‘Hichilema product of abusive social media’
By Mast Reporter
PRESIDENT Hakainde Hichilema is a beneficiary and product of social media abuse and therefore a wrong person to lecture Zambians about its abuse, All People’s Congress (APC) president Nason Msoni has said.
Msoni said Hichilema himself abused the platform to dent the last government to his benefit and that of the United Party for National Development (UPND).
He was commenting on Hichilema’s call for the Church to condemn and speak against the abuse of social media.
“This is shameful. It is a total indictment of himself. Hichilema abused social media when he was in the opposition. Has he forgotten that he used the same platform to call those who were in the government thieves, corrupt, failures and so forth and so on? Has he forgotten that it was the same platform used by his party to insult the late former president Edgar Lungu just last year when he was escorting his wife to DEC [Drug Enforcement Commission]?” Msoni said.
“It is the same platform the UPND has been using to insult people. Has Hichilema forgotten that it was the same platform used by his secretary general to call Lusaka Archbishop Dr Alick Banda a Lucifer? Has Hichilema forgotten that it was the same platform the UPND and State House are using through their rogue Facebook pages to defame and insult Zambians?”
Msoni challenged Hichilema to look back and reflect on how he abused the same platform he now wants the Church to condemn.
He said the first step Hichilema should have taken was to apologise to the people of Zambia for his silence on the well-known UPND cadres who insulted Lungu and his family after his death.
“He has failed to condemn and speak against his own State House’s well-known rogue platforms. Hichilema is not a serious President; he doesn’t mean whatever he says. In fact, Hichilema has abused social media more than anyone else in this country has. He is a product of an abused social media,” Msoni, a former UPND Alliance partner, said.
He said Hichilema’s past was now haunting him.
“President Hichilema’s conduct while in the opposition is well documented, and luckily, Facebook is a good librarian. Let’s remind him about his conduct and the way he abused the same social media he wants the Church to protect its members from. His past is now haunting him; people are reminding him about his lies and his failed promises,” he said.
Msoni instead urged the Church and Zambians to use social media to make their leaders accountable to their promises ahead of next year’s elections.
