Geoffrey Bwalya Mwamba’s (GBM) constant attacks against the UPND are merely an attempt to attract President Edgar Lungu’s attention, says UPND deputy secretary general Patrick Mucheleka.

And Mucheleka says GBM cannot determine the fate of the UPND in 2021 because his defection to the ruling Patriotic Front party has no effect on the opposition.

In an interview, Mucheleka argued that talking about GBM was a waste of time because he had no political relevance left in him.

“You don’t continue flogging a dead horse! We are not going to waste time on someone who has become completely irrelevant, even to PF itself! If GBM was so important and relevant, you would have seen how Lungu would be so excited. From the time he left (the UPND), has he even met him? He is talking like that because he thinks once he speaks like that, then Lungu, perhaps, might notice him and meet him, ‘ba yama balobe ilyauma!’(He has failed to achieve his mission!),” Mucheleka said.

“He is trying to be relevant to Lungu that is why even Lungu has ignored him! If he was so important, if he was a really big political figure you would have seen him taking pictures with Lungu, it’s now over two months and I have never seen him with Lungu; he has completely ignored him and he is making such noises to try and please Lungu, who is not paying attention to him. We have information that they don’t want him; he is just making noise! He should not force us to disclose some of the things that the people might want to know because we are not like him.”

And Mucheleka said GBM had no bearing on the UPND’s fortunes.

“GBM is a bitter person, how many votes has GBM got? He only has one vote, is it one vote that can make HH to lose? When you are desperate you begin to say and do desperate things, he must be grateful that HH gave him an opportunity to be his running mate and people across the country had endorsed him, but on his accord, he decided to hire himself to PF perhaps because of business opportunities he has seen from PF, therefore, he must be seen to be irrelevant so he will be making such kind of noises,” Mucheleka said.

“GBM should back up his argument that HH will never be president with facts! Let him give you the cards he has in his position. Us, in the UPND, we don’t rely on chitenge! (traditional dress material); we rely on cards, how many people has he taken from UPND to PF? The only thing we have seen is PF members defecting to PF! If his business fortunes have picked up because of going back to PF, it is him and him alone.”

Mucheleka insisted that GBM had no leadership qualities as all he knew were insults.

“He has failed to convince me, his own nephew and sister in-law, Doreen Mwamba Simfukwe, if us his own relatives cannot see any leadership qualities in him, even when we thought he had changed, we gave him an opportunity, and personally I worked so hard to try and reform him, I failed completely! That is why for four years that he was in UPND, I was seriously behind him and worked so hard to rehabilitate him until himself went to do what he knows best: insults and talking all sorts of things about innocent people,” said Mucheleka.

Last month, the former Defence Minister maintained that the only reason he decided to re-join the PF was because he believed that President Lungu was a better leader than his opposition counterpart.