Leading opposition leader Hakainde Hichilema says The Patriotic Front government has wrong priorities.
Hichilema has lashed out on President Edgar Lungu’s government saying it has deprived young people who have a legitimate case to qualify for bursaries the opportunity.
In a statement posted on social media, Hichilema says, “We have recently received numerous representation from lots of young people and their parents/guardians that have been denied government support through the bursary or loan scheme at the universities.
“We have always stated that the PF leadership has wrong priorities in running and managing our country’s resources meant for key sectors such as education, health and agriculture.”
BELOW IS HICHILEMA’S FULL STATEMENT
Good morning friends
We thank God for another beautiful day and looking forward to a busy schedule.
We have recently received numerous representation from lots of young people and their parents/guardians that have been denied government support through the bursary or loan scheme at the universities.
We have always stated that the PF leadership has wrong priorities in running and managing our country’s resources meant for key sectors such as education, health and agriculture.
It is clear lack of priorities for anyone to have more meaningless ministries funded at taxpayers money while denying these vulnerable but deserving children a chance of a life time to be in universities and colleges through government support.
We therefore question, how the PF can allow a situation where a huge expense goes towards expanded and increased government ministries at the expense of educating the country’s future generation?
It is a clear misappropriation of public resources to have Mr. Edgar Lungu and a huge delegation of his cadres charter private jets globetrotting at a huge expense while a number of key economic sectors remain poorly funded.
Even worse, these trips he and his cadres have been undertaking have so far not benefited the country in any way other than gaining allowances.
In our view, such huge sums of money spent on these extravagant trips, would be channeled to sponsoring vulnerable children into universities.
We will not be surprised to hear that even the few students who have been given the bursaries or loan schemes only managed due to their connections and relations with those in the PF inner circles while the deserving vulnerable children have been denied this opportunity.
In the interest of our country, we still insist that Lungu reduces expenses on his blotted cabinet and allocate more money to the education and other deserving sectors such as the country’s education system.
On our part, our policies were very clear on how we intend to reduce wasteful government expenditure and channel resources to more needy areas such as education, health and agriculture sectors, while creating jobs opportunities for our people, especially youths and women.
In our own small way, we keep supporting a number of vulnerable children in these learning institutions and we call on others that can manage to do the same though ultimately it’s the government that collects taxes that should educate our people.
God bless you all.
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