Q FM Africa's Modern Radio
President Edgar Lungu
President Edgar Lungu has been reminded that his 2016 victory is threatened by constitution reform process and land issues among average Zambians.
The Young African Leaders Initiative (YALI) Governance Advisor Isaac Mwanza says although President Lungu was on spot when he encouraged the nation to rise between partisan politics in the amending of the Constitution of Zambia, he missed an opportunity to remind the Members of Parliament to never change the will of the people as expressed in the Bill which is before the House.
Mr. Mwanza says his organization has realized that even the UPND which voted against the Constitution Amendment Bill in Parliament this week, has promised in its manifesto that once elected into office, they will support amendments of the Constitution between 2016 to 2021 to include progressive clauses.
Mr. Mwanza says President Lungu must realize that PF MPs who don’t do what the Zambians expect have a potential to de-campaign him by the actions and have the people of Zambia vote him out of office next year.
He says it is therefore important that the PF must never go into the temptation of arbitrary amending the Constitution although Parliament must be able to realign some of the provisions in the Bill so they could fall in line with the spirit of good democratic governance.
Meanwhile, the YALI Governance Advisor has welcomed President Lungu’s emphasis on diversification of the economy to agriculture where citizens must be able to contribute to food or production and food security.
He says President Lungu must take leadership and revise the new fees for land acquisition and consideration which will disadvantage poor Zambians from owning land which they can use for agricultural purposes.
He adds that President Lungu has also not shown proactive leadership as did his predecessor in protecting citizens whose land is arbitrary being grabbed and redistributed by State agencies and Ministries to citizens with money and foreign nationals.