WHICH WAY ZAMBIA – DO WE HATE EACH OTHER?
SOMETIME early this year, I was panicking to raise money to go for my medical review over my eye operation. I had to travel to South Africa and the option of going by road was out of question because of another condition which cannot allow me to be on a bus for 24 hours as well as pressure from Troubleshooter.
Just when I was about to give up, someone told me that I could fly to Johannesburg for a return fare of K3, 500 which my benefactors were able to afford. What a relief it was when I confirmed that Rwanda Air was truly flying between Lusaka and Johannesburg for that fare which is the same fare that our local airlines are charging for flights within the country.
On my return flight back home, I sat next to a young lady who was connecting to Benin in West Africa through the Rwandan capital city Kigali. That means Kigali has become the new hub of Central and East Africa with flights to Europe via Belgium and then connecting Southern Africa with West Africa.
My mind has been troubled since then and I have been talking to many Zambians to find out why we are lagging behind despite our advantageous position and the massive natural resources our country has. One senior citizen who is a very respectable businessman and an inspiration to me told me point blank:
“Expendito,” he said, “we cannot develop because we hate each other.”
The same week that my old man told me this worrisome message, the following message did the rounds on WhatsApp:
Paul Kagamé on radio Rwanda: "If our country ranks first in Africa, and the whole world is watching us today, it's not because we have the Vatican, the Kabba, the White House, the Elysee or the Taj Mahal here at home.
Not because you have a certain Paul Kagame as head of state, but rather because you have sons and daughters of Rwanda in this country.
Men and especially young people and Rwandan women who have forgiven each other, and who have taken the destiny of their country in hand by the meaning of work, innovations and patriotism as the key to their progress and development . What we are doing here in Rwanda is not a miracle, nor is it impossible elsewhere, it is simply the commitment of an entire nation, especially Rwandan youth and women, but also political will.
Soon, we will have the best universities in the world at home (NYU, Harvard, London School of Economics, FIT ...) We will also have the best hospitals in Rwanda. The intelligence and competence of our children will be equal to or greater than that of the great powers, and our country Rwanda will be a new door of opportunity, knowledge, technology and innovation for all African children and the world who want to learn from us or still give us their knowledge.
Rwanda will not only be at the rendezvous of civilisations, but also of science and technol- ogy and all the cultures that will dominate the world. Today, more than 40 percent of our agriculture is being dominated by technology, Africa as a whole can do better than us for essential food self-sufficiency, it is all about national interest and the African people. Although we are now far from our past, let us make good use of the present to hit the future. Because, the most difficult is no longer where we come from, but rather the where we want and dream to go. In Rwanda, we desire and dream to go far thanks to this people and to this now conscientious youth"
The key words I found in President Kagame’s speech were “forgiveness” and “conscientious youth.”
If we can start with forgiveness, a close examination of our political landscape reveals that the country is still bedevilled by colonial and pre-independence divisiveness which was exploited by our colonial masters to benefit the economies of their countries.
Our politicians are encouraging hatred along ethnic lines and there is no need to pretend otherwise; and this hatred is even more pronounced among the elite. The people who are supposed to provide leadership based on open mindedness and creative thinking are the ones whose minds are buried in pure and confirmed narrow minded primitive ways.
In our country a person can be corrupt when he is in government and as soon as he joins the opposition, he becomes a hero. A leading politician has openly admitted that he has hidden money in tax havens and records show that many of his companies are based offshore is suspect shareholdings and yet people, very educated people hero worship him.
When we talk of a “conscientious youth,” what is happening to the youth in our country is a disaster. The youth are exhibiting frightening levels of unprincipled and unpatriotic behaviour. They will do anything for a few pittance. For them money comes first before anything. This applies to all classes of youths.
The political cadres follow blindly for a few Kwacha and some drops of Junta. They can even kill at the command of their masters. They can invade a farm and subdivide it with no regard to the rights of the owner and no worry about allowing the development of well-planned cities.
The educated youth are running social media sites where they insult, slander, libel and tell false stories which do not add any value to the lives of Zambians. I have never seen such unprofessional and unprincipled journalism since I started practicing in 1977. All the newspapers and radio stations are biased to a level where it becomes irritating to listen to them. In 2016, I featured on one Radio Station which belongs to an opposition political party, the young presenter announced the landlines on which people would call to participate in the discussion.
No caller was able to get through on the land line, but he received calls on his mobile which had not been advertised on the programme because the whole thing was a set up. A journalist, a youth, could sink that low because he was paid by a politician. Our youths are definitely not conscientious. They can speak and write English, but their minds are not educated.
The evidence is ominous, our country is failing because we hate each other. The majority of the educated in this country are routinely sabotaging national progress through all kinds of activities; some covert and others overt.
Some of the “expert” advice I have seen on the issue of establishing a national airline appear genuine at first glance, but when analysed properly, they are frighteningly false and aimed at rocking the boat to its doom.
Early this year, a Member of Parliament criticised the fish ban for the simple reason of appearing to be brave enough to take on the government; and yet, the ban is meant to sustain the fish populations in our lakes and rivers.
We have so much water and so little fish and the answers to higher fish populations and better catches are under our nose, but our elites do not care about sharing the knowledge for the betterment of the fishmonger, they would rather cheat him for his vote.
When Rwanda was faced with the enormous task of trying 130, 000 genocide suspects, it faced the danger of total economic collapse due to the burden that this huge number of cases put on the country’s judicial system and the financial resources. It was estimated that it would take 100 years to try all the suspects through the conventional western judicial system.
The post genocide Rwandan government had to act creatively and decisively and they re-introduced the old communitarian based judicial system known as Gacaca Courts.
The Gacaca are local courts based on Rwandan traditional values focusing not necessarily on punishment but “first and foremost on forgiveness and reconciliation.”
The Gacaca courts focused on community rebuilding placing justice in the hands of trusted citizens. The system has come under criticism from some quarters but the government insists that the Gacaca Courts have contributed to the current success of their country.
I know how sensitive the issue of justice delivery in Zambia is; but this is one area where foreign interests are taking advantage of our hatred for each other. Multinational corporations have lost many civil claims, but the Zambians who have won the cases have never been paid.
The Supreme Court will make a clear ruling in favour of a Zambian or a group of Zambians and when the matter goes to assessment it gets stuck there forever; and yet, assessment should be the simplest thing to do. In this computer age, assessment can be done in hours. But instead, assessment becomes another court for hearings and arguments and because we hate each other no one in authority has ever considered any measures to improve this unfair and unjust situation.
To make matters worse, lawyers routinely accept bribes to frustrate their own clients’ cases. These are the kind issues the Law Association of Zambia are supposed to advise the Judiciary on how such situations can be improved upon, but because we hate each other, the lawyers forsake principles to work with the greedy multinationals and their agents who are holding this country hostage.
I noticed last week that the price of cobalt had hit an all-time high of $90, 000 per ton. Zambia was a major exporter of cobalt and unless I am mistaken, we are not exporting cobalt any more.
What went wrong? Where are all the Zambian technocrats running the Ministry of Mines? What have they advised the government about this; probably nothing because we hate each other.
Surely we must move fast and turn our country’s fortune around. Only 24 years have passed since the Rwanda Genocide and that country is steaming ahead. We should love each other and create something to show for 54 years of peace and independence.
We will not go anywhere if we continue to make our country a play-ground for economic mercenaries.
Yours truly, TROUBLESHOOTER ecchipalo@yahoo.co.uk / pentvision@gmail.com / ecchipalo@icloud.com