DON’T THROW STONES IF YOU LIVE IN A GLASS HOUSE

THE remarks by President Michael Sata regarding Western province makes a sad reading. The whole drama is that the Head of State was number one in blaming the MMD administration for taking stiff measures in barring the agitators of the Barotse land agreement. He further promised to restore the agreement within 90 days and free those that were being prosecuted by the courts of law if elected. He has freed the insurgents and he has set a commission of inquiry but 90 days has elapsed without restoration of the agreement. Believe me you, the restoration of the Barotse agreement will take years if at all it will be honoured and effected. Behaving like a popularist, the President had the courage of castigating his own right hand man the Inspector General of Police Martin Malama for not acting on the rumours emanating from Western province of people wanting to form a state within a state. By the way the IG reports directly to the President. Why didn’t the President counsel his right hand man in the meeting with other Generals from the army, air force and National Service during the Joint Operations Committee meeting? One thing he forgets is that he had put much faith in the people of Western province of restoring their long awaited agreement which will see their Litunga lead them. Sata and Rupiah Banda at the moment can be likened to two others fighting for the possession of the house. In anger the elder in the name of Sata felt he was losing out and he opted to break the window pens of the house. Few days later the court (the Chief Justice as a Returning Officer) rules that the house belongs to the elder brother in the name of Sata. This is an agony our president is in. He thought he will not win the election so opted to (break the windows of the house) use the Barotse agreement for political mileage. Sata will be more disappointed if he discovers that the people he freed from prison for agitating for the restoration of the agreement earlier this year would be the same ones Dr Malama would arrest.