Let local communities spearhead development – Nawakwi

Edith Nawakwi

FDD President Edith Nawakwi has hailed residents of Hikalima and surrounding villages in Chieftaincy Choongo’s area for taking it upon themselves to build a Banakaila rural health post in Bwaengwa Constituency of Monze.

And the opposition leader has called for equal distribution of infrastructure development in the country.

Speaking at Banakaila rural health center were she was the Guest of Honor at a fund raising meeting on Thursday, Ms. Nawakwi said the country will only move forward if residents of individual communities decided what was important for themselves.

She noted that the residents of Hikalima village had identified what they needed in their area without anyone from government imposing it on them and built a clinic with minimal help from government.

The opposition leader wondered how far the community would go in terms of development if they had the full support of government.

“Thank you our headmen, fathers and you my mothers for coming to gather and putting up the facility which we see here. You built a clinic and you my mothers still see the need for somewhere decent to deliver our babies.

This is what we have been talking about as a Party that people can make decisions of what they need most without people from Lusaka who hardly know their problems making decisions for you.

This clinic here was built by yourselves because you understand the need for this facility and now you have gone a step further and are putting up a maternity wing because you recognize the need for mothers to deliver in a decent place and I congratulate you for this initiative.

When we as a Party say that we want to decentralize the country’s resource this is what we want to see in communities, people coming up with solutions to their challenges. Imagine if this district was given money to divide among the constituencies wouldn’t you have made progress as a people here,”  Ms. Nawakwi said.

The opposition leader further lamented the lack of  equipment and health workers at the health post.

“You people here have done government’s job but because this government is insensitive it has even failed to give you a bed to thank you for doing their job. You can’t have mothers delivering on the same bed that is used to examine patients and all these people can not be attended to by only to nurses.

Government should complement what you have already done here by putting power at this facility and running water  as well as ensuring that workers are sent to this clinic.” She added.

Meanwhile Ms. Nawakwi has called on people in government to share the country’s resources equally.

“I would also like to urge those in government to share the country’s resources equally regardless of whether MPs of certain areas are from the opposition or not because we are all Zambians and our country is a democratic nation so people have the right to choose who they want to represent them so having an MP from the opposition shouldn’t be a basis to deny other areas development.

There should be equal distribution of developmental projects across the country. This government says it is building more than 600 hundred clinics across the country but are they building any clinic here?”

She added ” Government officials should not only be making donations in areas were they have MPs but also areas with opposition MPs because we are one people.”

The opposition leader contributed K10,000 towards the putting of the slab and said she would continue to make small contributions till the completion of the maternity wing at the clinic.

Banakaila clinic  which is more 50 kilometers from Chieftaincy Choongo’s palace was built by the residents of Hikalima village and the surrounding villages after facing the challenges of walking long distances to the nearest government clinic in the area.

The clinic is maned by 2 nurses and has only one bed which is also used as a delivery bed. The clinic caters for an average of 80 patients pa day and has more than 15 deliveries per week.