Maravi

Sata a liar - Milupi

Sata a liar - Milupi
By Staff reporters
Wed 29 Feb. 2012, 09:47 CAT

PRESIDENT Michael Sata's reluctance to recognise the Barotseland Agreement amounts to lying to the Lozis, says Charles Milupi. And Brigadier General Godfrey Miyanda says the PF duped Zambians over the Barotseland Agreement, including many other issues, and should therefore not be excused.

Milupi, who is president of the Alliance for Democracy and Development (ADD), said President Sata was supporting seceding of Barotseland from Zambia by rejecting the outcome of the most credible commission of inquiry appointed by the President.

Receiving the report on the inquiry into the Mongu killings on Thursday, President Sata said he would be very reluctant to recommend the reinstatement of the Barotseland Agreement.

But Milupi warned that apart from straining the relationship between the government and Western Province, President Sata's position would also heighten hard-lined pro-secessionist campaigners.

"If he President Sata is not careful how he is going to handle it, he is shifting the opinions of those that were for recognition like he was when he was campaigning. He is going to make them more hard-lined and shift those who say ‘look, these people are not trustworthy, let's just a country on our own'," said Milupi in an interview.

"That is a very unfortunate thing and let us watch this out. That is what is going to happen and it is going to strengthen those that have always said ‘no, we just want to be a country on our own'."

Milupi accused President Sata of duping the Lozis into an election victory by promising to recognise the Barotseland Agreement .

"It's unfortunate that even before he was campaigning, as far back as 2010, the President was saying this is genuine," he said.

"When he was campaigning, he was saying he was going to use Barotseland Agreement as a basis for decentralisation and devolution. What has happened to those noble thoughts? When he came into power, he said he was going to use the Ten Commandments as the principle upon which he is going to run the country. One of the commandments says ‘Thou shalt not lie; Thou shalt not tell falsehoods' and so on. We politicians must be very careful that when we campaign, we say exactly what we intend to do. That is the whole basis of democracy. People who vote for us, vote for us on the basis of truth," he said.

On President Sata's statement that recognising the Barotseland Agreement would agitate other areas to push for secession, Milupi said: "People need to be reminded that the very reason we keep talking about the Bartoseland Agreement was because it was unique - it was two separate territories that had to be brought together. Which other native authority has an agreement? Which other province has an agreement that would say ‘we also want our agreement to be like that?"

And Brig Gen Miyanda says he feels the PF has been a letdown to the Zambian people.

During The Journalist programme on Livingstone's Zambezi FM on Wednesday, Brig Gen Miyanda, who is Heritage Party president, said President Sata should only be excused if he gave a public apology for misleading Zambians.

"The real issue of the 90 days is that the PF on their own volition - no one put a gun to their head -they pronounced what they were going to do in 90 days. Personally, I did not believe that, as it is literally impossible to do major developmental issues in 90 days. They said they will have job creation, return the Barotseland Agreement and restore it to what it was before. Of course, they did not mean it or they did not understand what they were saying," he said.

Gen Miyanda said the government had now made an ordinary citizen look foolish with their 90 days promises.

"For me they should not be excused. They will only be excused if they stood up publicly and said 'sorry we misled you, we were wrong' and I would accept and say I actually knew that you were wrong. I will accept that," Brig Gen Miyanda said.

He said the PF over the years realised that Zambians did not analyse issues and took advantage of that to win the 2011 elections through hook and crook. "The real culprit is the PF, partly their campaign message was correct, the PF tactically were correct in their message as people felt let down by the MMD and the PF over the years understood with what the message they should put across to the people," he said.

"The messages for the PF were short term and they have been proved that they can't be done and they don't know how to get out of that and they are blaming the citizens. In the developed countries, a politician can be fired if he said ‘I will do this in 90 days'. I feel they (PF) have been a letdown," said Brig Gen Miyanda.

On the major pronouncements so far made, Brig Gen Miyanda accused President Sata of dictatorial practices. "What would stop President to create two or 73 provinces? People must not trivialise the matter; people must learn to consult. To dictate is to say things of what you want people to do according to you without hearing them. A dictatorial tendency is that one wakes up and says ‘I'm changing this now'. That is not keeping up in spirit of our Zambian Constitution and I can go to any forum and say that in the Zambian Constitution what the President is doing is not in the Constitution," he said.

Brig Gen Miyanda said the sovereignty of the country was reposed in the people and not to the President and that this must be respected by the PF.

"Zambians are shareholders and must be consulted. My worry is that if a President has given himself powers to create provinces, what would stop him to wake up and create two provinces or 73 provinces for each tribe? In Britain they don't pass fundamental laws overnight," he said.

Brig Gen Miyanda said as soon as a government stops to listen to people, it loses the right to govern. "And that is what happened loss of the MMD in elections; people were annoyed as this has been going on for several years, over so many years somebody stopped listening. That is why I say it was a regime change. As to whether there was a consensus, I have my doubts as I have my own information that something happened behind the scenes," said Brig Gen Miyanda.

And a University of Zambia lecturer in the Department of Political and Administrative Studies said the government should consider carrying out a referendum over the Barotseland Agreement.

Phineas Bbaala observed that Zambia may have to learn from other countries in resolving the Barotseland Agreement.

"We may have to learn from what other countries have done. Government should consider carrying out a referendum on this issue. It is important for the government to get views from the people of Western Province through a formal exercise like it was done in Sudan," Bbaala said.

He said the referendum may either be an independent one or the government may take advantage of the upcoming referendum on the constitution-making process to also include questions on the Barotseland issue.

Bbaala suggested that the referendum must be restricted to all districts of Western Province and that the government should announce the outcome and then make a collective decision on the matter.

"Government must make a decision as a government to announce its position on the matter. They should give reasons for their own recommendations. Government has a duty to guide the people of Western Province and the nation at large over this issue," said Bbaala.

Labels: BAROTSELAND AGREEMENT, CHARLES MILUPI, GODFREY MIYANDA, MICHAEL SATA

posted by MrK @ 6:08 PM