Lungu is the President, says Tilyenji

Wed, 12 Apr 2017 06:10:49 +0000

 By AARON CHIYANZO

ZAMBIA has a President whom opposition political parties should meet and dialogue with because there are far more important issues of national concern to discuss than the pursuit to get into State House, United National Independence Party (UNIP) president Tilyenji Kaunda has said.

Mr Kaunda said that Zambia was currently beset by different problems but that President Edgar Lungu found some of them when he came into power.

He said the country had more important issues to concentrate on which, if not quickly handled, could lead to civil strife.

Mr Kaunda said in an interview with the Daily Nation that politicians should at this stage think about how to eradicate the problems the country was facing.

He advised all politicians to put aside their desires to get into State House and put the interests of the Zambian people first.

He said the call for dialogue was timely but that it should not come with preconditions from anyone to avoid making it political.

He explained that there was need for political players to dialogue in order to ‘‘find a way out of the calamities that had befallen the nation’’.

“There are more problems and far important things to be discussed; these problems are big than anyone of us. We must be serious when tackling them. Because if President Lungu is there illegally, then we must say President Chiluba was there illegally in 1996, and all these heads of state who followed.

“The country will always have a President whether legally or illegally, so let’s just meet and talk if we are serious. Let’s talk about issues affecting the people,” he said.

Mr Kaunda said that leaders should be worried about the well-being of the people even if they were not in Plot 1 and that it was the reason they should welcome the call for dialogue.