GARY Nkombo has just breathed a new life in-to the ruling United National Party for Devel-opment (UPND) with his call to his colleagues to stop the blame game and get down to fixing things.
Mr Nkombo was quite frank when he stated that the new dawn administration has spent too much time blaming the Patriotic Front for run-ning down the country.
Mr Nkombo, the Local Government and Rural Development Minister said now was the time to stop the blame game and concentrate on repair-ing the damage. That statement has boosted his ratings.
Until Mr Nkombo’s statement, the nation has been treated to a monotonous narrative from the new dawn administration and its allies about the ills committed by the PF regime.
And when Economic Freedom Fighters presi-dent, Kasonde Mwenda says Zambians are tired with the everyday storytelling and blame game by the new dawn administration on how PF de-stroyed the economy, he is speaking for the si-lent majority.
Mr Mwenda said in an interview that campaign time is over and Zambians were now anxiously waiting for the UPND to deliver on its promis-es.
He said it was unfortunate that the UPND was expending its energies on telling Zambians about the failures of the PF instead on concen-trating on improving people’s lives.
Mr Mwenda said Zambians overwhelmingly gave UPND the mandate to deliver develop-ment to the country and not to constantly re-mind citizens of the mistakes that the PF made in office.
He said Zambians now wanted to see a tangible roadmap to economic recovery and public health facilities fully stocked with medicines.
For in their quest to make the PF regime appear bad, people have started comparing how they fared under the former regime and the hardships they are going through.
Even the statements emanating from top offi-cials in the new dawn administration are not encouraging and only serve to alienate the peo-ple more from the leadership.
Farmers have bemoaned the disastrous manner in which farming inputs have been distributed by the new regime, being made to share fertilis-ers using “medas” when it has been delivered.
Under health, the perpetual shortage of drugs and other essential medical needs in hospitals and clinics has been the order of the day even as the top leadership keep assuring the public that drugs are in stock.
But none of these statements beat the one at-tributed to Mr Anthony Bwalya, President Hakainde Hichilema’s spokesperson in which he blamed the PF for “looting water” from the Kariba Dam.
But this is what happens when officials who are supposed to be in the know start making state-ments that leave even the ordinary person on the street begin to question their intelligence.
But it is encouraging that UPND stalwarts like Mr Nkombo now realise how much time and energy has been wasted in trying to bring down the PF instead of working on the mandate given to them by a trusting population.
Indeed, now is the time to get down to the busi-ness of rebuilding the nation and give hope to the people that there are serious-minded indi-viduals in government and not clowns.
