Opposition political parties a letdown-small scale farmers

Wed, 28 Dec 2016 11:14:12 +0000

By Nation Reporter  

OPPOSITION political parties have been a great let down in the distribution of agricultural inputs, the National Union for Small-Scale Farmers of Zambia has charged.

Director General Dr. Frank Kayula complained that opposition political parties had done very little to ensure farmers obtained farming inputs on time and had been a great let down in this regard.

“The blame on poor and late distribution of inputs to farmers may not, therefore, squarely fall on the ruling party because we do have opposition parties that should have offered checks and balances for the betterment of this nation early in the year,” he said.

Unfortunately, he added, for Zambia and its citizens, most of the opposition parties, including the so called big parties were just quick at complaining without offering credible solutions.

“They are quick at noticing mistakes, even silly ones and rush to the media like little children crying to their big brothers to save them from bullies. These parties are as good as dead. The earlier most of these parties de-registered themselves the better for the nation because they are not adding any value to the governance system of this country,” Dr. Kayula said.

He said the political and governance system should work as a whole…“If our political leaders think that national leadership is just about State House, they will go to sleep as they have done on important issues like the food production system. The agricultural sector is not functioning as it should and our political leaders are on Christmas chasing after ‘stolen’ votes and offering what they know best- complaints about trivial matters to media. The weightier matters of food, unemployment, poor working conditions, and health challenges, high interest on loans, taxes and low government revenues are left unchecked without good solutions from their side”.

He advised the opposition parties to mature and move from the blame game and start offering alternative solutions to any mess that the ruling party might have plunged the nation into.

“If the opposition parties were vigilant and working in Parliament as they should, they could have probed Government on how smooth the farm input distribution was going on. Unfortunately for poor Zambians, while some opted to boycott parliamentary proceedings and national events others chose to remain. So far, the performance of the opposition parties is very dismal,” Dr. Kayula said.

He explained that opposition parties stood a good chance to challenge the sitting government with powerful solutions which the electorate would see as better alternatives.

“Today, the failure is in the agricultural sector, tomorrow it may be in another sector. Where are the solutions from these opposition parties? Can these leaders and their troops stop complaining and give Zambians alternatives solutions?” he wondered.

He said Zambia needed a credible opposition that would not only offer challenging alternatives, but would also offer checks and balances to the ruling party.

“We are more than sure that if we continue with the status quo, PF has another 20 years in power. We would like to challenge the opposition parties to give us alternatives for the FISP program. They should also give us alternatives to the irrigation programs and the marketing system for the farmers. It is not enough for these opposition parties to just bring out negatives in PF performance, but they should also give us well designed programs that may work as alternatives to those perceived to have failed under PF,” Dr. Kayula said.