WHEN A HONOURABLE STOPS BEING HONOURABLE, JAY JAY IS EMBARRASSING THE TITLE HE ONCE HELD

WHEN A HONOURABLE STOPS BEING HONOURABLE, JAY JAY IS EMBARRASSING THE TITLE HE ONCE HELD. By Chadrin Nseemani Sometimes you may question how some people acquired the term honourable. Yesterday I took a minute to see what Jay Jay Banda talks about with his followers, oh my goodness, I was shocked , it was all […]

WHEN A HONOURABLE STOPS BEING HONOURABLE, JAY JAY IS  EMBARRASSING THE TITLE HE ONCE HELD.

By Chadrin Nseemani

Sometimes you may question how some people acquired the term honourable. Yesterday I took a minute to see what Jay Jay Banda talks about with his followers, oh my goodness, I was shocked , it was all about insulting the President. I was like wow, and people are watching such a thing? When did we lose our manners and respect?

We all know he does not agree with the President, that is normal in a democracy. You can disagree with policy, you can criticize decisions, you can offer alternatives, but that disagreement must be done with respect. What I saw was not criticism, it was insults. A whole former Member of Parliament for Petauke, someone who once carried the title honourable, reducing himself to insults on Facebook Live. Is that what honourable means?

Emmanuel Jay Banda already has a case. Instead of being sober, reflecting and allowing the law to take its course, he is adding more fuel to the fire. Every day he goes live to insult the President of the Republic of Zambia. That is not bravery, that is recklessness. And this is why I say some problems are self inflicted. Government does not cancel passports for fun it is because someone somewhere is being careless.

If you spend your time outside Zambia attacking your own country, insulting the Head of State, circulating unverified claims about the election and the military and using language that borders on incitement, you become a security risk. And if a person is a security risk, any government in the world would do what Zambia has done to protect its citizens. America would do it, Britain would do it, Rwanda would do it. Zambia is not an exception.

Actually now they have become more prisoners of their own actions. living in those foreign countries, they cannot use those Zambian passports anymore because those documents are no longer valid for travel, identification or any official purpose.  You cannot insult a country and still want to travel comfortably on its document. That is common sense.

What is more disappointing is the example we are setting. Emmanuel Jay Banda was once an MP. He was called honourable. What does honourable mean? It means dignity, it means respect, it means language that can be heard by children. We have underaged kids on Facebook watching these lives. What will the children be learning from a former honourable who insults all the way? That politics is about insults? That leadership is about shouting? We have lost manners as a country if we celebrate such behaviour.

Someone who deserves to talk well, someone who once debated laws in Parliament, is now busy insulting all the way. That is not opposition, that is self destruction. You can fight the President politically without losing your dignity. You can disagree without becoming abusive.

This passport cancellation is self inflicted. If you put yourself in a position where the state has to invoke national security, do not cry persecution. Every country is governed by its own laws, and every government has a duty to protect its citizens from those who become a risk, even if they once held the title honourable.

By Chadrin Nseemani
Governance Expert
Political analyst