 Coming to our present set of circumstances and indeed our nation's Situation I'm sad to That currently we have a one-man commando in state house a one-man commando Who is basically interested in micromanaging? Everything and everybody For his benefit To his fancies and wins Most of you have been calling me and asking how do you rate? The UP and the government in the last 18 20 months they've been in government on a scale of 1 to 10 On a scale of 1 to 10 I'll give them to in terms of leadership in Terms of economic direction In terms of moral fiber the president of this country Suffers from in Asia and tolerance To lies from the time that he was in the opposition This president My good friend Aga in the H&M has been lying to this country and to the citizens and Those lies are now coming back to haunting It is different when you are trying to get into office and you're trying To win the hearts of your citizens and when you compare that to when you're in office But the killer punch Political has always been that you must have a plan you must have a vision a Leader who suffers from the lack of vision cannot take his nation anyway Now you're all here and if you are investigative journalists This is the one million dollar question. You must put across to any leader in the UPND Starting from the president and the question is this What is the manifesto The economic manifesto of the UPND as you sit here you as journalists Ask them that what is the economic direction that we are taking as a nation Ask them that I Say my good friend suffers from in Asia and tolerance to lies because you can categorize the lies that he has told Since he was in opposition to date I don't want to go through that because you've got those lies on your social media pages. They are there But some of the things I want to point out are very simple, but straightforward and We shouldn't be forgetting so quickly as ambience When you're building a team around you as a president You must make sure that the people that around you do not tell you lies and Qualified to be there. I am talking about the economic advice of the president Do we know a gentleman called Jito Kalyun? This is a gentleman who lied in his CV to get a job Maybe you've forgotten You need money He told the nation in the CV That he had sat on the board For our central bank Bank of Zambia This was proved to be a lie and Bank of Zambia said they've never had this gentleman sitting on their boat But using that CV He got a job did the president of this country Discipline or fire Jito Kalyun No, he's still there and this is a man who's supposed to be running your economy further When you falsify documents It's a criminal offense. Have you seen Jito arrested? No, then there was the live in Goma Agafumba recording which you all listen Something about a political party at the Minister of Home Affairs being registered or not registered Maybe you've forgotten When you're looking at the behavior of Government you look from the head What does this head tolerate This head tolerance lies The poor performance and lack of communication between You the media houses and the Ministry of Media and Information as it's called How many policies have you been given? By this government to give you directions so that you can inform the nation about what's going on in the country Now I see a lot of pretty young girls here Journalists who powdered themselves, but not as much as someone powders themselves Running the Minister of Information What do you get from there apart from power? You have to be Questioning some of these appointments because this is how we run a nation for example when The president Was in a position He made it seem like he had a good team around him It took my good friend Four to five months to announce his cabinet four to five months is this a president who was ready for leadership You as journalists must be keeping a tab So that you follow the first minister appointed was the Minister of Finance Muslim so-called honor upon so-called after that there was silence and You the media people were being invited to state house in drips and drabs to go and hear about who's appointed and who's not There was social media running about who's going to be in the cabinet and who's not going to be in the cabinet Some of you even thought I was going to be there I didn't want to jump with you. I Simply went to help them win an election this poor performance and lack of communication between you the journalists the press and The Zambian people because you're the eyes through which the people of Zambia see government this poor performance Has led to a lack of communication between government and the people of Zambia We move to the drug shortage There's been a persistent drug shortage Medicine shortage in our hospitals in our clinics since the UPND came into power You as journalists Our witnesses to this some of you have gotten sick Your relatives have gotten sick You've gone to hospitals and there's no medicine What is Neema doing? How is Neema functioning a view investigated that Or your kind of reporting journalists is just to get information from the minister. How many of you have been Knocking on my sister's office at the minister of Come I mean health honourable Sylvia myself to ask You will agree that the doctors themselves with a group of parliamentarians and took a study and They agreed That there was a shortage of medicine in the country They presented this by a bipartisan parliamentary committee to parliament That they are shortages of drugs in this country There was a report the secretary general of the doctors medical association was on TV I think on one of your TV stations Suggesting very strongly that we should declare the shortage of drugs a very serious emergency What has happened to that problem has that problem been solved the answer is no But you as journalists you make these stories die and The people begin to think this is normal. I Think I am here to ask you my media friends to help the Zambian people That we must begin to change and shift the paradigm You are part of the problem You're not informing this country and you're not Making the powerful Accountable to the people who put them in office this drug shortage is still there There's an MP for cool a doctor Kareela Lee I May not pronounce the name proper. He's a human God ask me what happened to this report the secretary general for the medical doctors association is there go and ask it What happened to this report? Ask all of them. I said what has happened to the drums Is there an improvement? Are people not still being given prescriptions when they go to hospitals as we speak today is this good governance? Is this the way we're going to run our country they came the issue of the auditing of the minister of defense By friends to the president the Grand Fountain Not the auditing Grand Fountain the private firm went to audit minister of defense has anyone of you as reporters Bothered to find out what that report says about the minister of defense What is in that report? What did they find out? How far is that report gone? Why was it necessary to hire a private? Auditing firm to audit the ministry of defense We must not gloss over issues as Zangir sometimes we tend to rush and And leave in the fray of what is happening now and we begin to forget what happened yesterday in Politics that is how you bury problems Over other problems and then you begin to say but what happened to that and then you can't remember because someone along the line This government wants you to live in the fast lane But you as journalists must always be two steps behind Not be three steps ahead two steps behind You must be asking but you said this yesterday what has happened to it you promised us this what has happened to this So why was it necessary to have Grand Fountain audit the minister of defense as any one of you bother to find out why What is that report the president does not trust government civil servants? He does not trust the crop of civil servants that he found in government especially those are director PS and Other higher levels you've seen the recent sacking of the auditor general He may have his own problems, but he's been fired At the Ministry of Finance there was a cleaner You go and ask at the police service How many senior police officers have been retired dismissed or terminated? Go and ask at the various ministries at director level how many people Have been sent on force plea some of them not fired. They go and park their cars Park their cars in the car parks. They're reading his papers but Their offices have been taken over by other people This is a government that promised to you that they were going to make sure that there's accountability You're paying two people for the same job One substantive officer reading a newspaper another guy who's been brought as acting and it's happening almost everywhere Even in your media houses. Those that are controlled by government. There's been a clean out When you begin to mistrust your civil servants as a president As a government What you're doing is we're wiping away the institutional memories of the civil service and That is going to kill the civil service The president recently was on one of your media Saying we are having a few problems With some civil servants you cannot have problems with civil servants when you haven't given them policy direction The problem is you mr. President You don't have direction Your leadership lacks direction. So what are people going to be following? You want people to follow you To do what you want them to do But you haven't given direction civil servants work on manifestos or a political party civil servants obeyed The party of the day now if you haven't given them direction, you can't say you're having problems. The problem is you The UP and D is a problem. It has no direction and you The press must take them to task I've seen you attending pressers at state house and Some of your questions frankly, I don't know you get them from because they are more planning issues You asked the most irrelevant questions. I'm not condemning you my media friends But I'm trying to communicate to the nation. We have you as Journalists we have you as our eyes to the nation It is your job To hold any government accountable Ask the right questions tough questions. If not follow them up through investigative journalism Find time That is also one of you winner once because you know what to do. You know where to search But we're not seeing that Whatever happened to that crop of reporters who are at the post who could dig and dig deeper and throw the mud at government and say We know you're doing this. Have you lost your knack as journalists? You just want to report what the minister said what the president said The Zambian people deserve better from you guys The president has this tendency of micromanaging his government because in his head. He's still an auditor He believes that no one can function without his signature Ministers have not been given the free reign in their ministries. God. That's the ministers They're failing To speak they're failing to come up with policies. They're failing to advise the government To advise their P1 Each minister must come up with his own Policy direction, this is what I want so that the nation improves Have you ever heard any minister in the UK and he issued a policy direction? Other than the president again nature and you're sitting Have you ever heard any minister come and tell you this is what the government wants to do? The way this government is running We're heading for disaster and if you the journalists don't call them out for what we are doing or lack thereof This nation will not get the correct information to come and make the correct decision Come 2026 and then you'll be saying no, but what happened here? What happened is you're not informing Your citizen you should be informed So this attitude That I am the partner in an audit firm I should sign off everything before it leaves my desk is the mentality our president has taken into state house He has to see everything that each minister is doing. It doesn't work Government does not function The reason we have government is to ensure that each minister runs his ministry With his peers and directors to the best of his ability. I don't want to say what happens in cabinet But rumors are that somewhere along the line there are lectures People are lectured to and told what to do Now if you don't come up with the policy yourself as a minister as a peers as a director But you're being lectured to that's why things are failing Because you didn't think it through It didn't come from your mind. It came from someone else When you initiate something You're likely to have thought through it The corners and you know this is what I want to do, but when it is imposed on you nothing moves Today Unfortunately, this has even permeated right down to cabinet cabinet office is Not giving technical direction to the leaders Government is not the UP and D Government is not pf Government is not MND Government is the civil service run by cabinet office. There are rules and regulations at cabinet office and Whenever a party comes into power, it is the duty of the civil servants to go and tell that government These are the rules under which government operates What policies do you have so that we can fit these two and work within your manifesto or your policies? That is not happening So what we're seeing today is that cabinet office has been reduced to the role of Simply being protocol officers at state house. They're not educating the politicians Politicians don't go until civil servants wants to do no they say this is our policy How does government policy? How does government regulations fit into this? Because tomorrow this UP and the government will leave the civil servants will remain the regulations of government will be the same The only thing that changes is the policy direction coming from a political party and That's what the UP and D has failed to give Excuse me the civil servants. That's why these complaints are coming against the civil servants The civil servants are not failing The UP and the government is failing to give policy direction for the civil servants to marry Their regulations with the policy of the day And that's the problem, but you again my dear friends as journalists I'm not questioning these things. I Want us to have an exchange today so that you understand that you have a duty as The press to push the government So that you understand exactly what the policy is on health on agriculture on defense on foreign affairs On every other ministry You must know so that you communicate with us again. Let's talk about the culture Which is a burning issue right now when the president appointed? Minister Mordor As the means of agriculture Some of us were happy Because this is a guy who has run FRA. He's got some agricultural background and we understand He's got a brain between his ears. He's going to come up with policies. He's going to come up with some Indication of how to get us moving as a nation. What do we see? What do we see? We see this minister go on the floor Start telling the nation we're going to be exporting minimum will be exporting maize and you won't stop us And we will not stop you heard it What has happened now with that police? Because you didn't calculate how much maize you had in stocks in your silos You didn't know whether or not some of that maize had gone bad You didn't know whether the population in zambia had grown and you didn't know where the market forces would be the same Now you have a problem We have gone back 30 40 years into the kounda era Where wives young girls Young men are now living their homes at zero five in the morning to go and queue up for minimum because of the policy By a stubborn arrogant government And you my dear friends you're watching Don't let Your jobs as journalists be taken over by social media Social media will only give you direction What's happening in kasumpe is this what's happening in chingola is this in chilebombo? It is this in mufflera. It is this what is happening in living stone in indola. It is this but it is your job to move Go on the ground. I'm sorry And go and ensure that you get the funds And then you go back to government but your policy was Isn't this the cause of this? Because if you let government run The way it is running today You my dear friends would have failed In your duties Don't blame the citizens when they begin to throw stones at the millers as it was happening in chingola Don't blame those youths when they get right us because they're angry This is the same president In opposition was saying a hungry man is an angry man I agree with you So when people begin to react because they're angry Don't blame them So how many of you have gone back to ruben? Honor and asking the very pertinent questions about this policy Now we have the minister of finance the minister of defense Minister of agriculture dropping in and issuing stature instruments I was reading a circular from the minister of finance. I don't even know what stature instrument number that is but financed as issued stature instruments to protect me a government in a country Where we are not a socialist country This is not a communist economy We have a mixed economy here Basically, we're capitalists If you ask me the policies we have today since the mmd We refused a communist economy So how come we are now going to start russian new who buys what? Talk to your relatives You go to shops today. There's a poster at the door. You can only buy one bag of minimum What if I've got a funeral What if I'm going for campaigns What if I've got more children to feed No, no you paper And my family's big I buy a bag of minimum You dip my hand in ink Welcome to voting But we are watching this And you as journalists Are not asking the right questions You're not holding this government accountable Let's not gloss over important matters Because tomorrow We are the same people who will be crying to say when did this happen? It's simmering underneath here And something may go wrong tomorrow depending on how you the media Handle this information There is In consistency At the minister of agriculture We all know what happened to physics When this government came into power, we all know what happened to the physics program There was a rush No, no let them form cooperatives. No let them do that our women Our youths run to pakora to go and form cooperatives They obeyed No cdf is also going to help you with cooperatives. They run to make these cooperatives No, the agriculture sector will be taken up very importantly because they I am also a farmer the president told us The women and the youths responded The cooperatives have been formed. What has happened to this physics policy? Where is the money? Have you asked those questions? My dear friends Have you been to the means of agriculture to ask these questions? There is also the policy on maize exports. Have you asked the pertinent questions? How many banks of maize have been exported? To which countries and why? What's the value to this nation? How much foreign exchange have we earned by the exportation of maize? Do we have those answers? This is your job today We're asking the same question on millimeo How many bags of millimeo have been exported to which countries? Why? How much foreign exchange has come into this country? Why was that policy important at the time it was taken? Why did this government decide to export maize and millimeo outside this country? And for what benefit to this country? Foreign exchange How much has come in? Do we know those answers? No, we don't. Why? You're not holding this government accountable It is your duty Members of the press to hold the powerful accountable further We had this so-called democratic conference Which was held here I'm not blaming you Members of the press and I know for instance that ZNBC being the national broadcaster has a policy That they must support the government of the day So you tried in your own way To publicize this democratic conference at Mungushi conference center That is a question We were given that this conference was going to bring in so many people We were also told that this conference was going to have a lot of money coming to the country It was also going to help in tourism This conference was supposed to put Zambia on the map I ask again Have you as journalists Gone to government and asked the president How much money we got We made out of this democratic conference that we held here What were the benefits that accrued to this country? What did we see at this conference? What did we hear? Apart from our own president talking And some minister of education or something from the united states Who else of importance came here? How many presidents From the african continent came to this democratic conference I was on a show Someone is it hot and one of you was saying no, but they attended by virtue Really Have you ever heard of mr. Cooper? You can leave a jacket And someone will be thinking you're attending a conference Is he there? Members of the press I am trying to poke your brains So that you begin to understand that you have a job to do And you and us as politicians must be partners in the development of this country This democratic Conference that we had Was necessary We were told It was important. We were told It was carefully planned. We were told it was coming on the backhand of our president having been invited to The united states with 49 other heads of states in africa Truth be told What did we get as a nation? Have you asked the minister of finance how much money has come into our nation? As a result of that conference Or we've just glossed over it. We've taken the pictures photo ops and it's done That democratic conference had people from the united states trying to tell us about how democracy works in america And how good Being a democrat is we heard and we listened to our speeches. We're grateful But some of us are students of history And we know that america is a racist state whether you like it or not. That's what it is That's who they are america was founded on the labor of slaves Who toiled the plantations for 244 years as slaves Civil rights are just being introduced today But even now that country is still divided on racial lines That's the country you want to rank to to teach you about democracy That's the country you want to align yourself to The united states this year some of you may not know has had 147 mass shootings Since january and we are just in april 147 mass shootings Do you see them changing the gun laws in america? They're not changing a week ago Or is it a few days ago two local legislators in the state of tennessee Why expelled black legislators young men 26 27 years old For protesting on the floor of parliament that they wanted gun laws changed because there were shootings in lutheriana What are we doing? We want to copy that These are the same people who are coming with the undercurrent of gay rights in this country And you say that's a model of democracy. I'm sorry I am so sorry I will not subscribe to that Go back to what I told you at the beginning. What is a nation? What is a nation? We must be agreed on a set of values ideals Morals that we must live by as a nation Don't import if the united states Is going to impose democracy on zambia based on the fact that gay rights must be imposed in zambia On behalf of zambia must prosper read my lips. It will not happen We as a political party will fight that tooth and nail And if their aid is going to be tied to that let them take their aid We are not interested Look at that society critically Before you import some of their values here We know that cdc from america supports the health sector and we agree But look at the area of support They mainly support the supply of condoms They support drugs for hiv And other related diseases They'll give government a bit of money here and there and support systems. But why is cdc today? Trying to be running parallel structures against wHO Have you asked yourselves that? Why is cdc today Trying to take over the role of wHO The world health organization to which we are all accredited They pulled out their support From the wHO and they gave it to cdc and they said we'll be supporting african states bilaterally Not through wHO Have you asked the questions? Why? This issue of trying to follow america for the sake of following america To mean smells of state capture I don't know What our president signed up to before he became president of this country But you as journalists must ask the right questions Hold the powerful accountable Ask why he's the president of this country so Bent On having america as a friend of zandi when our biggest creditor is china Why are we not talking to the chinese? Who we owe money Which chinese Have always been our development partners. Why? I wanted to bring these issues before And then make this announcement You as members of the press owe a duty to this country And that duty Is a servant leadership, which is the hallmark of zambia most possible We want to ensure That as we prepare to take over government You will be partners in the development of this country, but hold us accountable I am going to say this it might sound rude but you My dear friends the journalists of this country Are operating at 50 percent You are just Reporting what you're told you're not asking the right questions. I hope this engagement And as we begin To learn much more about the world and the geo politics that we're in today will open certain areas For you to begin to investigate For you to begin to ask the right questions today I was supposed to be attending the last agm in living room I am not there Because I know That the president is attending the agm and there will be another talk show I deliberate to stay the way I am not ready to be lectured to And be told about democracy And good governance when I know there is no good governance in my country I'll speak off the cuff I want to talk to our taxi drivers our minibus riders our Bus drivers and the people operating from the streets We know that kaderism has not ended We know that some of your vehicles are being smashed We know that you are being forced to pay up and decad as every day at these bus stops So when they say that kaderism has ended it doesn't Isn't that part of good governance? Why is that not being investigated by you people? Quietly go and talk to the minibus drivers Ask them But to you the minibus drivers the taxi drivers and the bus drivers all together Just know that we are your friends We have received all your reports And we are concerned But we shall take care of you When the time comes Not to shivanam uchiwula But here's the polyp branch from zambia mass prosper be our friends We know what you can do on the ground and how you can campaign start campaigning now It is very clear this government is headed for failure And therefore let us start Making those alliances and friendships Lastly to my fellow position leaders I am saying this To you Through this person Let us open dialogue and begin to look at the poor zambians Let's not put our egos before the nation Patriotism must always be there and it must come first We need this nation Turning back and moving on course I didn't want to go into too much detail About the scandals that are going on, but I think I've just sold your minds to direct you To go and say what about this to those people who are currently in power today So that they are able to answer and speak To the zambian people Not just to go and have a presser And some of you failed to ask the vice president of america when she was here the right questions I expected you to be bold enough to ask the right questions. I didn't hear that You the journalists must be the friends of those poor zambians out there Not friends of the politicians of the day Politicians come and go Remember that politicians come and go And upnd Will be going soon. So don't get too cozy with them Get cozy with the zambian people. I thank you