Details have emerged of how members of the University of Zambia Senate were coerced into approving the controversial proposal to confer Honorary Doctorates on President Edgar Lungu and his Zimbabwean counterpart Emerson Mnangagwa.
On Friday, President Lungu and President Mnangagwa are expected to be conferred with Honorary Doctorates for good governance.
But some members of the Senate have revealed that they were duped into supporting the proposal.
The members who spoke on condition of anonymity said they were surprised that such a proposal was tabled in a meeting without following procedure.
“So an emergency Senate meeting was called via email and Senators were told that they will find the agenda as they go for the meeting,” one of the Senators explained.
“As we sat, the agenda was circulated and a write up to support the awarding of the two doctorates was attached. The VC (Vice Chancellor) was not in the meeting but was represented by the DVC (Deputy Vice Chancellor). She told everyone that if they want to find good in people they can always find it and vice versa. So people were asked to ratify the proposed names which is Edgar Lungu and Emerson Mnangagwa.”
The source added, “Then the union leader protested that this is not how things are done and asked why an exception was being made on this one.
“The DVC said they did not have much to say but to just ratify the proposal. So people asked why they were called to the meeting to rubber stamp something they don’t agree with. They were told a committee was constituted and chaired by Prof Baboo from the School of Medicine.”
“The argument was that the two (President Lungu and President Mnangagwa) were Alumni who ascended to the highest offices in the two countries.”
The source said the people refused to endorse the proposal leaving the DVC with no option but to asked for a proposer to which someone did and she then asked for a secondment to which someone else also did and that is how the meeting ended with all members of Senate dumb founded.
And the Patriotic Front has congratulated President Lungu saying he deserves to be conferred with a Honorary Doctorate because of his exceptional leadership.
PF Deputy Media Director Antonio Mwanza says President Lungu will be honoured for among others, appointing Zambia’s first female President and for enacting the 2016 Constitution.
Mr Mwanza said President Lungu further deserves to be honoured for the massive infrastructure development and for uniting the country under the One Zambia, One Nation motto.
He said President Lungu also deserves to be honoured for upholding the Rule of Law and for seeking compensation for the families of the Gabon Air Disaster.
Unza has gone to the dogs and I feel like surrendering back my degree to Unza. This is really embarrassing and shameful.
The two Presidents will not convince any reasonable person that they deserve to be honored. We can’t launder their acts by through the minority number individuals in the Unza who seem to have abused their authority. This information takes away any credibility from the process and therefore from the honorary doctorates as well.
A thief who stole money from a widow and consequently disbarred by the LAZ , Edgar Lungu and a mass murderer of the Ndebele people Emmerson Mnangagwa , these are the role models of the UNZA Senate!! Pathetic!
Lest we forget, UNZA also conferred an honorary doctrate on Levy Mwanawasa when he became president and he was the first UNZA alumni to assume the presidency and state counsel status in the legal fraternity. No dog barked when that was done. I suppose all concerned were happy with procedure.
Honoured for seeking compensation for the Gabon disaster victims? Never heard of such before!
Sorry, it should have read alumnus not alumni
May be it is the dogs that have gone to Unza
These are WASTED LUNGU YEARS indeed…even Grade 7 cadres now can enter UNZA and tell the Professors what to do. If this moron Edgar had any once of leadership trait he can put all this bed by rejecting this honour BUT this is highly unlikely for a Barfly such as him!!
@Nemwine, are you trying to compare ECL to LPM? Please, stop! No man!
Mwana Chinondo: Even ECL himself would disagree with me if I tried to compare the two. I am merely recognising that UNZA honored LPM with an honorary PhD and all was quiet.
Never send your children to that university
This is an insult to all sane thinking Zambians. Corrupt, clueless Lungu being honored with a doctorate for “good governance”? What good governance? Apart from him running the Zambian economy into the ground, this guy has presided over the most corrupt regime in Zambia’s history. UNZA should’ve been forthcoming and just recognized Lungu as a hindrance to Zambia’s progress. Look, he has even been frustrating UNZA’s progress by paying the lecturers late, delaying the students’ allowances, and arbitrarily closing the 2 Universities with no good reason. How you honor someone like that? Shame on you.
UNZA should have considered an inaugural John Jameson Award in honour of the lawyer and founder of Jameson Irish Whisky. That’s a befitting award for the champion guzzler lawyer of jemasoni
Zambia twasebana, what a shame and share waste of people’s time. Are we truly thinking straight as a country? Why are we so scared to call a spade a spade? Surely there is nobody at UNZA to stand up and disagree with the honorary? Does our president truly deserve that? I don’t think so and the reasons are countless. This is a circus guys, let me not say much, God bless Zambia.
Edgar is very intelligent un like ck who went to coppers tone and lobbied for a doctorate a man who had six points during Cambridge is not a joke especially in the 70s
Yes He Deserves It. If you can’t stomach it, ask Chimbwili or Ruppees how the y got theirs.
Kleptocrats, cry my beloved country.
Wako no wako movement we all know tribalism was used tongas,lozi and lubavale where not part and parcel of this move.
Kleptocracy ,matacko kissing and kwaruption is how these two undeserved doctorates were awarded.Tis the reason why Africa never moves ahead due to lack of merit based reasoning.
For Goodness sake, it is an honourary Degree!!. What’s the fuss about? That is the prerogative of the any University to Grant the Honourary Degrees, and to be honest this shouldn’t even be making news headlines.
Do you think when your beloved great KK–a mere school teacher, with no college or University education– was granted an Honorary Degree, all Zambians celebrated at the time and said they will all enrol in the University that gave KK the Degree? Of course not, many people thought it was a JOKE giving a young African without University or College Education an honourary degree of Doctor of Laws!!!. That was back in 1963 before Zambia was even born.
And today you all proudly call him Dr Kenneth Kaunda. And that is what Honorary degrees are for. Get over your ..”I’ll…
And today you all proudly call him Dr Kenneth Kaunda. And that is what Honorary degrees are for. Get over your ..”I’ll kill myself because UNZA has given an honourary degree”
It is JUST AN HONOURABLY DEGREE PLEASE!!!! It is for the future to Judge if this was an honourable Act. That is not for US.
Next Please!!!
Bootlicker stop being unreasonable honouring someone is based on exceptional achievement or contribution!
Now you tell me what those achievements are apart from dragging our country into more debt and exposing millions of zambians to poverty.
Ask how many civil servants have had their credit rating destroyed because of this government!
@6.2
What achievements can attribute to the following: Dr RB Banda, Dr C Kambwili
@6.3 ask yourself that question.
You are allowed to use a ruler graph paper and a calculator
This is very good for UNZA not to have listened to UPND minion, Keep it up.
Iwe chiiikallla!
UNZA is now a “Degree Mill” Who gves a rats ass…
Iam told Tongas wanted this honorary doctorate to have been given to HH, Very sorry try next time with next door NOT UNZA.
Thinking of a dog.
Lets just debate responsibly without mentioning tribes. I am not tonga but each time a tribe is mentioned i feel hate also. i dont know how many here on this forum feel like i do.
Whenever anybody mentions tribe, I stop right there and never read the rest. Someone whose reasoning is based on tribes is automatically beneath my level.
Kopala: I think the problem lies with our education system where pupils should be taught about living in a diverse society with many identities other than the tribal identity. But the Zambian identity has a problem because it has no single mother tongue. But it can also be said to be rich because it has several tongues. Kenya has Swahili but this has not cured the problem of tribalism. So the problem is complex although some have proffered simplistic solutions.
Well said Kopala!
@Kopala
I feel hurt too and my heart bleeds each time I hear all the evil and hate spewed against Tongas, Bembas or Luvales. I belong to non of these groupings but I look forward to a day we’re gonna have a leader who will STRIVE to unit us from Mwansabombwe to Kalabo and Siankodobbo to Chama, rather than one who hides behind the charade of one zambia one nation while doing completely the opposite.
After this corrupted process of Lungu & Mnagagwa UNZA will start hawking doctorates at Kulima tower.
UNZA is free to confer the honorary doctorate on ECL BUT why didn’t they think of a more befitting field than Good Governance? Good governance is quite well defined in circles like the World Bank and its sister institutions. Using their checklists, ECL cannot score much. I wonder what scale UNZA uses!
Even his honery degree is obtained through cohertion and thuggery….
everything in lungus life is crooked.
Nothing is done within the confines of layed procedures and rules.
Watchdog psychology.
Bitter stooges…..
We are so petty in Zambia, wasting time on this sure, what is wrong in awarding the two those degrees? Please let’s find something to do. On tribe, we should not tolerate that as a nation.
Awards for good governance ??
Ask the CW , ask amnesty international , ask international bodies against corruption , ask donner countries who suspended aid to Zambia ….
Look at principalities clobbered here.. And why are ed politicians so obsessed with qualifications they never hustle for?
Dr ck . Dr gbm. Dr ecl. Soon we shall have hh
This is africa with more doctors than you find in developed countries
Even witches call themselves doctors
Dr ck . Dr gbm. Dr ecl. Soon we shall have hh
This is africa with more doctors than you find in developed countries
Even witches call themselves doctors
Unza has hit its own final nail in its own coffin because even my eight-year-old child switches to another channel each time Lungu’s name is mentioned either on radio or TV .
An unza student died in vain during president lungus reign and you go ahead to honour him? Ministers go to court with there flag flying high on their car to answer corruption charges. Arent you ashamed to honor the man for leadership? If i was lungu i would actually turn this honour down!
WHATEVER THIS GUY NOW TOUCHES IS LACED WITH CROOKEDNESS
The obsession by our leaders to be called Dr is ridiculous. Dr. Kaunda, Dr. Chiluba, Dr. Levy Mwanawasa, Dr. Vernon Mwaanga, Dr. Maureen Mwanawasa, Dr. Chishimba Kambwili, Dr. Edgar C. Lungu, etc. It is laughable that they want to be addressed by titles they did not study for. Robert Mugabe, one of the most educated African presidents, bad as he was , deserved that title.
And another doctorate for failing to balance the national budget.
The question is: Was this Idea a brain child of the UNZA management? If not then who shovelled this idea down the throats of these academicians? I have no doubt this was done by someone with a filthy Political hand and shovel. What a spineless management!
Haters will Hurt
Africa, what a cursed continent this is!
The continent with so many Doctorates holders than you can count, yet is at the tail end of human civilization.
UNZA was our last hope as a nation to have principles, integrity and academic independence and now they are being used to appease some thieving dictators’ inflated egos.
Listen to the evening news on ZNBC and hear them call him President Dr Lungu. Honorary degrees are conferred to people with honor, with exceptional characters who are ready to sacrifice their own lives for the common good… people like Martin Luther King.
You heard Mandela calling himself Doctor Mandela or Doctor Obama (even though Obama actually has a doctorate degree in law and is a university professor)?
What a cursed continent!
And while all this is happening as Zambians we are okay with this behaviour.
#DORASILIYAFORRUNNINGMATE2021
#DORASILIYAFORPRESIDENT2026
Anything to do with our President does not seat well with those in the opposition and the perpetual critics. Chiwamila mbuzi kuluma galu. How this move is going to subtract from your own credentials, the Lord knows. If you feel aggrieved go to court and stop the train.
So after the ceremony he be called” DR EDGAR CHAGWA LUNGU” God help us.
If he’s wise let him not use the title Dr
Whether dubious or undeserved,he’s going to conferred. This is not a platform that will change or undo something that has already been decided hence I urge u all to move on & find better things to exert yo energy’s on!
@Nemwine: You have lied that President Mwanawasa was awarded a doctorate degree by the University of Zambia. The doctorate degree was awarded to him by a university in the USA, not UNZA.
Get your facts straight it was Rusangu University of Zambia which awarded late President Mwanawasa…
John Mwelwa: It is wrong to come out so strongly when you do not know the facts. I will look for the evidence and be brave enough to face it when it hits you. Surely I cannot be the only one to remember this.
Some people will never ever appreciate anything. Just know this, we will not change a thing as long as we do not change on the complaining attitude. Sometimes it is better to accept certain things so that we may have relevance when we say things. Most Zambians should dwell so much o the book of proverbs to take a leaf of wisdom. Being in opposition does not mean to be opposing everything.
This is why I am asking a fundamental question about our democracy. The independence of our institutions is a mark of a well run democracy. If senate, the highest academic body in a university full of highly educated people, can be forced to do this, what about other institutions? It is clear our democracy is not working properly. We must protect the integrity of our institutions that we set up ourselves. I hope that some day we can rectify such tendencies.
An honourary degree is conferred when a University waives the normal academic process to achieving the same. It is conferred to a person who has made a significant contribution to society in an area of study that the University runs.
By ‘significant contribution’, is meant something positive – a great achievement that others will benefit from. Surely, for these two it’s exactly the oposite? Genocide and running a country down, respectively. Unbelievable! This also certainly impinges on the reputation of UNZA – which it doesn’t exactly have at the moment (nothing to lose) The UNZA of those days would not have discredited itself thus. @MMD bootlicker above, does not understand ‘honour’. It is earned. Not just dished out.
i only hope you will be paid on time from now on. lol
UPND lapdogs are really bitter souls, when self confessed drug Lord Dr VJ Mwaanga was honoured by the Copperbelt University no one raised the issue…The problem is we have UPND surrogates in Senate at UNZA who hate President Lungu with a passion and because of this, the person they support will never be elected by the silent majority in the 6.5 provinces who are wise enough to see their bitterness…
When UNZA decides to honour Supreme leader HH of the UPND then suddenly it will be a reputable university, how ironic these group think mentality sycophants can be…Who ever bewitched them had powerful charms… Just wondering
Let him have it if it’s going to restore his vision to fix the kwacha and its sick economy!
People you always brings politics everywhere that’s why you will remain in darkness what does honorary doctor has to do with person,even though u say why is being honoured after all he as been honoured by majority Zambian to be a president . For me the doctorate their giving him it’s encouragement for him to work even hander than ever .which is more important being called doctorate or a president .
Atase, ati ba Dr Mataware Jonathan Jameson! Niba Dr of Faeces!
Fake news.
ON Dr Lusambo, Kambwili,GBM, Kalaba,,,u never talked manje pali ba BOSS ECL Bla bla bla ..please get busy to earn ur degree if u dont have