By CHILA NAMAIKO –

. CHIZHYUKA

FORMER Namwala United Party for National Development (UPND) Member of  Parliament (MP) Robbie Chizhyuka has endorsed President Edgar Lungu’s leadership ahead of the August 11, general elections.
Major Chizhyuka has since called on the people of Zambia to rally behind President Lungu if the country is to achieve further economic development.
He said Zambians should trust Mr Lungu and accord him a full five-year mandate because he had shown commitment to improve the welfare of all citizens.
Maj Chizhyuka said Mr Lungu was a listening leader with a heart for the poor and was satisfied that given a fresh mandate, the President would foster democracy and stability needed to develop the country.
He said in a statement yesterday that Zambians should support the leadership of Mr Lungu, because he was running an all in-inclusive administration.
“I have made a deliberate well thought out decision to support President Lungu for the President of Zambia this 2016. To me he (Mr Lungu) represents all the ingredients required in the kind of President I would want for mother Zambia,” he said.
Mr Lungu, an approachable leader, relates well with the poor and having come from a humble background, Maj Chizhyuka said the President was ruling the country in an inclusive manner.
“He takes all advice in his stride. I am satisfied that President Lungu will unite this country in peace and stability across any cosmetic divide,” he said.
He said the Head of State was a cheerful and likeable person citing Headman Chikwata of Baambwe in Namwala District, who last week described the President as having the heart of the lamb.
Meanwhile, Maj Chizhyuka condemned the Bweengwa violence that occurred on Saturday attacking a convoy of Government vehicles and officers, including Zambia News and Information Services crew by the suspected UPND members.
He described the violence as an act of cowardice, which he said should be condemned with all the contempt it deserved by all peace loving Zambians.
He said the thought of political party cadres deciding to attack Presidential escort motor vehicles, including civil servants was a firm declaration of war on a legitimate Government of the country.
“The events of Saturday evening in Bweengwa are glaring causes of national unrest and I expect a swift and incisive action by Government to deal with that dangerous action,” he said.
He said it was for this reason that his uncle Edward Mungoni, a freedom fighter, secretary general and vice president of the African National Congress, when he realised that national peace and stability was being threatened by violence, he and other colleagues decided to accord the Choma Declaration its legitimacy by signing to champion peace.