Grand Coalition urges Luapula to ensure PF releases draft constitution

Fellow Citizens,
The Grand Coalition on the People Driven Constitution would like to well come all of you to this very important press briefing on its mission on the constitution making process here in Luapula Province. We do hereby state with confidence and without any doubt from our interactions and engagement with people on the ground that the people of Luapula Province are indeed in unison with the rest of the other provinces in the country on the demand for the release of the People Driven Constitution by the Patriotic Front Government.Our engagement with the various stakeholder institutions and individuals here in Mansa and other areas is conclusive that Luapula Province does not want to be left behind on the demand for a better constitution for the country and its subsequent enactment. We as the Grand Coalition thought that we came here to encourage the good people of Luapula but strangely they have instead encouraged and challenged us to intensify our activities in the province so as to bring on everyone to speed on the demand for the release of a People Driven Constitution. We want to appeal to all citizens in Zambia and Luapula Province particularly to take keen interest in demanding for the release of the people driven constitution because doing so is their democratic right. It is this Final Draft Constitution that we wrote for ourselves during the various consultative processes which include the District Fora and Provincial Convention both which were held at Henry Courtyard Hotel in the case of Mansa District and Luapula Province, that contains our aspirations and dreams as a people. Therefore we shall not relent in demanding for what belongs to us.
Allow me to take this opportunity to inform the people of Mansa and the citizenry in general that the Grand Coalition on the People Driven Constitution launched a package of strategies to ensure that the PF Government releases the Final Draft Constitution without any further delay. Among the strategies are the following: The Green Ribbon Campaign; The Constitution Song; Media Programmes; Prayer Meetings; Honking Every Friday between 17:00 and 18:00 hours; Rallies and Matches. This we shall do until the Final Draft Constitution is released and floated for the referendum and subsequent enacted.
Our encouragement and appeal to the people of Luapula is that they should not fear or be intimidated by anyone because the constitution is not for a few people or one person but it’s a document of all Zambians that will liberate people from the yoke of poverty. Our Motto “New Constitution Better Lives for All” speaks for itself.
Be reminded fellow citizens that the demand for the People Driven Constitution is not in any way criminal because we are just demanding what rightfully belongs to us. This is further supported by what the PF Government put in their manifesto on page 42. We therefore call upon civil society organizations, the church, the media, and trade unions to take a leading role in sensitizing and engaging traditional leaders and government on the need for the release of a people driven constitution. In view of this ladies and gentlemen,very soon the Grand Coalition will hold a Prayer Meeting here in Mansa at which all the people of Luapula will be invited to assemble and petition our Almighty GOD to intervene in the release of the Final Draft Constitution by our leaders, the PF Government who have this far spent more than the K135 billion that was spent by the MMD.
We are also aware that some sectors of society have been indicating that the constitution cannot provide food to the people, however it’s for this reason that we have come to encourage the people of Luapula province that without a good constitution there cannot be food, there cannot be good education and there cannot be freedom. The fight for a good constitution should not be seen as a fight for one individual. It should be taken up by all well-meaning Zambians because it’s for the common good of all Zambians.
In conclusion Ladies and gentlemen it’s our hope that the people of Luapula will join hands with the rest of the country in demanding for the People Driven Constitution because it is in this new document that our dreams and aspirations including those of the generations to come are.
I thank you and God Bless Mansa, Luapula Province and Zambia as a whole.

Guess Nyirenda
Grand Coalition on the People Driven Constitution Representative