Rupiah has no programme for the country – Magande

Rupiah has no programme for the country – Magande
By Patson Chilemba
Sun 25 Apr. 2010, 04:10 CAT

NG’ANDU Magande yesterday charged that President Rupiah Banda assumed the leadership of the country without a programme for the nation. And Magande warned that he would not allow President Banda to defeat him at the convention using thuggery.

Reacting to President Banda’s assertion that he was a puppet of The Post, Magande asked President Banda to restrict his public utterances by telling the people his plans for the nation.

He said he knew what he wanted to do for the nation, unlike President Banda who was told to contest the Republican Presidency by the late Benny Tetamashimba, without a programme for the country.

“The President should restrict his public utterances on what he wants to do for the country rather than giving adjectives to people. For me, I can’t use a lot of adjectives on him because he is the one who said he wasn’t even interested in this job, it was Tetamashimba who asked him to stand. So I think on that basis, one even would wonder what manifesto he gave to the NEC for him to win the elections,” Magande said.

“Because for all I remember, nobody was allowed to address the NEC...okay all of us did not expect that president Mwanawasa would pass away, but at least in our own ways wherever we were leaders we had ideas of how to move the country forward, and that is why I came out and said what I knew, what I had done and what I intended to do. But for him he never addressed anybody on anything except to say ‘I am going to keep the legacy of Levy Mwanawasa’. Some of us who were close to Levy, we know his legacy, and the legacy of Levy is not to call citizens names.”

Magande wondered why President Banda was attacking him, saying he had never called him names.

“So all I want to ask him is since he is in North-Western Province, perhaps he should take some time to go and visit Tetamashimba’s grave and try to find out why Tetamashimba wanted him to take over the leadership of the country. He might be able to be assisted if he goes there to pray on the grave of Tetamashimba,” Magande said.

“Perhaps he meant well to remind us that he had won these elections and he was going to North Western perhaps there is something he is doing to relate to the one who pushed him to get his job.”

Magande said he could not be a puppet of The Post, saying in fact he would be the one to use the media to get his message across to the citizens.
He said President Banda had deliberately instructed the state owned and government controlled media not to cover him.

Magande said recently he and first lady Thandiwe Banda spoke at a certain function, but his statements were completely blacked out by the state owned media.

“If I am using The Post to get my views to the people, I will continue using it,” Magande said. “So it’s interesting that a grown up man can be so scared about puppets. Why doesn’t he use the ones that control him to get what he wants from them?”

And Magande said he would not attend a convention where thugs would be organised to sort him out.

“I will not allow him President Banda to use thuggery in order to defeat me,” he said.

Magande said should President Banda use thuggery, he would gang up with others to defeat him.

“But I am going to do it at the ballot paper, in the civil manner that I know. I am not going to use thuggery,” he said.

Magande said it was unheard of the manner in which President Banda attacked Fr Frank Bwalya.

He said he would use President Banda effectively as campaign manager because he mentioned him wherever he went.

“So what completion is he talking about now? Is he prepared to say what happened at the NEC meeting, NEC people who were camped at Chrismar Hotel just across Government House? Let him come out and say what he did to those people to vote for him, and where are they?” asked Magande.