Maravi

Use ballot to reject corrupt leaders, urges Fr Luonde

Use ballot to reject corrupt leaders, urges Fr Luonde
By Misheck Wangwe in Kitwe
Thu 30 June 2011, 04:00 CAT

IT is disheartening that the government has failed to utilise the country’s mineral wealth to change the lives of many people wallowing in abject poverty, says Fr Richard Luonde.

In an interview, Fr Luonde, an Anglican priest based in Kitwe said Zambians should resist the ongoing manipulation of the country’s resources by the government which had failed to come up with radical measures to ensure that the country collects enough revenue from the mining sector.

Fr Luonde said if Zambians were not careful, the natural resources the country was endowed with would diminish and investors would run away, leaving them with nothing to point at as benefits of having had rich minerals.

“As the country goes to the polls, the electorate must say no to leaders who have sided more with the investors and forgotten about the plight of their own people. Mining companies are making millions of dollars from the booming mining sector but the returns are close to nothing for Zambia,” Fr Luonde said.

“They are busy developing their countries using our resources but here young people have no meaningful employment and families sleep on empty stomachs due to high poverty levels. Zambians should send a strong signal to corrupt leaders using ballots this year.”

He said the country would only come out of poverty if people elected firm leaders who would not be swayed by corruption.

Fr Luonde said the government should draw lessons from countries like Greece, among others, where people had protested because of the failures of their governments to show leadership over the economies of their respective countries.

“This country needs real solutions to the problem of poverty. Lack of true leadership and political will to end chronic poverty is what is killing this nation. I urge all Zambians to look for leaders that will transform the economy and compel these investors to remit considerable revenues,” he said.

Fr Luonde said the electorate had powers to change the country’s political and economic destiny because the MMD government had failed.

“It’s up to Zambians to choose to continue taking the country forward or taking it backwards. Under the MMD, all the gains and values this country worked so hard to achieve were being reversed by the current government. Let’s secure this country’s future by stopping this manipulation,” said Fr Luonde.

Labels: RICHARD LUONDE

posted by MrK @ 6:26 PM