By SYLVESTER MWALE

.President Lungu

THE House of Chiefs has charged that it is an insult to chiefs in Eastern Province for some opposition politicians to insist on questioning the nationality of President Edgar Lungu when traditional leaders in the region have cleared the air.
House of Chiefs chairperson chief Ngabwe of Central Province has also advised traditional leaders to vacate the chieftaincy if they are interested in politics instead of siding with opposition politicians.
The traditional leader said in an interview that it was sad that while the chiefs of Eastern Province particularly from Petauke had confirmed that President Lungu is their son, some politicians were still questioning his nationality.
“From my point of view as Chairperson of the House of Chiefs, people who are better-placed to confirm that the president Edgar Chagwa Lungu is their child is the chiefs of Eastern Province where he comes from…unless we are now saying they are liars and that’s an insult to the chieftaincy,” Chief Ngabwe said.
The traditional leader wondered whether Zambia would be ruled by ‘a Zambian’ in the eyes of the opposition leaders because all the past heads of states had been accused of being foreigners.
“Which president in Zambia will be a ‘Zambian’; because president (Dr Kenneth) Kaunda, we are saying he is not Zambia, (Dr Frederick) Chiluba we were saying he was not Zambian, (Levy) Mwanawasa, we said he was not Zambian, Michael Sata we said he was a Tanzanian and Rupiah Banda we said he was from Zimbabwe, so what’s wrong with us,” he said.
Chief Ngabwe noted that it was shocking that those claiming that President Lungu was a foreign had not questioned his nationality when he was first elected as Member of Parliament for Chawama as well as when he assumed the presidency in 2015.
Some traditional leaders in the country, particularly Chief Mukuni have joined the opposition leaders in questioning the nationality of the Head of State to the point the ruling party has accused the Livingstone Chief of receiving a salary to discredit the head of state.
However, Chief Ngabwe said the views of such traditional leaders should be treated as an individual’s point of view and not a representation of either the royal establishment or the subjects.
The traditional leader who is also former Public Service Management Division permanent secretary noted that chiefs were free to see the Head of State where they had an issue because there role was also to provide checks and balances.
“There is no one who stops the chief from seeing the President; I can phone and say ‘your Excellency, I’m coming’, he will allow me to go and see him and I will tell him my views, because all the chiefs in this country are supposed to be his advisors,” he said.

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