Maravi

Rupiah’s propensity for leisure, pleasure

Rupiah’s propensity for leisure, pleasure
Written by Editor

A president of a country must take the plight of the people seriously. Presidents are employed every five years to look after our common interests. It is their job to ensure that this nation that we call our home is functioning properly. The interests of citizens cannot always be the same. But there must be things that qualify to be our common interest. Issues about which there should be no frivolous disagreement.

A president should take such matters seriously. This is what one would expect of Rupiah Banda. But it seems even expecting the basic minimum from Rupiah is expecting too much.

Rupiah’s propensity for leisure and pleasure is so blinding that he fails to appreciate very simple things. It seems his imagination and creativity is at its best when he is planning to engage in one pleasure or the other. This man does not seem to have the time to worry about the many problems that our country is facing.

This is why Rupiah is ready to leave State House on a trip to almost anywhere on any day. He seems to enjoy travelling and he will create every excuse to abandon his post for the jaunt to some destination. This lack of seriousness is blinding Rupiah from seeing the problems that have engulfed him. He is behaving like an addict looking for the next fix – the next pleasure. This is not the psychology of a man who does great things. This is the psychology of a parasite.

Rupiah will enjoy all that the state has to offer and give back nothing. In fact, we can almost bet our last ngwee on it. Rupiah will leave Zambia poorer than he found it. His behaviour is not the behaviour of a president ready to move the country forward.

We are not just being critical of Rupiah for nothing. His has the most important job in our country. The aspirations and prosperity of our people to a significant extent rest on his shoulders. We are not saying that Rupiah on his own can develop Zambia. No. We are simply saying his office has put him in a position where he should be able to make very significant contributions to the development of our country.

But Rupiah is not in the mood for hard work. We really wonder how many hours he spends actually working. At the moment, the country is going through some very serious problems. Just yesterday, we were highlighting the crisis that has emerged in the public sector with the many strikes and industrial action currently underway. These strikes mean that some people somewhere are dying because there are no medical personnel to attend to them and yet as we said yesterday, Rupiah is quiet. We don’t get the impression that this problem is being treated as a matter of great importance.

If Rupiah just kept quiet and did nothing strange, somebody might believe that maybe he is working on it. But this is not the impression we are getting.

Rupiah is at it again, very true to form and character. At a time when he is not saying anything meaningful about the crisis that has engulfed our medical sector, he has the energy and presence of mind to leave State House and head to the Copperbelt, Chililabombwe in particular, to go and watch football, bola, leisure!

This is Rupiah for you. When people are dying in hospitals because his government is failing to deal with the crippling strike in the medical sector, Rupiah is headed for the grandstand at Konkola Stadium. This is mockery to our people. Rupiah is not serious. This is why we say he thinks he is in State House for leisure and pleasure.

One would expect that Rupiah would be spending some time thinking about the many challenges that our country has. He is behaving like a guest who arrives in a home and immediately asks for the kitchen so that he can eat before he even understands the geography of the house.

Rupiah is in a hurry to enjoy every pleasure that State House can afford. That is why he needs to go for a holiday twice in five months. What kind of President is this? What kind of leader do we have?

This is why although Rupiah has done nothing to convince anybody sincere that he is fit to run the country, he is already declaring his interest in standing in 2011. At a time when our country is going through many difficulties, we would expect that Rupiah would work very hard to address these difficulties. And on the back of such delivery ask people to elect him in 2011.

There is something wrong in a person who has been running a scandal-ridden government for nine months, begins to campaign for the presidency which is not due until 2011. What is the rush? When is he going to deliver to the people if he is going to be in constant campaign mode? Indeed, when is Rupiah going to deal with the many questions that people are asking?

For a while now, we have been talking about the corruption and systematic theft of public resources that has been exposed over the last few weeks. We don’t get the impression that Rupiah is prepared to deal with these matters in an impartial, honest and professional manner. His reaction is all part of the campaign mode in which he is thrusting himself. It is mere cheap politicking.

We say this because apart from the Ministry of Health scandal, there are other scandals that we have exposed. But none of those has been handed over to the law enforcement agencies for investigations. We are still waiting with keen interest to see what Rupiah is going to do about the hearses story. Sylvia Masebo has asked for permission to talk. But does Rupiah have the time to deal with such issues? To him these are not important matters. According to him, our people don’t deserve to know.

If Rupiah is genuine about fighting corruption, let him give Masebo the permission to talk because as Charles Milupi correctly observed, Benny Tetamashimba is suggesting that there was corruption or even worse, there was theft of public resources in the procurement of the hearses. The people deserve to know. These are public matters and public resources.

With all these serious matters going on, particularly the strikes in the hospitals, it is tasteless and ill-advised for Rupiah to spend public resources going to watch a soccer match. He would have done well to allow our people to enjoy the match without being reminded of the crisis we are in.

Labels: BENNY TETAMASHIMBA, CHARLES MILUPI, CORRUPTION, RUPIAH BANDA, SYLVIA MASEBO

posted by MrK @ 3:01 PM