TIGHT LIPPED

2007 was a great year for me in many areas of human endeavor. Some of these moments I would share on this platform but others, I would rather they remain unkwnon for specific reasons. Particularly, I followed events on the Zambian political landscape with eager.

I also followed President Mwanawasa's statements, pronouncemnets and PICTURES.

In 2007, this was one of the greatest pictures I shot of His Execellency Dr Levy Patrick Mwanawasa State Council.

He opted to remain tight lipped or is it to lock his mouth when journalists fire questions on his twisting wrangles with second republican president Frederick Chiluba.

It was always a pleasure to cover President Mwanawasa, who always came in different moods each time we went to see him off or receive from abroad.

Sometimes he would be in a jovial mood and date the press on the airport tarmac or he would simply by-pass the journalists as if they never existed on this planet. At times, he would become emotional when journalists asked a controversial question, but that is what my job is all about.

But the biggest burden that has continued to irritate me is the horde of security men who block my picture shoot-outs. Most of the women and men do not understand and have refused to understand that photojournalists like myself need to cover the President when he is in public like that. I think there is need for journalists and the security to find ways of co-ordinating their work because journalism at the end of the day suffers the most. And ultimately, it is the public that is starved out of information because the 12 million people of Zambia do not have that opportunity and access to see their Head of State at such moments.