 Today, we as a party in government felt it necessary for us to make comments on two issues that we feel that cannot go unnoticed, namely the arrest of the vice president or acting president. of the patriotic front honorable given Lubinda. And number two, we want to comment on governments announced maize flow price that FRA will be by the maize for this particular year's harvest. As a party in government we feel it is necessary for us to add our voice to the many comments that have been made by citizens regarding the arrest of the acting president of the patriotic front honorable given Lubinda on account of alleged failure to report himself before the parliamentary privileges committee in accordance with the requirements and as provided for by section 10 of the national assembly powers and privileges act amendment number 13 of 2016 which brought into effect a requirement that once a person is summoned before the parliamentary privileges committee such a one should produce themselves before the privileges committee which is the disciplinary committee of parliament for those individuals who violate parliamentary rules regulations and or conduct of business as such such as to bring the name of parliament or the national assembly into public audio or ridicule. We want to edge citizens particularly those in the political arena not to politicize the arrest of honorable given Lubinda. As fellow citizens we as UPND do sympathize with the situation that honorable given Lubinda has found himself but find it necessary to say it is a good lesson to him and to all of us in leadership that when you are in leadership you should make laws generally for the good governance of the nation and not targeting individuals we are aware that this law was brought into effect by the patriotic front and honorable given Lubinda had the opportunity to have been minister of justice at the material time we as UPND objected to this punitive provision in parliament but as usual they used the arrogance of numbers to defeat us and brought this law into effect and we all remember the motivation the motivation was that previously president HH then as leader and president of the UPND had made commentaries relating to conduct of business of parliament and some colleagues in the patriotic front were wishful that he should be brought before parliament so that he is embarrassed before parliament and so they went and crafted a law targeting an individual look now look now what has happened this is very unfortunate honorable wind should not have found himself in this predicament and for those for us who are in office who are given the opportunity to make laws for the governance of the country let us make laws that bet us the life and livelihood of our people and not targeting an individual so that an individual's freedom of expression and speech can be stifled it should not be like that but you will recall also that this is not the only bad law that was crafted targeting HH and his supporters or members of parliament you will recall that the national dialogue forum act which they passed had a provision that any person who stops a member of parliament from attending the national dialogue forum commits an offence and is liable on conviction to two years imprisonment the target was HH that he should not stop as his members of parliament attending the ill-fated NDF forum which was meant to discuss duty there was also in that same act a provision that any member of parliament who fails to attend the NDF shall commit a criminal offence and is liable on conviction to two years imprisonment that was targeting members of parliament of the UPND fortunately that one we defied it outrightly we challenged them to arrest us and we didn't attend the NDF we told them arrest us and we shall go and prove our innocence in court because you are violating our freedoms we were elected to attend parliament and when we abscond at parliament we are never taken to police we are never arrested how can we be arrested for failing to attend a workshop called NDF conference that is how they just let us go but the law was there they passed it I am giving this background to show that when you make laws to target individuals sometimes things do backfire in this particular law section 10 of the national assembly powers and privileges act amendment number 13 of 2016 has boomerangat right in the face of the patriotic fright so they should not complain they are testing their own medicine but I would like to indicate that for us as UPND and party in government we see this to be a bad law we see this to be a bad law but for the time being it is a law enforced and enforceable by the law enforcing agencies and also the courts of law so ours will end at sympathising with our dear colleague Honourable Given Novinda but we take note of the lesson make laws to govern the country better not to target individuals this is a lesson just like a lesson a number of PFMPs lent when they hurriedly passed a new constitution and supported it vigorously and robustly and voted for it without knowing that in there there was a requirement that for one to be a member of parliament you needed to be a great host certificate of order and some of them did not have so they were left out these are serious lessons for us and for those charged in public mandates to be able to supervise national affairs there is no need to personalise legislation good laws must focus on only one thing to look into the future generally with an intention to carry a particular mischief and one would say it is a mischief to refuse to appear before parliament yes but that is why laws assign different punishments laws assign different punishments there are omissions and commissions of offences that notwithstanding the fact that they come out of the domain of criminal law they are still they still assign a punishment which is less punitive to a citizen it is our contention that this particular law is punitive to citizens let me now talk about the issue of the announcement this morning by the food reserve agency FRA that for this particular year's harvest FRA or government through FRA will be purchasing maize at 280 kwa 50 kg back meaning that 100 kgs will be 560 kwa so we have seen a dramatic increase from last year's maize price of 180 kwa to 280 kwa an increase of 100 kwa very unprecedented very unprecedented but I would like to explain it as well as a party in government that the government thought through in coming up about this price a number of issues were considered among us which are the following one successive governments have been telling the nation a rhetorical story that would like agriculture to become a genuine alternative to mining and they have done less to inspire farmers to expand their agricultural activity in the past what we have seen farmers have been reduced to national laborers producing chip maize in order to feed the nation a government whose manifesto is anchored on agriculture to become Zambia's economic turnaround point maize has been fetching in the past many farmers had abandoned growing maize for commercial purposes many were growing for subsistence purposes the cost of production of maize was outstripping the value one gets after harvest so this announced maize price for 2023 by FRA is in keeping with governments vision that agriculture should gravitate towards becoming Zambia's main economic activity for the majority of our people realising and recognising that the majority of our citizens in the informal sector are involved in agriculture secondly this maize price has been arrived at knowing very well that this year our expected harvest is below and therefore government had to consciously enter the market to ensure that it is competitive in buying the maize so that it can quickly mop up the required national stocks that would support national food security for the nation I have received a lot of calls from people asking why this, why that the government is in this business for two main things one, reward the farmers for their hard work and encourage those who are just seated like some of us here in Choma town just seated doing nothing you don't want to go and farm your friends are involved in agriculture look now those who are involved in farming are beginning to reap so this is an opportunity many young people out there in the countryside are denying this country their population dividends given that they are the majority in terms of population but many of them are away from agricultural productivity they prefer to hodo around and reside in town it is time we thought about getting involved in activities even those that may find you reside in the rural area because there is productivity so what government has done also helps us as a patin government to answer some of the calls we have heard from some sections of our community or society saying there is no money in circulation government has now introduced more money in circulation by paying farmers an unexpected high price only those who didn't involve themselves in farming will be complaining about no money money must be linked to productivity that is when its currency holds value for the economy those days are gone of Tantamin Tantamin start dishing out money which you can't explain where you found it it's not linked to productivity you are running a forced and artificial economy and then you are saying we are performing numbers don't lie those who are saying in PF if in Fiyariko we know Fiyariko kiref in Daramata Shide Moneka no numbers don't lie PF left the economy at negative 2% we moved it now to about 3% growth rate GDP meaning 5% points positive so who is performing economy is not about sharing money the economy is about productivity so that the goods and services you produce attract value so there is more money now in circulation through FRIL there is money in circulation through market booster loans to marketeers without discrimination of political affiliation whatsoever there is money in circulation because social cash transfer has been doubled from where this government got it from there is more money in circulation because as we speak right now CEC a busy processing loans to small and medium entrepreneurs to become productive there is more money in circulation now through the increased CDF many young people out there are involved in metal fabrication and carpentry making desks desks which previously would have been imported or sourced from far away from where they are required the money is going to every constituent and every word of this country parents who used to pay for their children now have kept that tuition fee in their pockets there is money in circulation because the government has a very free education the government is paying even paying for examination fees retirees paid except zampost and Unza former workers from 2017 government is already paying attention to that KCM workers arias paid off tazara workers retirees paid off tazama pipeline wekton and now begin to supply or transport direct refined final product of fuel so that the cost of fuel comes down which will inform the cost of living expected it will respond positively shedding is part of history now we can write it as part of history it's gone many new shortages dealt with then you add napsa