Yes, We Should Be Worried About President Sata Zambia has the unique and unfortunate honour of being the only African nation to ever be ruled for some six months without a head of state. Reliable informants say that His Excellency President Michael Sata hasn’t set foot in his office since long before his “working holiday” to Israel, while hundreds of thousands of dollars from the public coffers have been spent on his medical treatments and emergency travels for care. In any normal country, a president in such a poor condition would be obligated to step aside, but apparently, Zambia under the PF is not a normal country. So it was with rapt attention that we all tuned into radio and televisions broadcasts to watch the much-anticipated opening of parliament, which President Sata had been preparing for for weeks. At exactly 10:35 hours President Michael Sata’s motorcade with his bullet proof Mercedes Benz sandwiched between a police officers on horseback rolled to a halt, as the military would say, at Parliament building to officially open the Fourth Session of the Eleventh National Assembly. Accompanied by his wife, First Lady Chritine Kaseba, Sata who was clad in a dark Chinese type suit was quickly met by the Service Chiefs – commanders of the Zambia Army, Zambia Air Force, Zambia National Service and the Inspector General of Police before taking to the saluting dais for the presidential salute. Soon after that he inspected the guard of honour by the Zambia Army as artillery guns from the 10 Medium Regiment of Ndola’s Kalewa Barracks continued to boom and a formation of three Zambia Air Force Mig 21 fighter jets from the Strike Squadron flew over. There were two guards of the guard of honour in a formation two lines with the colour party that carries the insignia of the particular battalion in the middle on parade. To the surprise of even the men and women on parade their Commander-In-Chief only inspected the first line after which the guard commander quickly marched forward, most likely on orders of the Head of State, to thank Sata and seek permission to carry on. So the inspection of the guard of honour ended abruptly. Sata went back to the dais after which a march past followed. Then he walked down and was met by the National Assembly Speaker Patrick Matibini. Walking up the steps leading to the entrance seemed easy but there was at least one visible pause that lasted several seconds and the First Lady was seen whispering something, maybe to say –‘We are already here, you have made it this far so let’s proceed, you can make it’. Yes, even as the President proceeded it was quite clear that he was taking it easy with his step. He finally entered the building at 10:50 hours to proceed to the sign the visitors’ book in the Speaker’s chambers and for all we know to ‘wash’ his hands. This took a little over 15 minutes. So at about 11:07 hours the traditional drum sounded signalling the entry into the House Chamber of President Sata with a loud announcement by the Clerk of the National Assembly Doris Katayi Mwiinga to that effect. Up until this time the Zambia National Broadcasting Corporation (ZNBC) had not revealed Sata to the viewers as it is clear they had strict instructions to stick to long shots and avoid close-ups. Those watching from TV did not see the President taking the salute for instance on the dais and even the inspecting of the guard of honour was strictly restricted to a long shot just like the ascension of the steps leading to the entrance of the building. The bomb shell was when he started to speak! Yes his voice is audible but only a fool cannot tell that our president’s voice is not the one we have always known and this is not about age. Admittedly the man is more than 75 years old but the voice as he delivered that less than thirty minutes hollow speech is that of a very sick man recovering from very serious complications. There were in fact three audible hiccups and at one point First Lady Kaseba was heard telling her husband to slow down even using her hand to make sure he gets the point. One other interesting or rather strange thing is that each time Sata was kind of having problems with his voice Parliament Radio would cut off and play some music making it so obvious that our President is indeed not in the best of his health as the voice was telling it all. But now that he has officially opened parliament, a thing he almost forgot to do if it was not for the intervention of Clerk Mwiinga who referred to the last page of the speech which says something like , ‘I now declared the fourth session of the eleventh National Assembly officially open’, Michael Chilufya Sata must step down as President. Zambia is better of not having another incumbent Head of State being called to be with the creator. It is clear from what we saw in the chamber that First Lady Kaseba is actually in the forefront of misleading her husband that he is alright and it is only two years remaining. No, no, no Christine your husband, our president, is not well whether you like it or not he needs a lot of rest away from the pressures of running a country. No wonder Matero Member of Parliament Miles Sampa was at one time caught on camera rubbing his eyes evidently wiping off some tears just as the President was delivering his so called speech. To say the least the mood in the House was a solemn one whether people, even pretenders, like it or not. Our President, Christine’s husband is far from being in good health. zambiareports/2014/09/20/yes-worried-president-sata/
Posted on: Sat, 20 Sep 2014 13:22:55 +0000
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