Dear NewZambia Editor,
These gaffes are making the President look bad and appear not to walk the talk. In his repeated spoken and written communiques, he has emphasized operating according to the rule of law, making appointments on merit and always ensuring there is orderliness in everything we do.
To demonstrate that he walks the talk, the President appointed eminently qualified and respected officers as Service Chiefs and ordered authorities to evict Cadres from all markets and bus stations. The quality of these appointments and decisions brought instant security and sanity in the country and appeared to set the tone of what meritocracy and orderliness meant.
The President went further to address the new Speaker and pledge that it was the policy of his government (Executive) not to interfere with Parliament as it’s an autonomous branch of government. He further announced to Parliament that his government would respect the Bill of Rights, including clauses dealing with freedom of expression. The meaning of these statement was that a new dawn has arrived where rule of law and order were to be the norm that would be respected by the President and his team.
Barely a few hours after the President’s great speech in Parliament, his Minister of Sports was in the media disrespecting the autonomy of FAZ and proposing that Kalu be part of that organization, against set rules and standards. It’s clear the Minister was clueless about what HH meant when he talked about respecting autonomous entities, within the context of rule of law and orderliness.
Then the Information Minister was at a press conference, struggling to read a text written in basic English, and espousing her vision to curtail freedom of expression. The abysmally-low quality of context and below-average reading skills of the Minister negate the earlier pronouncements that appointments would be based in merit. She failed to demonstrate that hers is an appointment based on merit or competence. Further, her threats towards those enjoying their constitutional freedoms of expression negates the President’s earlier pronouncement that the Bill of Rights would be respected.
In all this debate on the Minister’s gaffes, my biggest worry is that she doesn’t appear to have been fully inducted on what her job description is. She is a Government Spokesperson; she is charged with informing citizens on various official positions of government, esp Cabinet. She is not a general vlogger who should be presenting personal opinions. People were expecting to hear what and how Cabinet is guiding the citizens on issues like:
[1] Way forward on bars and restaurants which were closed at the height of covid
[2] way forward on farmer input distribution
[3] scope of jurisdiction of new Ministries
[4] ways of functioning of departments and personnel of abolished ministries
[5] way forward regarding the fate of officers of government and parastatals who had been unfairly retired in the so-called national interest
It’s clear that the press conference was premature, the message delivered was irrelevant and the Minister was clueless about what her job is nor what the important issues to the nation are.
I don’t know about others, for me I give the Minister of Information zero out of 10 as a mark for performance in the first two weeks on the job. I pray that she improves quickly. Her fitness for office is a major source of concern
Just worrying loudly…ESM Ndola
