‘Zambia’s political leadership is losing it’

‘Zambia’s political leadership is losing it’
By Masuzyo Chakwe
Sun 16 May 2010, 03:40 CAT

PROFESSOR Nkandu Luo has observed that Zambia’s political leadership is losing it.
In an interview, Prof Luo who is former health minister said even if the word leader was used for certain people in the country, Zambia today did not have people worth calling leaders.

“I don’t think that Zambia today has people that if you follow the definition of a leader can be called a leader because leadership is anchored on various principles and one of the principles of leaders is love for others and the second is humility and the third is selflessness.

And we don’t see these kinds of things in the people that are referred to as leaders,” Prof Luo said.

“All you see is selfishness, they must get what they get at all costs. So if it means killing a few people, those people have to be killed like we saw in Mufumbwe. I mean people being hacked, we saw a report of children dying because somebody just went and drove where people were celebrating.

I think that is unacceptable and yet we do not hear what has happened to these people. Have they been prosecuted? It’s now like the lives of Zambians now don’t mean anything. What means something is the people that are providing leadership for as long as they are in the comfort zone and I think this is totally unacceptable.”

She said the violence currently being experienced in Zambia particularly at election time was very unfortunate.

Prof Luo said leaders and all people needed to remember that violence was a big concern for women and in countries where it had broken out, the first victims were women and children.

“What happens when there is violence is that they take advantage and rape women or if people have to run away, the women always want to carry their children with them. The men will run away and the women and children will be casualties. I think it is important for the women of Zambia to take this very seriously with the leadership of the country so that this comes to an end especially in the run-up to the 2011 elections because if it is this bad now, it is likely to get worse in 2011,” she said.

“And I think as women, we need to reflect on this and we need to say to the leadership of the country that whoever is perpetuating violence, and we all know anyway, must bring it to an end because it is not in the interest of anybody. It’s not in the interest of the leadership, it’s not in the interest of the women and children and it is not in the interest of the populace of Zambia.”

Prof Luo also said the language being used by leaders in the country was unfortunate.
She said there was a lot of persecution and malignment in the language.
Prof Luo cited the recent attacks on Lusaka Catholic Archbishop Telesphore Mpundu.

“I as a Catholic, I was very sad with the kind of the things they talked about Archbishop Mpundu and what was so sad was that some of the perpetrators of Archbishop Mpundu have suffered persecution but because it suits them now, they should persecute another person. I think that is unacceptable,” she said.

Prof Luo said as a Zambian, she was not interested in knowing who was sick and who was suffering from what.

She said she was only interested in her bread and butter.

Prof Luo said the leadership of the country needed to tell Zambians what they would do about the health sector, education standards, roads and issues at institutions like University of Zambia (UNZA).

She said she recently returned from Northern Province where the road network was terrible. Prof Luo said the road between Serenje and Nakonde was in a real bad situation and yet leaders were more interested in attacking each other on health issues.

“I am not interested. I want to hear who is going to repair the road and when so that people travelling on that road have a comfortable ride and also reduce the number of accidents on that road. As Zambians we need to make leaders accountable and it is important leaders account for the violence that has taken place and those responsible apologise and make a commitment that it will not happen again,” said Prof Luo.

Politicians in the country have in the last few weeks engaged in personal attacks, questioning each other’s health and calling names. The attacks started before the by-election in Mufumbwe in North Western Province, which was later marred by violence and loss of life.