MAZABUKA Central member of parliament Gary Nkombo says the UPND has got a lot of buttoning up to do evidenced by the loss of the just ended parliamentary by-elections in Lukashya and Mwansabombwe constituencies.

And Nkombo says President Edgar Lungu will be remembered for the degeneration of law and order in Zambia.

Speaking when he featured on Radio Phoenix’s Let the People Talk program, Friday, Nkombo said while some blame for the loss could be ascribed to failures in the system, the UPND needed to do some buttoning up.

“We take note of the results and I think the fairest thing to say is that even as we cast some blame on the system and the players, we also would like to say that maybe from our own end there is a lot of buttoning up to be done. But the good news is that ultimately, the reception in what you called perceived PF stronghold was overwhelming and if the reception could turn into votes, obviously our desires would be met. This is a region where three years or less ago, it was unheard of for UPND to have a free range of activities without stones being cast at them, this time there was no single stone cast,” Nkombo said.

And Nkombo said President Lungu would be remembered as a Head of State who embraced corruption-accused ministers.

“There is poverty in this country, untold poverty and that is why even when I was looking at President Lungu’s state of the nation address and saying the things he was saying and the achievements of PF in the light of what I see before my face I then come to a conclusion that… and my own understanding of the law is that Mr Lungu was giving a kiss of goodbye to the presidency at that state of the nation address because he is ineligible to stand as a President in the next election. So in his farewell bid, he said things that I personally translated as how he wants to be remembered. Now, how one wants to be remembered is totally different to how one is remembered. President Lungu in his state of the nation address enjoyed the freedom of his feelings about the achievements that PF has done. That is how it is, it ends at his feelings which he is entitled to but he is not entitled to our feelings. Our feeling is that he will be remembered as the President who was very lucky, in his own words to the country, he did not have a vision for this country and the people using the vote of pity arising from the death of President still went on and gave him a vote. He is a very lucky individual. Degeneration of law and order in the country, that is how he shall be remembered,” Nkombo said.

“This is the only country where a political cadre can storm a radio station and start breaking things. This is the only country where a political cadre can order a police officer and tell him what to do. The power base has shifted from the police who are the enforcers of the law to the cadre, there is superiority of a cadre. He will be remembered as a President who nursed and harnessed ministers who are accused of corruption. In his state of the nation address, he talked about the social cash transfer and the social security plan for this country. What we remember about the social cash transfer is that it was stolen by PF through ZamPost. We have a President who criticized even the institutions that are constitutionally born; the Financial Intelligence Centre (FIC), this was born out of the act of Parliament, you know how they have been demonized.”

Meanwhile, Nkombo charged that foreign nationals were being allowed to acquire national registration cards.

“There is a scandal regarding the sovereignty of this country where foreigners are being allowed to get tools that are only exclusive to citizens, bonafide citizens. If you ask Dracula if he drinks blood, he is going to tell you he doesn’t drink blood. The Home Affairs Ministry under Stephen Kampyongo are the ones that are responsible for this program. We think that it is something that they are doing willfully and knowingly and if it is not the case, it means that they are incompetent. It means that they have allowed security paper to be in the hands of wrong people. Either way, it means that we are dealing with people that are dangerous because an incompetent person is a very dangerous person. If you recall, the statement made by PF secretary general Davies Mwila, he said ‘this issue of NRC is a party program’ and without any ounce of shame that it can never be a party programme. If it is a party programme, then it is meant for self-preservation. This is a national program and it is not a program that is going to enhance self-preservation. This is just a degeneration of the rule of law in this country where there is no respect for dignity and human life,” said Nkombo.