By REBECCA MUSHOTA –
PRESIDENT Edgar Lungu has said that the governing Patriotic Front (PF) is ready to dialogue whenever all the stakeholders involved are ready to do so.
The President has also reiterated that the dialogue process should be driven by the Zambia Centre for Interparty Dialogue (ZCID) as the umpire and not external players who can only participate as observers.
Mr Lungu said there was nothing wrong with outside participation, but only as observers and not adjudicators because Zambia was capable of addressing its own issues as a sovereign nation and that historically Zambians have come out of very difficult situations on their own.
He said it was wrong for an outsider to lead the process of dialogue with set conditions in a sovereign nation when the country was not even on fire.
“This dialogue is meant to achieve a predictable system which will enable us choose leaders without interference. There is need to have an arrangement which is clearly understood and with minor conflict,” Mr Lungu.
The President said this when United Nations resident coordinator in Zambia, Janet Rogan called on the President at which she wanted to know the President’s stance on the political talks.
The two discussed various issues including the Seventh National Development Plan and the media.
This is according to a statement issued by State House Chief analyst for Press and Public Relations Cecilia Mulenga.
And the President has said that he was concerned that the media continued to drive political agendas at the expense of serious matters of national development.
Mr Lungu said he was sad that the country was spending too much time politicking at the expense of seeking solutions to many challenges that the people were faced with.
“Our media is awash with politics at the expense of discussing serious matters of how the Government should address issues such as maternal mortality, improve life expectancy, sensitising people on cholera prevention. No one really wants to focus on things that matter such as putting food on the table of the suffering people, water reticulation, prostate cancer. But the agenda is ever being zoomed into politics,” the President said.
The President also hailed the UN for its continued cordial relations with the Zambian Government and said that there was need for the collaboration to continue.