By Patson Chilemba
PF national chairman Davies Chama is questioning which ground is saying that former president Edgar Lungu must run for the presidency again.
Chama argued that one or two saying yes, does not mean that that is what hundreds of thousands might be saying.
But PF secretary general Raphael Nakachinda said he will not be part of destroying the party, as “even a fool can destroy”, but that to build is a mammoth task.
Speaking with Daily Revelation on information that Nakachinda was upset when
during the meeting Chama urged Lungu to forego the presidency, Chama said Nakachinda should be the right person to answer that question.
He confirmed that the meeting at former president Edgar Lungu’s residence did indeed take place, and that Nakachinda, lawyer Makebi Zulu and Lungu’s lawyer Jonas Zimba went to his house to arrange for him to meet Lungu at his residence in Ibex Hill.
“And the appointment was through Nakachinda. Nakachinda called me, confirmed the appointment and we went. Around 10 hours, 11 hours I was at ECL’s house and we met and we talked. And for me hearing about retirement and I was reaffirming the position of the president. It was the third time the president was re-affirming that position. And I just supported his position. In the presence of Nakachinda,” Chama said. “I supported the president’s position. I said ‘Your Excellency, the position you have taken is the correct one. And we shall support it and I have continued to support that position because it came from the president himself, president Dr Edgar Chagwa Lungu. And that’s why I have consistently supported his position that he’s not available (for the presidency), he’s retired. Period!”
But asked on information that he was specifically called to the former president’s residency so that Lungu could read his mind on whether he supported his ambitions to run for the presidency again, Chama responded: “It’s unfortunate. How can you test somebody’s mind like that? If you ask me a question where do I stand? Am I standing or not? I tell you I am not standing. When you say ‘yaah! That position is okay’. How can you test somebody’s mind like that? I don’t understand myself. Because me I want to be honest with people, what I tell you is what I do. If I don’t tell you then probably I won’t do it.”
“So ngama zeto then I don’t know (If someone was trying to set me up to read my mind). Ulenseting’a for me to support you then I become an enemy because I have supported your position. What type of thinking is that?” Chama asked.
But asked on information that Nakachinda told him during that meeting that as chairperson of the party he should have read that the “ground” was supporting a Lungu come back, however, Chama wondered which ground that was.
“Which ground? Which ground you Patson? Which ground? Which ground? Which ground? I don’t know which ground he is saying because I have heard positions like ‘Zambians are saying, Zambians are saying?’ Yes, one or two Zambians can say, but hundred thousand Zambians are not saying, or they are just looking at you as you are saying what you are saying,” said Chama. “Then that may be different. So if you want to believe, you know when you go to a market place where there is a buyer and a seller and the seller will try to smile at you, try to sing songs so that you are attracted to buy. And if you take it as a sign that oh, the sellers love you, you will be mistaken. Maybe they want your money.”
But contacted for comment on Chama’s statement that he organised the meeting between Chama and Lungu, but that he did not take kindly Chama’s advice to Lungu to forego the presidency, Nakachinda said he would want to avoid a discourse of this nature, saying whoever was feeding that narrative has an agenda which is not helpful for the party.
“To destroy is very easy, even a fool can destroy. To build is a mammoth task that requires a lot of wisdom, a lot of objectivity and constructive discourse, and I think my choice is to build not to destroy,” Nakachinda said, saying he would not participate directly or indirectly in any discourse that he knows would be destructive.
Asked on information that he told Chama that he was not being grateful considering what Lungu has been able to do for him in the past through appointments as Defence minister, secretary general as well as now serving as national chairman, Nakachinda pleaded to be excused from commenting on such conversations.
“The issue of the persona and conduct, those are left for all of us to work with our conscious. And I don’t want to become now a judge of people’s conscious. I would rather if there is such a discourse I am talking to that particular person. And I am responding to a specific matter with that person,” said Nakachinda. “But if it is responding to information about that one and that one I think you may have to understand why I would rather excuse myself.”
He said he would not be of good service to the party members as secretary general if he becomes a cadres to such discourse.
