adminThe Soothsayer
The past two or three weeks have been interesting, I tell you. Little Iceland pulled a David on mighty England in Euro 2016, sending the colossus of contemporary football tumbling into one hell of a heap of embarrassment. Portugal stormed the final of that tournament as my man CR7 turned on the style at Gareth Bale and Wale’s expense.
But uuufff, before I could even catch my breath, reports of Zambia’s President Edgar Chagwa Lungu showing Uncle Tom who the boss is descended on me like a deluge — thick and fast.
And moments into treading water, I realised former British Prime Minister Tony Blair was in much deeper waters than I was!
One only hopes the ex-Premier is a good swimmer and that he quickly masters backstroke while he’s at it.
I leave Blair here for now and head straight to Zambia.
A fortnight ago, US Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Linda Thomas-Greenfield was in Lusaka.
Press reports suggest she was scheduled to meet President Lungu, but never even got to the vicinity of State House.
Newspapers there were subsequently awash with headlines such as “Lungu refuses to meet Obama’s envoy”.
After reading Zambian Foreign Minister Harry Kalaba’s rebuttal of those reports, I got thinking.
Did President Lungu really snub Thomas-Greenfield?
If he did, what were his reasons?
When I discovered the formula to this seemingly incomprehensible matrix, my eyes lit up as an electric current jolted me on to the streets shouting “Eureka! Eureka!”
I had found the answer — Zambia will hold national elections on August 11, 2016; and the usual vultures are already circling even as the reinvigorated Zambian nation shows huge stores of life.
Thomas-Greenfield was on a mission “to discuss key issues regarding the August 11 polls”, and perchance wanted to “lay down the law” to President Lungu.
It was all too telling when she told a Press conference that “Zambia’s reputation is on the line during this pre-election period and on August 11. (The elections) must be free, transparent, and credible”.
That she is Obama’s envoy is undisputed.
What raises stink is Uncle Tom’s meddlesome hand. Who licensed Washington to dictate what “must” and “must not” be done in Africa?
Sure, there is no harm in friends exchanging words of wisdom.
It is allowed, even in the “open-book” tests that my history teacher always relished.
The only point of dispute in such circumstances is when “big bad wolf” advises “little piglets” to build a house of straw. Certainly “big bad wolf” will “huff and puff” and then eat all the little piggies if his questionable advice is taken seriously.
Thomas-Greenfield says the polls “matter to the US government”, but does poorly to camouflage her real intent.
Her mission was to speak down at President Lungu following the closure of The Post newspaper over non-tax remittance.
Her diction clearly betrays Washington’s condescending attitude towards Africa.
I’m no diplomat, but methinks the word “must” hardly figures in diplomatic parlance, especially where one seeks to convince his or her interlocutor on a touchy subject of discussion.
But again, Thomas-Greenfield is a messenger, an envoy of a ventriloquist seated in lofty places from whence Africa reeks of miniature beings called African Presidents who can be manipulated with the pulling of strings.
White House is now pretty much a contest between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump. Plus the instability that Washington’s meddlesome hand has created in Africa and the Middle East remains unresolved.
Honestly, that is ample matter to feed Obama’s mind.
He should let Africans chart their own course and focus on US elections and the unending strife the American regime continues to dole out to various parts of the world
Better still, he should busy himself with planning his post-White House future.
I doubt President Lungu has ever sent Minister Kalaba or other envoys to lecture Obama on electoral management. Why then should it be the other way around?
It befuddles one.
I say President Lungu showed real leadership if he did snub Thomas-Greenfield.
That’s the kind of “bold, strong” leadership African Foreign Ministers advocated for during the formative stages of Agenda 2063 at Lake Tana, Ethiopia.
I will not put Tony Blair to the sword today.
I’m mighty pleased, though, that the Chilcot report and subsequent reactions have exposed him for what he truly is — a charlatan and nincompoop.
Online Reporter