I CONSULTED LUNGU FAMILY ON MY DECISION TO CONTEST AS PRESIDENT – MAKEBI

I CONSULTED LUNGU FAMILY ON MY DECISION TO CONTEST AS PRESIDENT – MAKEBI

LUSAKA Lawyer Makebi Zulu
Makebi Zulu says he consulted and sought the blessing of former president Edgar Lungu’s family regarding his decision to contest the PF presidency.

Zulu says he decided to contest the PF presidency after people spoke highly of his leadership qualities.

Meanwhile, Zulu says he lost the Malambo Constituency seat in 2021 not because he was less popular, but because his time had come to an end.

He was speaking when he featured on Emmanuel Mwamba’s podcast, Monday.

When asked if he consulted the former first family over his decision to contest the party presidency, Zulu agreed having done so.

“It would be naive of me to come to a decision to participate in the political discourse without consultation with the family. As a matter of fact, that ordinarily ought to be the first thing to do, and that is exactly what was done. We obviously had to sit down and say, ‘this is the trajectory that I intend to take, and I’m asking for your blessing if I could participate in this particular process,’ and obviously, any reasonable person would have to do that,” he said.

“Within the party, I have heard discussions from those who are supporting my colleagues to say, ‘no, you cannot participate because there is this burial pending,’ and I’m like, ‘okay, but everyone else is participating when we haven’t buried.’ They form part of the ECL family, they form part of the Patriotic Front family. So, what is good for the goose is certainly good for the gander. In this particular case, we are not participating in the political process for the purposes of disrespecting ECL, we’re participating in this process for purposes of honouring ECL”.

Zulu added that he decided to contest the PF presidency after people spoke highly of his leadership qualities, a view he shared.

“And coming to what caused my coming into this programme, I remember during your last programme, we did have a discussion regarding this matter, and the calls that came in were overwhelming, calling for the participation of myself in this particular process, but that is not to say that this was the first call. There have been discussions, I have had discussions with quite a number of people that thought I may be fit to participate in this particular process.

I know that leadership is from God, and there are certain leadership qualities that God reposes in every person, and God calls us to leadership in his own ways. And we may not by ourselves recognise that we have those traits, but people may speak into your life or of you to possess those particular qualities, and that was spoken of me and into my life that I had those qualities, that I personally recognised those qualities. And what better way to serve the people than to offer myself for leadership, and the first time I offered myself was the first time I participated in Malambo,” he said.

Zulu further said his loss in Malambo Constituency was God’s doing.

“When it came to 2021, you may know that I lost the elections. A lot of people kept talking about that to say, ‘how come you’re offering yourself when you lost in your constituency?’ I will tell you what my honest belief is. The loss in Malambo for me was not because I was less popular, my loss in Malambo was because my time had come to an end. I say so because when you look at the elections of 2016, there was very little known of me, and my dependency at that time was on God that God will do it, and in fact, he did do it. When it came to the 2021 election, I had everything I needed,” said Zulu.

“I had the money I needed to campaign. I had all the vehicles I needed to campaign. But there was this strong wind for change of government, and the change indeed was there. And for a fact, I thank God that I didn’t make it for that election. The reason why I thank God I didn’t make it in that election is if I had made it in that election, I would have thought it was my own doing because I had the money, I had everything I needed. Perhaps it was God saying, ‘it’s not about you, it’s not about what you have. I’m the one who appoints leaders.’ That is what I will make of the 2021 elections”.

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