GUEST ARTICLE: 60 YEARS ON, WE STILL HAVEN’T AGREED ON WHAT MATTERS
By Gerald Pule Mulao, Citizen
In the recent past, I have had the opportunity to traverse this country — North-Western, Western, Copperbelt, Luapula, and Southern Province.
I am at pains to organize my thoughts as I pen this article from the depth of my heart.
What I have observed in the countryside is this: as a nation, we have never sat down to generate consensus on what really matters to Zambia beyond political rhetoric.
After 60 years of independence, our country remains underdeveloped, lacking the basic essentials expected of a nation blessed with vast resources.
We Can See the Failures With Our Eyes
Take Chilubi Island. For 60 years, successive governments have failed to build a bridge connecting Chaba on the mainland to Chilubi Island. The people remain detached, isolated. Yet Chilubi sits in the mighty Lake Bangweulu — perfect for water sports, beach activities, and resorts that could create thousands of tourism jobs for our youths. A bridge is not just steel and concrete. It is investment. It is opportunity.
In Western Province, the Sesheke–Livingstone road remains deplorable despite anchoring two critical borders: Katima Mulilo and Kazungula. A quality road there would not only boost tourism to Victoria Falls but speed up the movement of goods under SADC’s free trade area.
The Chipata–Lundazi road must be worked on, and the Lundazi–Chama–Matumbo stretch upgraded to bituminous standard all the way to link Eastern Province with Muchinga and Northern Province. That corridor would open East African markets for our agricultural products and transform the eastern economy.
We Must Add Value, Not Just Export
We must also rethink how we train our youths. Why export raw gold from Kikonge and Mufumbwe only to import gold watches from Dubai? Dubai was built through gold utilization. It remains the largest market for gold products. Why can’t companies from Dubai set up factories in Mufumbwe to produce Zambian-made gold chains, watches, and jewelry for export? Value addition creates jobs. Raw exports create poverty.
For 60 years we have been engulfed in focusing on the next election, not the next generation.
The Problem Is Historical, Not Just Leadership
I have interrogated why Zambia remains underdeveloped after 60 years and seven presidents. At first I thought the problem was our leaders. But no — the problem is deeper.
It is historical. We adopted a European template of governance we never understood from the onset, and clung to it for 60 years. That template was designed to keep us dependent on the West, not self-sustaining. We remain engulfed in debt despite possession of serious mineral deposits.
White monopoly capital remains in control of our natural resources. The exodus of minerals to the West continues, leaving our communities in a deplorable state regardless of the value being taken out.
The West was not happy to be hounded out of Africa, where it sourced cheap natural resources to promote industrial growth in their jurisdiction. Africa remains a harvest field for raw materials that promote industrial revolutions abroad, while we remain in abject poverty.
Today, copper is in high demand because of electric vehicles. Yet Zambia has not taken a bold step to position itself to benefit from this demand. Why wouldn’t the West invest in factories that produce electric cars here in Africa, where the copper is? Instead, they would rather extract it raw and keep us busy fighting each other in the political dispensation.
Our focus right now is elections. Those in opposition are relishing how they will take over power and ensure those currently governing are restricted to “jump suits” in our prisons, instead of preparing a roadmap for economic recovery through utilization of our God-given natural resources.
Meanwhile, huge numbers of unemployed youths graduate from college with absolutely nothing to do in this dry economy.
We Need Our Own Template
The only remedy is to change course by doing away with European governance systems that do not speak to our needs and building our own from scratch.
Divisive political discourse will not address the major challenges that our country faces today. We need to rise above our political differences and call for a national indaba to deliberate over the real challenges Zambia faces.
The real challenges are: huge unemployment levels, lack of proper infrastructure that promotes economic growth especially in agriculture, and no proper plan for governance of newly discovered mineral deposits like gold.
How do we empower citizens to benefit from our own natural resources while building reserves at the central bank to give more value to our Kwacha?
We can do better as a country. The opportunity is there. We just need to gather the right mindsets and make bold decisions that will transform our development agenda for a better Zambia.
