UPND national youth chairman Gilbert Liswaniso must be commended for his sound advice to the youth in the party not to claim exclusive rights to opportunities under the new dawn administration.
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The belief that they ought to be rewarded for having helped the UPND win the August 12, 2021 general elections to form government must be discarded.
This is the more reason why Mr Liswaniso should be applauded for being honest with the over-expectant youths that they are not a special breed.
It is this false belief that brings confusion and unrest in the nation when those who belong to the governing party want to claim exclusive and preferential treatment to opportunities.
If anything, this is what often brings caderism about especially at public facilities like bus stations and markets when those supporting the party in government want to lord it over others.
They want to dictate who must trade in the market and who must load from which station. This then opens the way for corruption as desperate people are forced to pay bribes to be allowed the use of such facilities to avoid starvation.
This is the culture that President Hakainde Hichilema declared must end immediately after the official results were announced declaring him the winner.
This was obviously to the disappointment of some UPND cadres who thought they would now take-over from their Patriotic Front colleagues and continue the illegalities.
This is the narrative the UPND leaders must continue to drive and impress upon their members.
Said Mr Liswaniso: “I feel and sympathise with the UPND youths but let them do the right things. We should not promote lawlessness which characterised the previous government.
We will not allow our youths to start engaging in illegalities such as grabbing land in the name of rewarding themselves.”
As Mr Liswaniso said, many who supported the UPND while in opposition had different agendas and that there were those who had since arrived and were happy while many were beginning to feel neglected.
“But we have many of our youths who truly sacrificed for the UPND during the struggle but they are not the only Zambians. Even the youth who did not support or vote for the UPND are Zambians looking up to the same UPND government for opportunities.”
Once everyone understands this concept, the misunderstandings over the Constituency Development Fund for example would be a thing of the past.
There is a general perception that only those sympathetic to the UPND are able to access funding from the CDF when the policy directives are clear that the only qualification is for one to be a Zambian.
The CDF must not be seen as a UPND project, but as a government programme that is designed to empower people at constituency level regardless of their political inclination.
But it is sad that the nation is sometimes treated to witness petty squabbles among leaders wanting to claim “ownership” of the CDF.
The “Liswaniso doctrine” if genuinely adopted by everyone across the political divide is what would bring about development and genuine reconciliation in the nation.
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