President Edgar Lungu yesterday asked Mangango residents to vote for PF candidate Godwin Putu even though he may not know how to speak English saying he would teach the aspiring member of parliament.

And President Lungu says it is very hard to be humble when you have power.

Addressing a campaign rally in Kaoma, Sunday, President Lungu observed that not everyone in Parliament knew how to speak English or pronounce certain words but they deserved to be given a chance to lead.

“Don’t even listen to the opposition when they come to tell you about Putu because Putu was in UPND, he got fed up and left. Now they are telling you that Putu is not a good man, they are telling you that Putu is not educated, what is that? In the village, if you find a beautiful girl and you want to marry her and she says ‘no, sorry, I am not interested’, you are foolish to go and say ‘she is not beautiful after all, she is a prostitute after all’. It is very disrespectful to the integrity of the young man Putu for the UPND to call him uneducated, he’s unsophisticated, he can’t speak English, and everything when they were courting him to be their member of parliament a few weeks ago but he said ‘sorry, I am not going with UPND because UPND is a finished political party with no future’. Don’t listen to the hatred and hate speeches of UPND,” President Lungu said.

“UPND is a very malicious party. They said for example that me I am very old, I can’t even walk, I need a stick to walk. They are very unkind. They even said that I can’t speak English. Don’t worry, if Putu doesn’t know how to speak English, he is my son, I will teach him how to speak English. This is because we are endowed or gifted differently. Some people are very eloquent, they speak very eloquently and they move crowds. Some people don’t even know how to pronounce words but they are there, they are human beings, give them a chance please. Are you sure all those members of parliament in the House in Lusaka all speak English, are they eloquent? Do they have charisma all of them? No.”

He said no one was perfect.

“What is important is to communicate, to be able to make your point clear and be heard. On behalf of the people of Mangango, he will be able to do that. Putu is a young man, this is time for the youths. If you can’t give young men and women a chance now, when are we going to give them a chance? You will be able to grow him into a leader yourselves. No one is perfect, everyone has imperfections but together we can improve and become better. We need to know that wisdom and knowledge comes from above through the people here,” President Lungu said.

“Those who think are very intelligent are usually very foolish people. There is one leader who’s been trying to be President forever but he has never made it. I will not mention him by name but you know him, he has been wanting to become a president since before I became a politician. But because he has no respect for his followers, God has said no. He doesn’t respect his followers, he thinks because he has money, he is rich, he is the most wise.”

And President Lungu saaid it was very hard to be humble when one had power.

“It is very difficult to be humble when you are powerful and a leader, that I will teach you to overcome,” said President Lungu.