Should a President be a salaried employee of the people?

The question that is inherent in the story below is whether a President, a public trust and as a public property should be paid for the work that he performs on behalf of the people who elected him?

In Zambia, the current President, has chosen not to receive remuneration and in so doing has poisoned the job for future Presidents who may not be privileged to intentionally forsake the paycheck.

In exchange of an oath, a President is promised remuneration and hence a binding contract takes life.

Should this precedent be encouraged or discouraged in the quest to build an open, accountable, and transparent democracy?

i

BREAKING NEWS AFRICA

ZAMBIA’S PRESIDENT HAKAINDE HICHILEMA GOES 8 MONTHS WITHOUT GOVT SALARY.

VoA | Sun Apr 3 2022

The Zambian Ministry of Finance has disclosed that Zambia’s President Hakainde Hichilema popularly known as Bally has gone 8 months without a government salary from the time Zambians voted for him as Head of State on the 12th August 2021.

When asked why? Ministry of Finance sources said that each time efforts to pay the President are made, the president responds by saying, “Let’s focus on working for the people of Zambia. It is service to the people and not self-service”.

And President Hakainde Hichilema has maintained his position that he does not want to be given thousands of titles such as His Excellency but that he would rather be addressed as Mr. President.

Asked why? Sources stated that such titles breed dictators and worshipping of people and that it is not titles that deliver work but oneself adding clamour for titles may be taken for an inferiority complex.

Source: #ZambiaReports