank you people of Northern Province for the support that you gave me in the last election. I know some of you are saying, 'what support did we give you? You didn't win here.' Of course I won here. I didn't come out with zero; I came out with a lot of votes from you people of this province. Were it not for those votes, I most probably would not have won the national election," President Banda said.

"That is why my friends who lost, who didn't get anything in certain provinces, they had to lose. Myself I got everything everywhere. In the whole country, I was either number one or number two, nowhere number three. So I get surprised when my cousin [Sata] and the other people that lost the elections are boasting about their popularity. How can you be popular when you got zero in certain provinces?"

President Banda said he was the only one who could boast of being popular because he got votes in all parts of the country.

"I can boast that I was truly popular because...thus why they didn't like that blue map [Electoral Commission of Zambia's map showing election results per constituency], which shows that our party and your candidate everywhere we went we got something. Even where they won, Rupiah Banda of the MMD was always number two, themselves were number three, number four or number zero if there is such a number in the elections," President Banda said.

"I want to promise you something, next time around the MMD is going to scoop Kasama, and we won't allow them [the PF] to get away with it. We are coming back here and that is why I have started my visit to the provinces with this province because I can feel it that we are very welcome in this province. We will perform; we will do the best that we can so that you can appreciate us as a party."

Meanwhile, President Banda said Shawa's quick adaption to the linguistic of Northern Province proved that he made a right choice when he transferred him from Eastern Province.

"People of Northern Province, I sent you an eastern bull, he is very quick to learn, he is already speaking Bemba fluently so that those others cannot say, 'you sent us somebody who cannot speak our language.'" said President Banda. "I know him well, he performed in Eastern Province, and I know he will perform well here because he is in front of his own cousins."

And Shawa expressed concern at the shortage of subsidised fertiliser under the Fertiliser Support Programme (FSP).

"In the agriculture sector, the province continues to record progress in line with the MMD agriculture policy. The province is posed to record a bumper harvest in the 2008/2009 agricultural season. However, like all provinces in Zambia, our farmers have difficulties in accessing subsidised fertiliser due to low supply of the commodity," Shawa said.

"We are delighted to learn that pricing of fuel will be standardised throughout the country. This will result in the reduction of production cost of the rural provinces."

In the tourism sector, Shawa said the province was encouraged by the proposed development of the Kasaba Bay integrated development plan.

"We hope it will result in considerable spillover effects in terms of investment across the province," he said. "In education, K15 billion was released for the construction and rehabilitation of basic schools in the Province. The government is constructing new high schools in Isoka, Kaputa and Mpulungu districts as well as houses in various districts. In health, government is building hospitals in Kaputa, Mpulungu and Isoka. Kasama General Hospital is being rehabilitated."

Shawa also said rehabilitation of roads and bridges in the province was progressing well.

And MMD provincial executive committee representative Gaston Sichilima called for improvement of the road network and fertilizer distribution.

Those accompanying President Banda aboard a Zambia Air Force plane are MMD national chairman Michael Mabenga, finance deputy minister Chileshe Kapwepwe, finance permanent secretary Dr Wamundila Mbikusita-Lewanika, MMD chairman for elections and works and supply minister Mike Mulongoti, MMD spokesperson and local government minister Benny Tetamashimba, tourism minister Catherine Namugala, presidential press aide Dickson Jere and President Banda's political advisor Akashambatwa Mbikusita-Lewanika.

Labels: CHARLES SHAWA, FERTILIZER, FSP, RUPIAH BANDA

posted by MrK @ 3:11 PM