Former Zambia President Edgar Chagwa Lungu has blasted President Hakainde Hichilema for failing to find solutions to the hunger crisis following the drought experienced during rainy season in the country.
Writing on his official facebook page Lungu said HH’s statement acknowledging the hunger crisis in the country “exposed his leadership inadequacies to feed and manage the nation by misinterpreting our good biblical scriptures.”
“I feel profoundly sorry for him and remain deeply touched by over 6 million Zambians threatened with hunger due to HH’s poor leadership and bad government policies.
“There are things President HH can learn from the past PF administration and myself in terms of policy and political leadership in the agricultural sector. Like the story of Egypt’s ancient Prime Minister, Joseph he cited in the Bible, my government had sound policy direction, leadership, foresight, preparedness and effective governance personnel to grow, feed and stock surplus maize, wheat, soya beans, groundnuts, fish, cassava, rice, and other crops in times of plenty to rely on and use in times of drought,” wrote Lungu.
He added: “In the Bible story, Joseph had seven years of plenty which saved the next seven years of scarcity and hunger. This was the policy style of my government.
“Honestly, droughts should never be used as an excuse for bad leadership and poor policies.”
He then asked HH administration to learn from his then administration where he assembled a competitive team to evert hunger in the country.
“In 2018, after experiencing a crippling drought, I put together a competent team and gave it one major task—“grow our maize reserve and food security to an extent that Zambians would not starve during any future drought”. From 300,000 tons of maize in 2018, we increased the harvest to 433,000 tons in 2019 and kept increasing the harvest to more than 3 million tons by 2020.
“Clearly it was our distinguished political leadership that made a huge difference. When we left office in August 2021, our maize strategic reserves record stood at over 2 million tons, ensuring Zambia´s food security for the next two years or more in case of drought. I remain proud of this record as former President. Had I been in power today, Zambia would have still been feeding from our own strategic maize reserves and the price of mealie meal would have been much lower than the current K380 or K420 depending on where you are buying the commodity from,” he added.
Meanwhile, Lungu has accused HH of creating the hunger in Zambia by exporting all the maize in the grain reserves.
