POLITICAL ANIMAL Chishimba Kambwili has explained his vision for Zambia and the legacy he wanted to leave if elected as President.

“Once NDC comes into office, the first thing that we are going to work towards improving the living standards of citizens. My ideology, our ideology as NDC is ubuntu. So we will make sure that we improve the living standards of the people. The legacy that I want to leave when I die is for people to remember me as someone who improved the living standards of people.

Levy Mwanawasa fought corruption, President Chilumba brought democracy, I want to improve the economy of this country by creating more industries and more jobs. People have just been talking about job creation but they miss a lot of important issues in the creation of jobs, people are saying ‘we want to diversify in the agricultural sector’ for instance… look the annual budget for Ministry of Agriculture for instance, 50% is to pay salaries, 30% is FISP. FISP to me is only household food security because they give four bags per farmer. But what can a farmer grow in four bags for him to remain with something to feed his family and sell the excess?” asked Kambwili.

“Then you have only 20% for other agricultural programmes, you cannot grow the agricultural sector under those circumstances. What we need is more money pumped in the agricultural sector, more money put where you can realise benefits. When it comes to the manufacturing sector, how can you improve the manufacturing sector when everything that you use in the country comes from abroad? So the legacy that I want to leave, and I want to tell the Zambians, I can change this country.
This country is very dirt, it needs to be cleaned so that when I die, people will say ‘there was a Kambwili who cleaned up this country’, not the way they are playing with leadership today. Imagine if we had put $15 billion into the manufacturing sector, into the agricultural sector. For instance, the $377 million that they are wasting on the airport. If we took it to establish farms like the Mpongwe development farm [in Luanshya], which is employing about 18 to 20,000 people, how many Zambians could have been employed? So what has been happening is wrong priorities and when I come, I will do the right thing.”