Sata’s Facebook account can’t be a substitute for a news conference – Msoni

Nason Msoni

The opening of a Facebook Account for President Michael Sata cannot be a substitute for a news conference or for a serious national address, Political Activist Nason Msoni has charged.

Reacting to the setting up of a Facebook Page for President Sata where updates are posted on national issues, Msoni says the move shall not do as the Head of State needs to address the nation through a press conference. President Sata who marked two years in Office, last October has never held a press conference from the time he was elected.

Below is a full statement by Mr. Msoni who also challenged President Mwanawasa for the MMD presidency in 2006 at the Convention.

We prod President Sata to stop playing hide and seek by using facebook through his well-known cronies purporting to be Sata when in-fact not. Deception of this kind must now cease forthwith.

In any-case it does not portray any measure of seriousness for the Zambian Head of State to be assisted by hired mercenaries who are using facebook and his image to deceive and purport to run state functions and duties as if it were the actual elected person when in-fact not.

Since he has failed to hold a state of the nation address to explain important national issues affecting the country directly since he assumed the Presidency, we find this method of communication far less satisfactory and it is therefore rather cowardice and unacceptable method on his part to opt to disseminate serious government policy decisions through facebook.

He has not availed himself openly and publicly to explain these issues to the Zambian public which he is raising now behind the hidden face on facebook and the legitimate question we are asking is how should Zambians know and believe him that the material churning-out through his purported facebook page is actually Mr. Sata saying those things?

Facebook by all accounts cannot be a substitute for a news conference or for a serious national address to the state. No-where in the world can any leader just vanish from the public and only release scanty information periodically through his spokesmen and facebook.

The number of people that have joined his facebook page should not be mistaken and misconstrued to imply popularity of the Zambian President but rather its people searching and hoping and seeking for more information and answers to their daily needs.

To this end we challenge him to hold a press conference and explain among other things the roadmap of the draft constitution towards enactment of a new constitution, measures he is taking to address the poor and late input distribution of fertilizer to farmers by his government and the endless unabated numbers of induced by-elections.

The spiraling- out of control crisis in Zambian hospitals and the chronic shortages of drugs and equipment amongst many more issues.

We further implore him to plug wastage of public resources through the appointment of unnecessary tribunals he has kept appointing whose status remains murky and confusing in most cases. The Lovemore Chikopa tribunal has virtually become a state liability and parasite milking public resources endlessly thereby depriving and suffocating important areas of the much needed resources.