Leader of Opposition in Parliament George Chaponda has described the State of the Nation Address (SONA) delivered by President Lazarus Chakwera as a mere campaign speech which failed to tackle national issues.
In an interview, Chaponda the President failed to tackle critical issues like hunger, forex shortage and infrastructure among others.
“This SONA which is abbreviated as SONA, was different from all other SONAs in the sense that it is not in the actual SONAs we know it. I would describe it as a campaign speech. I’m saying so because of various reasons. First of all, I was expecting that the president would tackle national issues.
“At the forefront now is the issue of hunger. People in the villages are suffering. They don’t have maize. During the time of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), this is the time that people were being given distribution of maize, rice, cooking oil in their villages. But we have not seen this thing. And it is during that time when people were doing food for work, which is not the case anymore.
“The maize as such is not even available at the Admarc depots. He did not talk about it. The second issue is the issue of rising cost of living, inflation. Inflation is high because it is dictated by the same maize and other things. Every day the things are rising. I was expecting him that he would address this particular issue, but this was not tackled.
“Thirdly, there is issue of the infrastructure. There are many infrastructures which have not been completed. For instance, a tourist place in Mulanje you pass through Nkando. The government has promised for a long time that it will be repaired, but now it is not repaired. Not only that, also the roads authority have failed to repair many bridges in Mulanje and other areas. Fourth,
“We have the problem in this country of forex. We don’t have money available. And I was expecting that the government would address this particular issue. You don’t find forex in the bank. People depend on the parallel market. And the dollar is now at $1 for 4,000 kwacha and is rising every day. In fact, the parallel market is dictating the economy.
“I was expecting that the government would address how this issue would be dealt with. Nothing was said. I can go on and on. I can also say that the issue which he talked about, the economy as such, the economy is in disarray or in distress. As I’ve said before, if it was a company, this would have been declared bankrupt.
“I would expect that the president would tell us how he would remove this country from that situation. And then, fifthly, there’s this issue of AIP. I was expecting that the government would talk about the AIP because, really, while he was talking about how it has worked in other places, but all of us, we know that it has not been satisfactory.
“The price of fertilizer itself is very expensive. I think now it is K130,000 per bag. And this will affect the food situation in the country. So there are so many things which would expect the government, the president to have said. As the president, former President Bingu wa Mutharika used to say the works of his hands should speak for themselves. He should not have spoken too much. He should have talked about his work, that the things themselves will speak for themselves,” he said
