By Staff Reporter
Controversial Forum for Democracy and Development (FDD) leader Edith Nawakwi has wondered why Zambians do not question UPND’s failures in all the alliances the party has been previously involved.
Featuring on Diamond TV last evening, Nawakwi said there had never been an alliance that worked in which UPND was part to, citing the United Democratic Alliance (UDA), the 2009 pact with the ruling Patriotic Front (PF), and the recent collapse involving the NDC, which equally failed because of UPND.
She said because of her disagreements on fundamental issues with main opposition party, she was being called all sorts of names.
Nawakwi was responding to assertions that she had become a surrogate of the PF and President Edgar Chagwa Lungu, dismissing such assertions – further explaining that the only offense she committed that triggered such a narrative was her disassociation from a UPND.
She said only UPND supporters call her a PF surrogate, which she totally disagrees with. She said she was not a PF surrogate.
“The people who call me that (surrogate), am afraid, are people whom I have refused to support. The relationship between them and FDD ended. And the moment it ended, in 2016 when I was called to support them and I refused, I was called a surrogate of PF and a surrogate of President Lungu. That is the name my distractors want to use. But you will agree with me that I cannot side with a political party whose policies I don’t agree. FDD has been here from 2001 to date,” Nawakwi explained last evening on Diamond TV programme monitored by Daily Revelation. “I think if you look at the history of some of political parties, let say UPND, how many alliances have they been in and out? No one raises anything. It only becomes an issue when Edith Nawakwi says that which is not pleasing to the opposition.”
And Nawakwi said it does not make common sense to demand for a Grade 12 certificate from every Zambian who want aspire for political office.
She called on the Attorney General to interpret the law bordering on Grade 12 as a requirement to vie for political office. She said Zambia does not only belong to the elite to govern the affairs of this country. Nawakwi said she sometimes wonder whether or not the Zambian judiciary existed in the air.
“There are many judgements where when you look at, you wonder to say, are they working on the moon or where? When there is a bad law from parliament, the judiciary in many instances does correct the wrong that parliament has created. I draw people from justice Musumali. The issue was that the law could not allow women to sign papers for their children to get passports. And justice Musumali changed that law. Now when they get a document like the 2016 constitution which has many lacunas; many mistakes because people were drunk some of them when they were doing that law – it’s up to the court to interpret (it) in such a way that is fair. I think the Grade 12 certificate… I am a Master of Science degree holder. Now you are asking me for a Grade 12 certificate. I don’t even know whether my Cambridge certificate is acceptable. Is Cambridge equivalent to Grade 12 certificate?” Nawakwi asked. “If I have a degree from University of London, why on earth should I be looking for a Grade 12 certificate? It doesn’t make common sense. And I think the Attorney General should step in and interpret to say, look this country doesn’t only belong to the elite, it belongs to every Zambian.”
Nawakwi said from the perspective of the Grade 12 clause, it was clear that some law makers were not in the right frame of mind when they were amending…- Daily Revelation