Mumba Says He Will Not Give In To Pressure By Those Demanding That He Leaves His Position

MMD president Nevers Mumba says he will not give in to pressure by those demanding that he leaves his position.
The former ruling party’s vice-presidents, Michael Kaingu and Dr Brian Chituwo and spokesperson Dora Siliya, senior member Kapembwa Simbao and former Solwezi member of parliament Lucky Mulusa want Mumba to step down, accusing him of failing to manage the party.
Addressing cadres at Choma Hotel on Thursday, Mumba said he was determined to take on challenges from within and outside MMD.
He said he would no longer tolerate indiscipline at all levels of the opposition party.
He said he was working on rebranding the party in readiness for the 2016 general elections as well as to enable it stand attacks from internal and external opponents.
Mumba said MMD would be the only party in Africa to bounce back to power in a short period of time after losing elections.
He said the continued talk about MMD, despite not being in power, was a clear indication of how strong it was and that it was a threat to the ruling party.
Mumba boasted that despite Southern Province being a stronghold of the UPND, he was enjoying massive support from the area than any other province in the country.
He thanked MMD members in Southern Province for being with him by defending their decision and party from fellow members who he claimed wanted to cause confusion to allow PF to rule without any opposition party offering effective checks and balances.
Mumba urged the members not to despair with the continued election misfortune the party had experienced recently.
He said winning a by-election was not as important as a general election.
“These colleagues fighting me are like children throwing stones at a mango tree with the view to get a ripe one. So I’m aware that they want what I have, but I shall not give in to their pressure even if they team up with PF. My Bible tells me that, ‘no weapon fashioned against me shall prosper’,” Mumba said.
Mumba urged party members in Choma to remain united and focused, adding that he had also extended an olive branch to those rebelling against him within the MMD so as to promote peace as well as love for one another.
And MMD Southern Province chairperson Oliver Pelete said people in the area viewed Mumba as the only person who could redeem the party in 2016, hence their support for him.
Pelete said the party in the province was still intact and would always remain solid.
Meanwhile, Mumba says it is a fallacy for one to think they can make a better president because he or she is an economist.
Mumba was responding to a UPND symphathiser who phoned in to Monzes Sky FM Governance Programme” where he was featured, suggesting that the country currently needed an economist to run the country in order to propel its economy.
In response, Mumba said the notion that the country should have an economist for a president was incorrect as witnessed in some countries.
“If you say we need an economist, in some of the countries where we have had economists, that is where you have had terrible economic growth or lack of growth actually. It doesn’t necessarily translate into that because the (President) economist is not the one who goes to the Ministry of Finance and starts to run the economy single-handedly,” Mumba said.
“He (President) has got other issues, of dealing with international relations. He has got other issues of ensuring that he joins the global community, to become an effective president, not necessarily a Jack-of-all-trade.”
Mumba said that God was the One who gave leaders responsibility over other people.
He said effective leadership was the ability to maximise the talents of the people that one worked with and not the credentials that one had.
“My role is that of a pastor or a clergy, but I am a qualified person in public policy with a Masters degree in issues of governance. Even all that is insufficient in running the country single-handedly. You run it with different people that are qualified in different areas,” he said.
“It is a fallacy to assume that somebody has to be a good teacher or an economist in order to be a good president because all of us have done economic policy. I am a graduate in economic policy myself, but that doesn’t mean it’s enough to be able to govern,” Mumba said.
He said the country’s first president Dr Kenneth Kaunda was a teacher, who provided leadership for 27 years.
He said late Frederick Chiluba was a trade unionist who was not necessarily an economist or a teacher.
“We have got Dr Levy Patrick Mwanawasa, he was a lawyer. He was not a teacher, a doctor or an economist. President Rupiah Banda was a diplomat, a person whose concern and understanding was in international relations. And for Mr Sata, I don’t know, I think Mr Sata was a policeman from the beginning and he has also been given an opportunity to govern this country,” said Mumba

Posted by Kunda on May 17, 2014. Filed under POLITICS. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry