Jive talking not enough
July 8 2021
The speech was an affirmation that we had at the helm a sophisticated and exuberant rhetorician when President Lazarus Chakwera made his inaugural address on July 6 2020 with these words: “Four score and sixteen years ago, our nation was born. It was a birth that I myself bore witness to.”
The belief that Chakwera has his way with words was clear, as he twisted the words from Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address, which opens: “Fours core and seven years ago our fathers brought forth, on this continent, a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.”
During this year’s Independence Day celebrations, the President had no time for promises for they are choking his throat, apparently. And he had no time to quote other orators, he picked the opening quote from his own inaugural speech: “While our founding fathers and mothers accomplished their goal of national liberation and their sons and daughters accomplished their goal of political liberation, it is your generation that must accomplish the goal of economic liberation.”
So, as it is, he was conceding that in one year of his rule, nothing much has changed in terms of economic liberation. That was clear in every line of his speech.
The President chided the chairperson of the celebration organising committee, saying the decorations for the day ‘akhoza kukuchititsa munthu kuti uyang’ane kumbali’. He could go no further than that, being forced to look aside, but did he look aside? That could be the question.
If he looked aside on the ‘uglification’ done at several roundabouts, then why did he not break bread with the celebration committee on how much went into the run of the mill decorations? Why did he not call them and ask them to account how much of the K40 million went to the shody work? Why did he not say he was working to ‘invade’ the residences of the committee members that were better decorated than the city streets?
Take it not literal. But, talk is cheap.
It needs no reminder that the government said it had put aside K244 million for the celebrations. It had to take social media uproar for the move to backfire.
The committee chairperson Richard Chimwendo Banda had the presidential consent to announce that amount. Which raises questions about the President’s thoughts on frugality.
Talking of frugality, we hear seven officials, including Sports Minister Ulemu Msungama, will accompany five athletes to the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. No matter how far they can try to justify that the officials have different roles to play at the games. If their roles are very important, why did they not include a doctor?
For that matter, this comes at a time Japan has announced it will drastically decrease the number of spectators by more than half due to Covid-19.
You may think the two are not related, but look, the idea to still go to the Olympics comes at a time we hear of rising numbers of people dying of Covid-19 complications. Even more depressing is that some of those that died at Queen Elizabeth Central Hospital did so due to a dysfunctional oxygen plant.
And, by the way, why did government announce new Covid-19 measures a day after Independence Celeberations were held, where the target was to have 200 guests?
