Nkandu Luo is obsessed with power – Mucheleka

UPND Deputy Secretary General for Political Affairs, Patrick Mucheleka has charged that Higher Education Minister Prof Nkandu Luo is obsessed with power.

Mucheleka accused Prof Luo of being detached from the real challenges that many of the poor students face because she did her microbiology studies which made her a professor in Russia.

In an interview with Journalists at UPND Secretariat  on Tuesday July 9, Mucheleka asked Prof Luo to explain why the Copperbelt University has remained closed and how it would be addressed going further.

“There is a backlog at the CBU right now. The academic year of the CBU has been disturbed and competing students from various secondary schools who are wishing to pursue their higher education at the institution has been cast into jeopardy,” Mucheleka remarked.

“But with the case of CBU, we see the poor man’s child being denied an opportunity to live a good life . But we are not surprised because Prof. Luo never studied in a Zambian university. Even her Microbiology, which made her to be called a Professor was studied in Russia, hence, her ignorance about the learning environment in high institutions of learning is what has caused so much suffering for Zambian students.”

Mucheleka also asked Prof Luo to consider the poor students who may never have another opportunity at education if this chance slipped them. He said the Minister is known for being an antagonists and she must change if she has to run public institutions.

“Luo is so antagonistic! She wants people to plead for her and she is so obsessed with power. You recall the time she was on time recently? She exhibited a lot of arrogance and she refused to answer on the subject of CBU,” he said.

And commenting on the recent introduced bill, Mucheleka notes that the Bill in question is an affront to the democratic dispensation of the country as it doesn’t address the lacunae that arises from citizens being arrested without charges.

“We are aware that the PF wants to use the arrogance of numbers to pass the POA Bill. But the problem is that this proposed amendment will not improve citizens rights to freely assemble. It is a cumbersome process for us to always notify the police each time we have a meeting here (secretariat) because even if we are arrested, there is no charge that they would slap us with,” said Mucheleka