POLITICAL researcher Cephas Mukuka says whoever is elected president next year must work tirelessly to bridge the gap between the rich and the poor.

Dr Mukuka said the gap was too wide.

“Let resources be distributed equitably without fear or favour. Let for once our people feel that sense of belonging to a nation like Zambia which is blessed with abundant resources,” he said. “On Monday the 23/11/20 around 13:00 hours, I got a call from a friend of mine Pastor Grace Pule. She was inviting me to quickly join her at some church in Ranchdale in our area so as to register as voters. Full of excitement, I rushed there walking like a person who had lost $40,000 and now panicking with thoughts of; Is the money going to be found or not? In no time I reached my destination and linked up with Pastor Grace. We stayed in the queue for five hours right in the scorching sun. I developed serious headache but still persevered to the very end.”

Dr Mukuka said he quickly conducted a simple survey and wanted to find out why people braved the hot sun all in the name of registering as voters.

“I really felt bad when I saw pregnant women, mothers with children on their backs, old men and women all standing in the hot sun just to register as voters. From my mind I began to think aloud, saying to myself, these people have braved the heat just to have voters’ cards? Why? But why suffer in such a manner?” he said.

Dr Mukuka said he realised that the economic hardships they had been experiencing for years prompted them to keep pushing with the hope that one day the sun may rise.

He said it was a matter of pushing against all unseen hopes just to get rid of poverty, suffering and all that pain which comes with such.

Dr Mukuka said the stress they subjected themselves to leaves much to be desired.

“Do the would-be candidates know what these electorates go through just to register, and finally vote? The two processes are bitter, to say the least. May someone somewhere come to realisation and do what is right to help these suffering masses,” he urged. “The unfortunate part is that the majority of voters in Africa are those who struggle to meet their basic needs. The rich are not interested – they are connected to those with the instruments of power. Very few rich fellows vote or follow politics as it were.”

Dr Mukuka said would-be candidates in the forthcoming presidential and general elections should consider working extremely hard so as to help the suffering majority of the nation.

“How it pains to hear that public funds have been stolen and that the said thieves are at home in their comfort zones! How it pains to hear that the corrupt are equally free and enjoying looted resources at the expense of the poor. How it pains to hear that the person you wanted has lost elections and the elections were not free and fair? How it equally pains to remember stress you went through yet you get nothing out of your vote and sweat,” he lamented.

He said it was all about credibility to the people who aspire to lead.

Dr Mukuka said there was nothing wrong with aspiring for any leadership position in Zambia, but there was everything wrong when people with criminal agendas gang up with the purpose of executing such once in power.

“Bob Marley once said that, ‘who the cap fit, let them wear it’. Indeed, let the best man win the 2021 presidential elections and deliver bread and butter to the suffering majority peoples of this nation,” said Dr Mukuka.

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