HEALTH Minister Dr Chitalu Chilufya has reiterated his “unequivocal” support for President Edgar Lungu’s third term bid.

And Dr Chilufya says government has recruited 25,000 health workers since 2016.

Speaking when he featured on K-FM radio in Mansa, Wednesday evening, Dr Chilufya urged Luapula residents to register as voters so that they could retain President Lungu in 2021.

“Let us firmly rally behind the presidency of his Excellency Dr Edgar Chagwa Lungu and the Patriotic Front party government. Let us be loyal and let us show this by registering as voters and committing to voting for this government so that we can continue on this development trajectory. I reiterate as Mansa Central member of Parliament on behalf of the people of Mansa Central we have declared unequivocal loyalty to the President. We have declared that we will rally behind his candidature for the 2021 general elections,” Dr Chilufya, who is also Mansa Central PF member of parliament, said.

“And I want to speak as a member of the central committee from Luapula Province that we have irrevocably endorsed the candidature of President Lungu for the 2021 general elections and we have resolutely decided that we will rally behind his presidency. This is informed by the development that Luapula has seen, unprecedented development. Therefore, I call for unity in the party, in the province, countrywide. I call for unity of purpose. Let us ensure that we all focus on development. Let us continue lifting our people out of poverty through this pro poor development programme. The government has embarked on a very aggressive development agenda for the country and it’s only important that we don’t change the winning team.”

Dr Chilufya said transport was readily available for those who wished to get voter’s cards.

“We have been given an opportunity to register as voters. I am asking you all that have not registered, go out in numbers and go to register. There are vehicles that will take you to registrations centres and take you back. We will be meeting with chiefs so that we can work together to register. All those who are having challenges that are restricting them from going to register, phone on the number that has been provided. We will come and get you. No one should be left out. All those that are farming, schedule a date, we will come and get you. There are a few numbers, our friends in other provinces in Copperbelt, Southern, Lusaka and Western Provinces the numbers are going up,” Dr Chilufya said.

“Time is running out. Go and register as a voter. We have the vehicles to come and get you. Let us go and register so that we can re-elect this government under President Edgar Lungu and continue to see development. President Lungu has come here six times. He loves us that is why he is frequently coming here. If you see people coming to make noise and say they want to rule, ask them what they have done. Because when you look at this government, there are a lot of things that you can point at that we have done but what will the opposition point at?”

And Dr Chilufya said government had recruited 25,000 health workers since 2016.

“We have 45 hospitals countrywide. We have clinics countrywide, even here in Mansa Central. This is not how it was, this is the leadership of President Edgar Lungu at hand. We only had two secondary schools when I was starting as a member of Parliament and now we have secondary schools in various places. And now they are over 15 due to President Edgar Chagwa Lungu’s hard work. When we look at the agricultural sector, if you have noted that this year farmers have received their inputs,” said Dr Chilufya.

“We have the social cash transfer, we have UNICEF that is working with the government, so far, 11,000 households will benefit from the social cash transfer programme. If you look at the youths, when we started under President Lungu’s leadership, here in Mansa those that have been employed by the government are more than 300. You can conduct a census and count how many people have been employed by government, they will even surpass that number. When you look at this internship programme we have embarked on, we have 100 people in various fields. In the Health sector, we said we will employ 30,000 from 2016 to 2021, already there are 25,000. Some of them are from here in Mansa. Under the Edgar Chagwa cooperative, we have given a lot of people in Mansa and Luapula so that they live better lives.”