Africa-Press – Zambia. Aspiring candidate for the position of president of the Patriotic Front, PF, Geoffrey Bwalya Mwamba, GBM, has challenged President Hakainde Hichilema to resign in the face of acute hunger currently underway in several parts of the country owing to what he calls poor leadership.
Mr Mwamba has reminded President Hichilema of his own words once posted on his Twitter page in which he said, “If a person were to die of hunger under my Presidency, I would seriously evaluate whether I am fit to continue leading the nation. This is deeply troubling, and I can’t contain my displeasure”.
According to the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification, IPC, “Over 1.35 million Zambians (10% of the analyzed population) are experiencing severe food insecurity (IPC Phase 3 Crisis) between July and September 2022, due to high food prices and climatic shocks. This population requires urgent humanitarian action to reduce food gaps, protect and restore livelihoods, and prevent acute malnutrition”.
The former Kasama Constituency lawmaker says Mr Hichilema was especially voted for by the very population that now faces acute hunger and whose lives hang in the balance. Mr. Mwamba says this population believed Mr Hichilema had the capacity to protect them from hunger and the death that might result from there.
The former Defense Minister says it is now clear that President Hichilema does not have the leadership he claimed to have to protect the vulnerable parts of the Zambian population. Instead, Mr Bwalya says the President duped the Zambian voter by promising them what they wanted to hear.
“I have no doubt in my mind that Mr Hichilema was only attracted to public office for the title ‘president’ and not really to serve”, Mr. Mwamba says. He adds, “Since he is evidently trapped in an office whose challenges he did not bargain for, he simply needs to resign when he still has a bit of dignity to walk away with”.
Commentators fear that the food security situation in the country will get worse, especially in view of the chaotic distribution of farming inputs that has characterized the 2022/2023 farming season.
Claiming to clean up the system, President Hichilema has fumbled his way around an obscure agricultural policy which has left analysts wondering whether the President really knows what he is doing.
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