Where is the K50 mealie-meal HH Promised?- (Part I)

I welcome readers to the first installment of probably the most brutally honest opinion pieces that you will read for some time to come on Zambia’s current affairs. May I tender a warning to those with limited capacity for stomaching unbiased analysis that some of their personal preferences and biases are guaranteed to be vigorously challenged from time to time. So those with political High Blood Pressure (aba BP) are advised to stay away from these opinion pieces for I shall not be held responsible for your occasional emotional discomforts! My intention with these opinion pieces is to foster better quality national dialogue towards a better nation. This is following my observation that currently, Zambians are becoming increasingly politically polarised with fast shrinking capability to be honest and realistic about various issues of national concern. Almost everything you read or watch in the media is being spewed out to further some political interest. It so bad that even mundane day to day occurrences are somehow been said to be the fault of HH or the PF! I am of the view that the quality of our national discourse needs to grow a notch higher. Patriotism must come to the fore in place of the myopia of blind partisan leanings. May I point out, beforehand, that I hold no allegiance to neither ruling party nor opposition party sympathies but rather to my nation, Zambia. The reader is reminded that Zambia has lived on beyond, UNIP, MMD and PF and shall surely live on beyond UPND. As a matter of fact, I have voted MMD before, voted PF in 2016 and I voted UPND in 2021 elections. I can guarantee you that there are more than one million other Zambians whose voting patterns are exactly like mine. So Bally better give me a good reason to vote for him in 2026 otherwise katwishi (I don’t know)!

So, WHERE IS THE K50 MEALIE-MEAL HH PROMISED US? Yep, we need answers, Bally. Personally, my greatest motivation for voting in the 2021 elections was not so much to do with the price of mealie meal. I was motivated to go and vote by the resolve to see the PF out of power due to the blatant leadership failures exhibited by one Mr. Edgar Chagwa Lungu. You see, I had attentively listened to President HH campaign on several occasions and quite frankly, I was not that convinced that our economics graduate aspiring president had it figured out as far as sorting out Zambia’s dire economic situation was concerned. On the other hand, I was actively resolved and did my bit to ensure that Edgar Lungu’s PF was voted out! On the day of voting, I voted UPND President, UPND MP, UPND Mayor and UPND Counsellor and up to now I can’t even tell you the name of my MP, Mayor or Counsellor! For me, PF just had to go! I strongly believed a continued PF rule was a very high national security risk and would have meant Zambia been certified a first class Banana Republic. Arrogance, abuse of national resources and the break-down of the rule of law had become too much to stomach. Yes, we had a couple of pompous characters on the scene such as the likes of Kampyongo, Bowman Lusambo, Kaiser Zulu, Chitotela, Davies Mwila and their host of cadres, but my analysis of the situation was, the buck stopped with Mr. Edgar Lungu. The President of the Republic of Zambia at the time. President Lungu failed the leadership test dismally. He dropped the leadership bar so low to the extent that even the likes of Bowman Lusambo and Innocent Kalimanshi (The ‘Amelikan’) now think they have the calibre to be President of Zambia! Two years down the line, and with the benefit of hindsight, my view of our former president, Mr. Edgar Lungu is, he might be the nice guy some people say he is, but quite bluntly, he is not and was never Presidential material. Far, far from it! He was a very dangerous gamble the likes of which we must never ever entertain as a nation ever again! The people who engineered his presidency well knew his inferior leadership calibre but went on with the experiment for their selfish reasons. Please don’t ever play such games with our country again- twamipapata (we beg of you)! Let’s just agree that Lungu is a nice person but a very poor leader and move on. So when I hear some disillusioned characters chanting the ‘Alebwelelapo’ chorus , I am like- has the UPND messed up that much, this quick?! Awe, insala Kapondo Kwena ( hunger can rob you of your capacity to properly reason). This does not only happen in Zambia, by the way. In the Book of Exodus, the Children of Israel at one point thought it better to have remained in Egypt as slaves rather than attaining freedom and facing some transitional challenges. I believe the desert experience was harsh, but come on, they were in transit to the land of milk and honey. The UPND must not underestimate the power of akabunga! Kaunda was far more powerful and probably more principled and patriotic than any President after him. If perceptions are to go by, Kaunda’s moral and anti-corruption credentials have never been matched by any proceeding president so far. None-the less, Kaunda was pushed into an early election which he lamentably lost, all because of akabunga. So, careful ba UPND! Do not be casual with the issue of mealie-meal. In fact, as a matter advise, tell every excited party or government functionary to desist from making comments on mealie-meal when they have nothing substantive to say. They might just detonate a bomb they have no capacity to handle. Ilyashi lyabunga is that serious and solutions to the high cost of mealie-meal is an urgent matter of national security, Mr. President. Let no one lie to you on this one. Among many clear campaign promises, HH promised the following: 

1. Cheaper Mealie meal
2. Cheaper Fuel
3. Cheaper fertiliser
4. Cheaper Electricity
5. Lower dollar kwacha rate
6. Free education
7. Rule of law

 In short, as summarised by the ‘ Bally Will Fix It’ slogan, HH promised to sort out our economy.  Some of these promises have, however, come to haunt HH and the UPND to such an extent that even ‘praise singers’ are abandoning Bally. Some of them have asked for leave of absence until such a time that HH addresses the cost of living. Naikosa! (it is tough going for the UPND). But then, I want the Zambian people to pause and take another look at the UPND campaign promises from a different perspective. In particular, I want us to consciously look at the following: 

1. Was K50 mealie- meal promise achievable in the first place?
2. Is it possible to improve Zambia’s economy from where PF left it?
3. What was the best economic program for Zambia given that we were literally in a debt crisis and our production capacity was fast dwindling?
4. Yes, the opposition leaders are the loudest in calling HH a liar, but does any one of them even have any discernible solution to Zambia’s economic woes?
5. If you removed HH from power today and put, take your pick, as a replacement, what would they have done better than HH given the conditions left to us by the PF?
6. Could the UPND have done things better than what they have achieved so far?

This, fellow Zambians, is the discussion we need to start having on a very serious note. If we don’t get serious with such type of conversations, we shall march on as a shallow people at the mercy of alarmists such as Chishimba Kambwili. As bad as the economic condition left to us by the PF was, I believed and still believe that Zambia’s economic fortunes can be transformed drastically. I will extensively back up my position during this discourse. That said I do not think mealie-meal will ever go down as low as K50. Everyone waiting for this promise are humbly advised to forget about it. K50 for a 25KG bag of mealie-meal is not happening under any government going forward! So did HH lie to us or what? Join me in part 2 of this inaugural instalment to find out. May God bless Zambia.