All posts by : Felistas

FA new injection to prevent HIV is expected to be approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) later this month.

Women, people from ethnic minority backgrounds, and those from the most deprived communities are less likely to receive treatment after a diagnosis of the heart valve disease aortic stenosis, according to research presented Tuesday at the British Cardiovascular Society conference in Manchester.

A multi-institutional study led by the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai reports one-third of patients with relapsed or refractory multiple myeloma remained in remission for at least five years following a single infusion of the CAR-T cell therapy cilta-cel.

A new Penn Nursing Center for Health Outcomes & Policy Research (CHOPR) study sheds light on the critical factors that help or hinder hospital nurses in providing quality care to socially disadvantaged populations. The findings, published in JAMA Network Open, offer vital insights to inform hospital strategies for advancing high-quality, equitable care.

The U.S. logged 122 more cases of measles this week—but only four of them in Texas—while the outbreaks in Pennsylvania and Michigan have officially ended.

A groundbreaking study led by National Jewish Health researchers suggests that the skin may serve as a potential biomarker for a chronic allergic disease of the esophagus called eosinophilic esophagitis (EoE) in children. The results provide physicians a potential new, noninvasive avenue to diagnose EoE by using skin tape.

GIDEON NYENDWA THE Jesuit Centre for Theological Reflections (JCTR) has added its voice to the growing opposition against Constitutional Amendment Bill No. 7, demanding that the government abandon the process altogether, citing lack of transparency and public consultation. JCTR programmes officer John Sauti Kunda described the bill as hasty and suspicious in timing. “There was […]

GIDEON NYENDWA THE United Nations (UN) system in Zambia has learned with deep regret and sadness the death of Zambia’s Sixth Republican President, Mr. Edgar Chagwa Lungu. And United Party for National Development (UPND) has paid glowing tribute to former President Edgar Chagwa Lungu, who died in South Africa yesterday, describing him as a man […]

We fully understand the anger, resentment, and political bitterness that may exist between the family of the late President Edgar Chagwa Lungu and the current the Hakainde Hichilema-led administration.

We witnessed the humiliation and inhumane treatment he suffered, being forced to disembark from an aircraft as he sought to travel out of the country. We are equally aware of the correspondence denying him authority and therefore medical support as he sought to travel to South Africa for treatment. We are aware that his penultimate trip before his death was a matter of guile.

Yes we are indeed aware that his party was taken from him in the most irregular manner. We are even aware, just as the nation is, of the constitutional court partisan conduct in his eligibility matter.

However we feel that the nation must rise above partisanship- death demands dignity—and for a former Head of State, it demands honour of the highest national order. That honour is a State Funeral, and his rightful place of burial is Embassy Park. Anything less would mark a blemish on the conscience of the Republic—one that history will not forgive, and future generations will not understand.

Zambia’s sixth President did not merely occupy an office; he embodied it. The moment Edgar Lungu was sworn in, he ceased to be a private citizen. He became, as former Secretary to Cabinet Leslie Mbula aptly put it, “State property”—an instrument of national service, subject to the highest scrutiny, and deserving of the highest respect upon his passing.

Mr. Mbula’s remarks are not sentimental; they are constitutional and moral truths. Zambia’s legal and political traditions accord a State Funeral to all who have served as Republican President. To suggest otherwise, to reduce his final rites to a private affair, is not only a violation of protocol—it is an insult to the institution of the presidency itself.

President Lungu may have had his critics—and rightly so in a democracy—but criticism does not erase the record of service. He led the nation, made difficult decisions, commanded the armed forces, and bore the burden of national leadership. If former ministers and senior civil servants are honoured with official funerals, how then can we deny the same to a former Head of State?

To politicize the funeral of a former President is to desecrate the very idea of national unity in grief. Zambia has always prided itself on peaceful transitions of power and national decorum during periods of mourning. Even when leaders have fallen out of favour, the country has never descended into petty revenge at the grave.

The refusal to grant Lungu a State Funeral would be unprecedented—and unwarranted.

Moreover, the burial of President Lungu anywhere other than Embassy Park, where his predecessors rest, would be a symbolic exile in death. It would send a message that political disagreements can override national decency, that vendettas can be carried into eternity. This is not the Zambia we claim to be. We are a Republic founded on unity, civility, and institutional memory.

This is a moment for the state to rise above itself. The family must accept the honour the nation accorded Edgar Lungu to lead. It is a rare hononour more so that it was constitutionally conferred and nationally accepted. Let us not allow present grievances to rob the past of its honour or the future of its integrity.

A State Funeral is not about Edgar Lungu. It is about Zambia—and whether we choose dignity or decline.

GIDEON NYENDWA INONGE Wina, Zambia’s first female Vice President yesterday broke down at the Patriotic Front (PF) secretariat that her emotions over the passing of Zambia’s Sixth President could not allow her to say anything. Mrs Wina, with heavy tears rolling over her cheeks wept uncontrollably when she visted the PF secretariat where the funeral […]