Maravi

It's necessary to work with government - Chipimo

It's necessary to work with government - Chipimo
By Edwin Mbulo in Livingstone
Thu 05 July 2012, 13:24 CAT

IT is necessary to work with the government of the day to make national progress, says Elias Chipimo Jr. And Chipimo says he is engaging the government to alleviate the suffering of many Zambians and not the PF alone.

Featuring on a Zambezi FM radio programme yesterday, Chipimo, the National Restoration Party president, said many politicians had been caught up by the style of politics President Michael Sata practiced when he was in the opposition and they now want to imitate.

"Too many people have been caught up and mesmerised with what President Sata did as opposition leader; the question is, are you a leader or a follower? If President Sata insulted when he was in the opposition, do you want also to insult? We have a lot of little Michael Satas around but we will fail as there is only one Michael Sata," Chipimo said.

He said the PF government needed to be engaged and its weaknesses exposed for the benefit of Zambians.

Chipimo said the many problems such as youth unemployment being faced today was due to insults and fighting that the opposition had engaged in previously.

"We are engaging with the government and not the PF. Let us not fight or insult or not attend meetings because Michael Sata did not, then we may as well join the PF. We need to expose the PF's failures now to help improve the lives of the people and Zambians will see that it was NAREP that helped. It is only the government that can unblock the red tape. We have no choice; in fact, it is necessary to work with the government of the day to make progress," Chipimo said.

He said there was need for dialogue between the government and the opposition instead of always complaining.

"I'm not a politician who wants the PF to fail and come and sort out the mess later. We in NAREP want to help the many Zambians who are suffering," he said.

Chipimo said the delegation to the Rio+20 summit could have been more inclusive with a lot of civil society organisations, but was however happy that Zambia's delegation was not as large as some countries which had up to 500 delegates.

President Sata had invited Chipimo and FDD president Edith Nawakwi to be part of his delegation to the summit on sustainable development in Rio de Janeiro last month.

The opposition criticised Chipimo's acceptance to accompany President Sata to Brazil, with some saying he was taking part in misusing public funds, and had failed to run his party while others said he had lately not been part of the opposition.

Labels: ELIAS CHIPIMO, PF

posted by MrK @ 7:57 PM