Adalberto da Costa Júnior was speaking at the opening of the 5th ordinary meeting of the permanent committee of the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA), this Tuesday in Luanda, on the day the party celebrates "Patriot's Day" in tribute to its founder Jonas Savimbi, killed in combat on February 22, 2002.
The UNITA leader stressed that Savimbi continues "after his death to influence and inspire generations of young people" and that "despite the immense intoxication and propaganda against him, the crowd of those who consider him a true inspiration of Angolan patriotism grows daily".
For Adalberto da Costa Júnior, his political vision of Angola and the world "put him in a target position to be shot down, by those who saw him as an obstacle to easy profit and the unbridled exploitation of the country's resources" and 21 years after after his death, "the country did not democratize" despite the extraordinary accumulations of capital that should have served as levers promoting the country's development.
For this reason, Angola "continues to pass alongside a success story".
"All Angolans have already understood that the lack of water and electricity, unemployment, exclusion, poverty, underdevelopment, does not have Jonas Savimbi as responsible, but an incompetent, corrupt and undemocratic Government", criticized the political leader, remembering that the civil war ended 21 years ago.
"Let's look around us, what do we have in Angola? Is suffering and misery over? Do we have energy and water? Hunger is over? We have decent schools, we have quality health", he questioned, receiving a "no" from the militants who this Tuesday fair gathered at the Sovismo complex, in Viana (Luanda).
Adalberto da Costa Júnior's words are also a reply to recent statements by leaders of the People's Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA), the party in government since independence in 1975, attributing the country's problems to its wartime past.
The UNITA leader also addressed the issue of national reconciliation, questioning the Government about the "excluded" and "ignored" patriots, namely Savimbi and Holden Roberto, who headed the National Liberation Front of Angola (FNLA), another Angolan nationalist movement, no right to statues or street names.
"Is it so difficult? Is this Angola that we dreamed of? Is this Angola that expresses openness? What does a reconciliation step of this kind cost", asked Adalberto da Costa Júnior.
The politician stressed that Angola has been at peace for 21 years, but "is experiencing a drama in the management of its resources", with internal and external debt "astronomical" and constituting a risk of mortgage of the future.
"The current regime has demonstrated inability to govern this country for all its children", he accused, adding that it is on UNITA that the mission of reversing the current situation and taking Angola out of the doldrums it is in lies with.
It is not possible to develop a country if you do not have complete freedom, with your children leaving and using every opportunity to look for another country to live in, "even without conditions", lamented the UNITA leader.
"This is not our founder's dream", he said, urging the militants to use the day of reflection to "make a better Angola and better honor" Jonas Savimbi.
As for UNITA, he noted that the party, which turns 57 in March, is "very much alive" and present throughout the national space and addressed words of comfort to Savimbi's children and other family members present at the ceremony.
