Opinion: Questioning YALI’s Constitution Master Plan So all along Andrew Ntewewe and his colleagues at the Young African Leaders’ Initiative, YALI, have been scheming that the next scheduled Presidential and General elections be held under the existing Zambian constitution? This is what I am still asking myself even as I write this article. When I listened to a news bulletin on one of the local radio stations in Lusaka on Wednesday July 9, 2014 that Ntewewe, who is the President of YALI, is proposing that the new constitution should only take effect in 2017 I thought I did not hear the newscaster properly. But then I heard it again in the headlines just before the end of the bulletin. My immediate reaction was that Ntewewe and the organisation he heads have betrayed their friends in the Grand Coalition on the Constitution. YALI had a media breakfast at Golden Bridge Hotel in Lusaka where Ntewewe rolled out the plan almost two months after secretly submitting it to the Ministry of Justice on May 13, 2014. If this is not a stab in the back then maybe someone can tell me what is. I am yet to access YALI’s so-called Ten Point Constitution Master Plan but going by what I heard on radio and some of what I have read on some news sites, I have no doubt in my mind that there may be more of such people and organisations in the Grand Coalition. One thing I am glad about is that I covered and filmed, in full, the Constitution Prayer Meeting to press for a people driven Constitution held on January 4, 2014 at the Holy Cross Cathedral in Lusaka. The event was organised by the Grand Coalition and was well attended by people from various civil society non-governmental organisations, political parties and other interest groups. I remember the Cathedral was fully packed and Ntewewe was the co-director of ceremonies together with some stunning young lady from the Non-Governmental Organisations Co-ordinating Council, NGO-CC. You should have been there to see and hear Ntewewe talk. He sounded so positive and obviously on the same frequency as everyone else in the Coalition. But now he has flip-flopped? In the next article I shall share with you some of the things he and other people said on that day at the Cathedral meeting, word for word. Strictly speaking I have always doubted some of the people and organisations in the Coalition. So for me Ntewewe’s and YALI’s flip-flop has not come as a shock. This is just one crack but surely there may be more to come. Beatrice Grillo, the Vice-Chairperson of the Coalition is reported to have said that a comprehensive reaction will be given after studying YALI’s sentiments. The fact that Grillo is quoted as having said that the Coalition is taken aback with the stance that YALI has taken it is most certain that everybody in the Coalition will be looking at each other with suspicion. It is going to be very difficult to cultivate trust but it will be interesting to see how the Coalition will hold together for what really is a good cause and how it survives its first ever crack. zambiareports/2014/07/11/opinion-questioning-yalis-constitution-master-plan/
Posted on: Fri, 11 Jul 2014 08:14:28 +0000