Rupiah is the worst president - Inonge

Rupiah is the worst president - Inonge
By Chibaula Silwamba
Sat 13 Nov. 2010, 04:01 CAT

RUPIAH Banda is the worst President Zambia has ever had, and ghosts will forever haunt him for diluting the fight against corruption, Inonge Wina charged yesterday.

And Wina, who is PF national chairperson, said former president Frederick Chiluba’s cases have tainted President Banda’s name at home and abroad, and that “the Chiluba factor” will cost him votes in 2011 elections.

Reviewing the two-year Banda presidency, Wina said the 73-year-old leader was the worst performer among the four presidents Zambia has had since independence in 1964.

“He is the worst performer because if you detail how much government resources he has spent on trips all over the world, you will find that he has actually cost the country a lot of money. If you rate him on the number of the many good issues that he has reversed to suit his own way of doing things, you will find that he is rated the last of all the four presidents we have had as a country since independence,” Wina said.

“We all had hoped that somehow the man will change his ways but he does not listen to anybody and that again is not the hallmark of a leader. So I would rate him last.”

She said President Banda’s failure to fight corruption would still come out, no matter how much he tried to deceive the nation that he was implementing development projects.

“It’s going to haunt him for the rest of his life,” Wina said. “Currently he doesn’t see it because he is still in a state of power over everybody else in Zambia. But one day, the ghost will raise its head and find that he lives in a place which is haunted; and he should not be surprised.”

However, she admitted that there were some positive economic developments in Zambia but that they would only be appreciated when they improve the lives of ordinary people.

“If you talk about economic development in Kalingalinga township in Lusaka, Chawama Lusaka, Kanyama Lusaka or in a village in Kalabo district in Western Province or in Nabwalya in Mpika district in Northern Province, they will think you are speaking another language because they don’t see that happening in their lives,” Wina observed.

“We will only be able to talk about economic development when changes in people’s lives are positive but at the moment the things we read in newspapers and statements we hear from the governor of the Bank of Zambia Dr Caleb Fundanga are not the reality on the ground.”

She said the two years of President Banda in office had been undermined by several negative positions that his government had taken.

“Until we see our young people being engaged in meaningful employment; until we see a change in the way people with disabilities live, then we will know that things have changed,” she said.

“In some of the areas, the MMD is not even campaigning because they know that at the end of the day they will buy the voters. So they really are depending on the power of the kwacha to win elections; to hoodwink the people that ‘no Chiluba’s problem is not a problem, what you need is money to live on’.”

She said Zambians were being impoverished so that they could be lured to vote for the MMD.

“But in some areas where people are literate, read newspapers, listen to the radio, the ‘Chiluba factor’ may be a very big one in the coming elections,” she said.

“The two years of Mr Rupiah Banda’s reign has seen some changes in the pattern of governance that his predecessors started especially the reign of the late Levy Mwanawasa.”

She said President Banda had not fared well in the fight against corruption, gender equality, balanced development and in addressing unemployment especially among youths.

“The fight against corruption has been diluted,” Wina said. “Freedom of the press; we have seen machinations against the private media, the government attempts to put in place legislation to control the media and stifle freedom of the media.”

Wina said the government was violating people’s freedom of assembly, human rights and MMD cadres had continued to engage in violence without the party leadership reprimanding them or denouncing their actions.