Aspiring PF Lusaka Provincial chairman Emmanuel Chilubanama says his fellow contenders have nothing to sell because they have all failed before.

And Chilubanama says Kennedy Kamba is vying for a position that is beyond his capacity, adding that his other contender Geoffrey Chuumbwe has been in the position before and had nothing to show for what he did during his reign.

In an interview, Chilubanama argued that none of his contenders for the PF Lusaka provincial chairmanship position had anything to offer Lusaka residents because some of them had previously tried, but failed.

He also explained that he wanted to bring maturity and sanity in the ruling party’s provincial structures.

“Emmanuel Chilubanama is coming and bringing into the provincial chairmanship vast experience [and] from my experience as an accomplished entrepreneur and also having served as a very high level as a civil servant, I will bring my vast experience and connections from the corporate world and also from the civil service. I wish to run programmes of empowerment for the youths and the womenfolk. The idea is also to work on reducing the levels of poverty and creation of self employment since we cannot leave that only to government,” Chilubanama said.

He said he would introduce training programmes for all provincial committees so that members could understand their job descriptions, among other things.

“I also want to streamline and sanitise the operations of the party at provincial level. We are going to introduce training programmes for all committees to ensure [that] they know their job descriptions and what they are supposed to be doing. The programmes will border on campaign programmes, capacity-building programmes, resource mobilisation programmes and above all, I am a firm believer in what we call the four pillars; that of peace, love, unity and reconciliation, which we need to inculcate in the general membership of the party to ensure harmony thrives. And we have already started doing some of those things, we believe in walking our talks,” Chilubanama added.

“I am a self-proclaimed peace ambassador [and a] believer in zero tolerance to violence. We want to ensure [that] we eradicate violence in all the party ranks. Zambians are peaceful people [and] being peaceful people, we would like to preach peace, love, unity and reconciliation and zero tolerance to violence.”

Asked if he felt the pressure of competing with three other powerful contenders, Chilubanama, a former State House Permanent Secretary, said the other contenders had nothing to sell.

“The other contenders have been there before; Geoffrey Chuumbwe was provincial chairperson before and he has got nothing to show for what he did; my young man Kennedy Kamba failed lamentably and I think what he is vying for is way bigger than his capacity! If he did not deliver as a youth provincial chairperson, how do you expect him to deliver as a provincial chairperson? Nonetheless, I do not discuss what my colleagues did. I wish to base my campaigns and my discussions purely on issues, let the electorate judge. I am coming in as a new person with a track record of having worked with the party and empowered them so much. No one does not know Chilubanama, especially amongst the youth. So, I am bringing hope and a lot of encouragement to the general membership of the party. I am bringing maturity, and I am bringing experience, I am bringing sanity,” said Chilubanama.

“I view myself as way ahead of the other three contenders. So, we definitely are carrying the day [and] that I can assure you. My dear colleague, when people resort to violence it means they have failed to reason with each other. I wish to promote the issue of dialogue very seriously, talking to each other and communicating effectively with all the membership and all the committees. The only solution to violence is dialogue, not only dialogue within ourselves but also dialogue with my counterparts in the other political parties.”