As concerned students of the Copperbelt University we wish to make it clear to the nation, the international community and other stakeholders that the statement that was issued by our COBUSU President Humphery Mwenya in Zambia Report online media where he insulted the Grand Coalition for a People Driven Constitution and other political Parties DID NOT reflect the views and interest of the students at CBU but his own and that of the PF government.
Let everyone know that he did not at any point consult the students, his fellow executive members nor the Students Council of representatives on the matter of The Constitution Bill. It is hard for me to castigate my COBUSU President in public but were the reputation of the CBU students is concerned I will go an extra mile to save us all from this embarrassement.
In spite of our freedom to support any political party that we may choose fit it is important for us the students and the youths at large to remain objective and true to matters pertaining to national development and governance. It is sad that our union president has decided to start politicking the constitution making process, his statement went against everything that the union stands for and his position which is supposed to be non partisan.
One point must be made clear that CBU like any other higher learning institution has students who support different political parties, hence the interest of all these students must be represented as it is our constitutional freedom to support any political party one may see fit. It is for that reason that Humphery Mwenya was at fault to castigate any of these political Parties, NGOs and societies who worked to see the dream of a people driven constitution be fulfilled. The head of state has the prerogative powers to either ascent to the constitutional bill or reject it, but most importantly his duty is to listen to every citizen’s concerns regardless of ones political inclination or social status.
Before Mr Mwenya could condemn the NGOs, The Grand Coalition for a People driven constitution, and other innocent political parties, it was important for him as a union leader and intellectual to understand that without these stakeholders the draft constitution would not have in the first place been a possibility. He should have, like most students, followed the debates in parliament over clauses in the constitution and acknowledge some of these clauses that were removed, clauses such as the Majority representation which would have seen fair representation of the youths and women in parliament.
He should have first realized that the will of the people was to have a referendum and not the draft constitution be subjected to debate and voting in parliament. Most important his statement should have been based on the submission of General Miyanda a politician and citizen of Zambia who also has the right as an individual to do so. Humphery Mwenya must have first read this submission and understood the concerns that were raised more especially on the gaps of the draft constitution regarding the Dual Citizenship.
One of General Miyanda’s concern as a former military man were true, from my understanding of his submission, General Miyanda asked; “If a person with a dual citizenship, lets say of Zambia and Congo, and war broke out between these two countries, if this person decided to fight in the military for his country, which country would such a person fight for, and if one decided to fight for Congo in which one is a citizen as well, would Zambia consider him a traitor and try them for treason?” Where would such a person’s loyalty lie seeing that constitutionally this person will be bound to defend and protect his country from both foreign and domestic enemies? Such are some of the very important points that the draft constitution has not highlighted or made clear. Mind you this concern is coming from a military man, an Army General for that matter. I believe this is a valid concern and its presentation was not meant to block the signing of the Constitution Bill by the President.
As a union leader, Mr Mwenya, should have considered all this instead of allowing him self to be used by the PF government at the expense of the students and the nation at large to utter such a statement of pure ignorance. As students we will bring sanity to politics, leadership and governance at all levels starting with our own students’ union executive.
As concerned students we are strongly condemning the PF government for their continued interference in students union governance in all learning institutions in the country. We are very much aware, through our intelligence sources, that the PF government has been trying to infiltrate students politics at CBU positioning their cadres to contest in the February 2016 COBUSU election, more details coming soon.
Truth be told that on several occasions the students at CBU have called and petitioned to have Mr Mwenya impeached for his failure to properly represent students interests and failure to use his position to deal with the challenges the students have been facing such as Project allowances, Meal allowances and Accommodation allowances.
The CBU students and all its leadership structures have strongly condemned the statement made by the COBUSU President and have given him a 24hrs ultimatum in which to apologies to the students populous, the political parties, NGOs and most importantly the Grand Coalition for a People Driven Constitution and the nation at large.
As youths we shouldn’t allow some of these selfish politicians to use us as tools of violence and a means to and end. Such a statement from a student union president is a betrayal of its waste kind to the students’ movement.
#YouthsUnite #SaveZambia
Ernest C Sinyinza – Student Activist