 On 23 September 2019, at 05.29 pm, President Halainde Hijilema, while in the opposition, as President of the United Party for National Development tweeted and I quote, the office of the president must cut out foreign trips as the economy is in distress. President Halainde Hijilema, President of the Republic of Zambia now, while in opposition, as leader of the largest opposition in Zambia, tweeted and I quote, the office of the president must cut out foreign trips as the economy is in distress. He went on to say the rise in the fuel prices is yet another example of why hostility measures must be seriously implemented to keep the economy under control. My dear brother, President Halainde Hijilema, what has changed? What has changed today, my dear brother? The factors then are still the factors now. One, our economy is still under stress. Second, the price of fuel which you talked about in this tweet is still very high. And that's the more reason why hostility measures must be observed even today. Mr. President, you have taken fake international trips in one year, seven months of your leadership. In the last two weeks, you have taken three trips, foreign trips together with the pending trip to Senegal. Three trips in two weeks at the expense of the taxpayer. I remember very well you used to call President Hedi Gacha Walungu that Kamuendomun Jila for taking so many international trips. What has changed today, my dear brother? Look, Zambians, like I said in my prehambu, if we continue being inconsistent, doing exactly the same things that we condemned when we are in the opposition, Zambians are going to lose confidence in politics. And once the Zambians lose confidence, there will be a lot of people not going out to vote. There will be a path in short during elections because when we say something today and when we are in power, we start doing exactly the opposite or we start doing the things that we used to condemn, the UPND in opposition condemned not only President Lungu, they also condemned President Rupea Banga and said the foreign trips are necessary to some extent. And that is very true because I was Minister of Foreign Affairs in the first government of the Petrotic Front under President Maiko Sata. President Maiko Sata did not leave Zambia until after seven months. President Maiko Sata did not leave Zambia in short he did not undertake any foreign trip until after seven months and I remember very well he called me and Dr. Guy Scott and he said and I quote, We have a lot of things to do in the country. We have a lot of repair to do to the country. We have a lot of problems here in the country. And if you are going to be writing to me that Mr. President there is this trip you have to go, I would rather find another Minister of Foreign Affairs because these international trips some of them can be undertaken by you yourself as Minister of Foreign Affairs, some can be taken by the vice president and others can be attended to by ambassadors and high commissioners in those respective countries where the meetings are being held. I will not leave the problems back home. I have just been elected. I need to settle down and once I'm settled I am satisfied that things are now moving that is when I'll start undertaking foreign trips. In the meantime you, Dr. Scott and our ambassadors and high commissioners would do us a favor to attend these meetings and this was only two months when we were in office and there was a trip to go undertake in the Commonwealth meeting in Australia. I went with Dr. Guy Scott. Mr. Sata only undertook the first foreign trip seven months and we went to the Great Lakes Region conference in Uganda so you can see that Mr. Sata was very consistent. With what he promised, wide in opposition. I remember very well he used to condemn President Lupea Banda for moving too much and true to his words it took him seven months and most of the meetings even after he used to send either guests of the meetings even after he used to send either Dr. Scott the minister of foreign affairs or indeed high commissioners and ambassadors our president I think this is now becoming embarrassing no matter how foreign affairs wants to shub that court the importance of these meetings countrymen and women not all meetings I have been to those meetings in fact to tell you the truth more often than not age of states are represented by prime ministers and vice president most of the time and indeed just ministers of foreign affairs but it appears our president every meeting every invitation he has to travel this is at great cost to the treasure he just went to Angola from Angola he proceeded to Dubai from Dubai tomorrow he is leaving for Senegal our cha-chilamu but president cha-chilamu to apapata filafi nemoa lepkonden mama name when you are in the opposition zambians are watching you and those who are managing the president please let's be truthful you see what destroys presidents is that they want to listen to their own words I would advise my friends in the UPND to please advise the president correctly I am at foreign trips ya cha-chilamu these memorandum of understandings that are being signed all over have always been there even when I was minister of foreign affairs we were signing memorandums we didn't need the president to be there in any case presidents don't sign memorandas or memorandums of understanding it is ministers so the president nashenko kwenda I want to relate you la people are really suffering but you are busy travelling all the time please delegate when a minister travels when a vice president travels the cost is relatively much lower than the president when the president travels it is a very high cost to the treasure because of the security details etc etc I cannot go into details when I travelled during my time when I travelled as minister of foreign affairs or any other minister what we usually do is you use the vehicle for the ambassador to move around but when the president moves the must be proper transport arrangements made in most cases hired vehicles or hired motorcates so please my president be consistent live up to your promises like I said it is becoming embarrassing that if you don't say finto this is what happened so Nampapat about president kwa kwewen fwa ya kwa na kumutansh Ero ule kwewela pos straight ni mu na onko stop these unnecessary foreign trips that conference you are going to in Senegal is about agriculture send the minister of agriculture send the minister of foreign affairs and the minister of agriculture they will represent you on the other hand you must also look at your health you can't just be away from home all the time you need to be home with your children and your family you need to be home to provide a service to the people of Zambia they are the ones who elected you to give them service not to try and impress the IMF not to try and impress the Americans or the western world because this is now what it is amounting to that you want every conference you go and attend and you go and speak so that you appear to be the most intelligent president in Africa or in the world you are doing a disservice to the people of Zambia you are doing a disservice to the people of Zambia Mkombi Makufuri rarely moved out of Tanzania Makufuri rarely traveled but look at the development that he left in Tanzania look at his records of where he left Tanzania you don't need to travel all the time in order to develop this country that's a wrong notion my president that's a wrong notion and please stop it you see Zambians are very patient ilo baka mimi na one day tamua kare kata ma Zambians so the best you can do avoid it my brother avoid it try as much as possible to be around to attend to the issues in the country look at the mess we are in in terms of Lord Shedding and your government has just said you cannot stop exports you are being unfair to the Zambians how can you allow Zambians to be Lord Shedded for 8 hours and this thing you have brought of 4 hours in the morning 4 hours in the evening 4 hours at midnight please it's stressing Zambians there is nothing that you have achieved by saying we are going to divide it into two I mean Lord Shedding people twice in 4 hours you can't do anything by the time 4 hours is ending you have not done anything power is gone why can't you just stop these exports and by the way the reason that you gave Mr. President is not convincing in fact is a very laughable reason for you not to stop exports you said no in case we start generating more power if we terminate these contracts will not have where to sell our excessly electricity that will generate in future come on my brother you can do better than that you can do better than that and I know you can do better than that but please let's be consistent in what we do stop the exports perle ni avant wa malait look this electricity is very very very important yesterday I was listening to the radio on Khamnet TV where they reported that we are going to Khamnet TV where they reported deaths as a result of bloodshedding in hospitals as a result of bloodshedding 4 patients died in this hospital that was on the news shorted one fall who say habena zambia bale fwa because tabuli amalaiti mule pela malaiti wa Namibia mule pela malaiti wa Zimbabwe mule pela malaiti wa South Africa mule pela malaiti wa Kongu bane you cannot run this country like a business entity and be careful the Americans be careful the way we want to associate with the Americans otherwise you end up being used as a country