T HE man of the moment is without any doubt at all, his Excellency President Hakainde Hichilema. Commander in Chief of the armed Forces, Chief economic crusader of the nation, Our Knight in Shining armour, Our Hero. You just have to love the man.
Love him or loathe him, you just have to give it to him. The President is just in a class of his own, a maverick of sorts.
When he proudly proclaims that Zambia is now in the big league, you ought to believe him. On this trajectory, this nation is destined for greater things to come, and you can bet your last dollar, the standing ovation will outlive his presidency.
The book makers, the movie screenplay writers, have ripped scroll after scroll of script to rewrite chapters of an unraveling best selling Novel, film roll after film roll of chart busting animation of the story of a shepherd boy who once upon a time, whilst tending his flocks could only gaze in awe,the mysteries of a dark starry night, his only preoccupation, the safety of his sheep, goats and cows.
His destiny was only masked by the secrets of the future; that one day, Hakainde Hichilema would capture the imagination of a people and become leader of a nation, a statesman, that he would hold the gaze of emperors, Kings and Queens, mesmerize rulers of great nations with his eloquence and clarity of speech and vision, and win over the hearts of any doubting Thomases

I do not know about you, but, the latest feat that he recently scored in Paris, in the wake of other notable locally brewed successes charming the hearts and minds of the cream de la cream of the world’s renowned industrialists, financial gurus, is testimony of the mark of a true great leader.
Pre- 2021, Zambians slowly woke up to the realisation that the country had been auctioned through unbridled borrowing from anywhere the Patriotic Front (PF) government cared to get money from. In the guise of borrowing for capital projects and other needy sectors of the economy, the nation bled.
Even with the loudest of caution, the PF authorities refused to listen as they contracted loan after loan, culminating to a staggering US$6.5 million to China alone, bringing the rest of the total amount of debt owing to creditors, a whooping US$17 million dollars.
God forbid, if they had by some unlikely stroke of bad luck won the August 2021 election where this country would be wallowing in strangling debt.
Time and again, the United Party for National Development (UPND) rang alarm bells to caution an extremely arrogant PF but to no avail. They (PF) tried to salvage the situation by embarking on half hearted attempts to renegotiate a debt rescheduling settlement, but which creditor or donor would have listened to a band of leaders whose responsibility was to themselves and their bellies and not the greater people of Zambia?
With impunity, they raped the resources of this potentially rich nation running the coffers dry and engaging in a showdown of who can pilfer better quicker and more than the other.
And here comes President Hakainde Hichilema and his UPND administration, who have only been in power a little over 21 months and have been scoring success after success at home and abroad
The manner that President Hichilema has carried himself in this period since he was elected leader, redirecting financing of the very
scarce resources into the social sector, curbing on unnecessary expenditure and placing stringent prudent fiscal policies on all matters he deems wasteful has won him the hearts and respect of many.
This was a precursor to winning the confidence of cooperating partners and donors and creditors who have seen in him a leader worth their attention.
This confidence does not just reside in the West or at a domestic level here at home, but also with nations like China and the rest, as seen by the numerous memorandum of understandings that he has so far agreed upon on his many economic crusade encounters across the globe.
And what can the doom-sayers say about the latest breakthrough, which will unlock funds which will go to the public sector, they can only watch and see and grin with envy.
The actualisation of the decentralisation policy through massive injection of finances into the Constituency Development Funds (CDF) is one way that the government is already fueling the social sector with the much needed resources reaching out to the most vulnerable.With this freeing of resources with the debt rescheduling, the nation must brace to see more wonders in that sector.
But even as the nation awaits to see and feel the impact of this bail-out feat, President Hichilema in his own words has cautioned that the work has only begun. Zambians should begin to work even harder than before to ensure that every single ngwee accrues to them and is used in the most prudent way ever.
This brings the issue of the corruption fight to the fore. The single most devastating vice which has seen resources allocated to the numerous sectors of the economy just dissipate like a morning dew, into the pockets of individuals who today are shouting the loudest about the seeming failure by the government to deliver basic social amenities to them.
Without shame, some even have the cheek to say that President Hichilema should have asked for a complete right off of the debt? And these are individuals who directly or indirectly took part in the plunder of government resources and are still walking the streets of the nation free.
Well, what is certain is that the UPND government will not leave any stone unturned in recovering stolen government assets or allow pepertators of corruption and blatant thieving to walk the streets of the nation free.
Recently, former minister of Finance and National planning in the Mwanawasa administration, Ng’andu Magande hailed President Hakainde for achieving this great feat of securing a debt bail out. He however did not have kind words to say about the former PF government who came to power and reversed all the gains that the late President Levy Patrick Mwanawasa had so painstakeny negotiated a write off of Zambia’s debt.
No sooner did the PF come into power did they, like mice in a corn field, begin the plunder, devouring the little which was meant to go around for everyone.
As Zambians, we have a chance to reassert ourselves into a powerhouse of the region. With a focused leader such as President Hichilema, who has won the confidence of many, at home and abroad we can also regain our respect as the economy slowly rebounds.
HH deserves kudos for driving the agenda of peace and prosperity, and for his unwavering resolve to return the dignity of the Zambian people.
And for the nation to continue on this path, the collective wisdom and hardwork of the nation is a major ingredient to this whole matter.