If Debt Restructuring Is HH’s Only Achievement, Then Someone Needs a Bigger Notebook
One opposition leader recently said President Hakainde Hichilema’s only achievement is debt restructuring. First of all, Common Sense would like to congratulate him for at least noticing that one. Because debt restructuring was not a small achievement. It was one of the biggest economic challenges Zambia faced. When a country is heavily indebted, it becomes difficult to invest in schools, hospitals, roads, and social programs. So even if that were the only achievement, it would still be a major one. But saying it is the only achievement is like looking at a football match that ended 5-0 and insisting the striker only scored one goal because that is the only goal you saw while buying a pie.
Let us be honest. In one term alone, Zambia has seen free education expanded to millions of learners, thousands of teachers recruited, thousands of health workers employed, bursaries and student loans increased, CDF raised dramatically, social cash transfers expanded, new recruitment in defence and security wings, skills training programmes introduced, NAPSA partial withdrawals implemented, the death penalty removed, KCM revived, major road projects launched, solar power projects developed, and debt restructuring achieved. Common Sense is now wondering whether some people are using binoculars backwards when looking at government performance. Because when you turn binoculars the wrong way, even an elephant starts looking like a goat.
The funny thing is that many of the same people who say “nothing has been done” are enjoying services created by some of these policies. Their relatives have benefited from free education. Their children have received bursaries. Their communities have received CDF projects. Their neighbours have been recruited as teachers, nurses, police officers, or soldiers. Yet they still insist there is only one achievement. That is like a man eating nshima, chicken, vegetables, and dessert, then standing up and announcing, “This restaurant only served me water.”
Common Sense therefore asks a simple question: If debt restructuring is the only achievement, then what do we call free education? What do we call over 48,000 teachers recruited? What do we call increased CDF, student loans, health worker recruitment, KCM, social cash transfers, skills training, road projects, and energy investments? Decorations? Special effects? Background music? Political debate is healthy, but it should start with facts. Citizens can disagree on whether enough has been done, but pretending nothing has been done when the evidence is visible across the country is like standing in the rain and arguing that water does not exist.
Common Sense says criticism becomes stronger when it acknowledges reality before attacking it.
