Stop setting citizen against citizen in order to remain in power- Lungu told

UPND Deputy Secretary General, Patrick Mucheleka, has called on President Edgar Lungu to reign his party cadres from dividing the nation along tribal lines.

He challenged Lungu not to forget that the office of Republican President is a national post, urging him to embrace the ‘One Zambia, One nation’ tagline.

“We have once again seen video footage of Edgar Lungu’s agents preaching tribalism in the ongoing bye election campaigns in Lukashya, Northern Province and Mwansabombwe in Luapula Province.

“What is troubling us is that these tribalists are preaching messages of hatred even to the young people in these areas that attend their meetings. This is abusive to young minds and therefore completely unacceptable.

“We have no doubt these PF campaigners have the blessings of Mr. Lungu himself because they have been doing the same things over and over and yet they are not being reprimanded,” he says.

Mucheleka added that the UPND candidates contesting in these areas do not hail from Southern Province, but are local citizens coming from these same constituencies, who values the oneness of all Zambians.

“Our citizens across the country face same economic challenges and they need messages of hope in dealing with the current economic crisis, not divisive messages full of ethnic venom.

“People from across the country want to hear messages around agriculture, job creation, mining, tourism, and other sectors as opposed to messages of hatred that the PF are preaching which can burn the country like what has happened in other parts of the world,” he added.

He went on to say that PF’s desperation must not be allowed to poison the minds of Zambians especially of our younger people.

They must stop setting citizen against citizen in order to win votes so that they remain in power to steal more money from public coffers.

“Zambians cannot be fooled anymore, they know who is corrupt and who is a thief.

“Tribal talk will not put food on their table or buy medicine in the hospitals or indeed pay their children’s school fees. What they want is peace and genuine development,” he added.