FORMER Kabwe Central PF member of parliament Tutwa Ngulube says if he decides to join UPND, no one can stop him because Zambian politics are nomadic in nature.

And Ngulube says personally, he has never said anything bad about President Hakainde Hichilema.

Meanwhile, Ngulube says the August general election was a shocking one because there were no visible signs of a wind of change.

Speaking when he featured on Diamond TV’s The Zambian Vote programme, Monday, Ngulube said when the right time comes for him to join the UPND, he would make his decision known to the public.

He said for now, his focus would be to provide checks and balances to the government.

“Of course people are leaving. For instance today, we have heard one of our brothers saying I am going to concentrate on my business, we cannot stop him. I have been asked that question before. Trust me, if I wanted to join UPND today, no one would stop me. If I was invited to join UPND today, I would have to make a decision. But my question is if all of us left the PF and went to the UPND, who will remain in PF? Zambian politics is nomadic in nature, people cross. I can never say I cannot join or I can never join. When the right time comes for me to join the UPND, I will make a decision and I will make it public. For now, our focus would be to provide checks and balances to the government of the day. There is nothing wrong with people crossing from PF to UPND or vice versa. What is important for now is to let the people of Zambia have an opposition which will be able to hold the government to account,” Ngulube said.

And Ngulube said he had never in his personal capacity said anything bad about President Hichilema.

“I have never said bad things about Hakainde Hichilema. As a collective unit, we can say that the PF said bad things about President Hakainde Hichilema but I personally have never said anything bad about him. First of all, I will mention that President Hakainde Hichilema is a different President in the sense that the levels of resilience that he showed us every time he lost an election he kept pushing and moving on. Any other person would have given up. Today we want to also just urge our youths, let us give the President proposals and ideas of how we can improve our lives. Just because President Hakainde has taken over state house, then we should just go home and sleep and say where are our salaries? We want to see that University fees are reduced. We want boss HH to help us,” he said.

Ngulube said whoever would take over the PF presidency would be supported the same way Edgar Lungu was supported.

“The former president Lungu has clearly indicated that he is handing over power to another person. I know for a fact that Edgar Lungu has stated that much as people would like him to continue, he does not desire to continue. People have asked me if I would like to be president but I think I am too junior and too raw. Right now, I am enjoying myself and I would like to learn from those who came to PF earlier than us. Leading a political party is like leading a country so you must have a plan. That is why we have too many political parties without a following. Whoever is going to become party president will be supported the same way we supported Edgar Lungu. I know we have senior people like Inonge Wina and Edgar Lungu who have enough experience to guide whoever will take over. Looking at what has happened in the last three weeks, we have not seen the exodus that we were worried about. Normally after a government loses power, there is always a huge exodus where people switch from the opposition to the ruling,” he said.

And Ngulube said the UPND must be innovative and find ways of delivering their campaign promises despite some wrong things done by the PF.

“I will not make a comment on the coffers being empty because I am not privy to that information. I do not have enough knowledge to discuss the subject of coffers. I will tell you as a Zambian that the people of Zambia are waiting for them to deliver. The UPND now have a chance. Whatever the PF did, they can actually pick it up and correct it. If the UPND believes there are enough resources to do what they want to do, we have got lenders like the IMF or the World Bank. So the UPND has a chance to look at where the PF failed or where it didn’t do well. So we do not want to see a situation where the UPND says we would have done this but the PF did this,” he said.

“So our prayer is that Boss HH must succeed and the people of Zambia must give the UPND enough support the same way they supported the PF. The UPND must not fear that the PF left the coffers empty; they must come up with innovation. I know for a fact that if they do not perform well, the PF will bounce back in 2026 and if they do not perform well in the next five years, another government can take over in 2026. So the burden lies with the UPND government. But let us not expect too much, let us not put President Hakainde Hichilema under pressure to change some of these things overnight because he has a journey.”

Meanwhile, Ngulube said the August general election was a shocking one because there were no visible signs of a wind of change.

“The just ended general elections were unexpected and the results were a bit shocking because both the PF and the opposition UPND appeared not to have foreseen the outcome of the election. And in some instances, we appeared not to know whether there was opposition or not. But places where we thought it was automatic where the PF would win, we were shocked. Where the UPND did not believe they would win, I think they were also shocked with the results that came out. So it was a shocking election mainly due to the fact that there were no visible signs and nobody expected to see what came out but as it is a democracy, we accepted everything that happened. The difference between the 2011 elections and the 2021 election is that in the 2011 elections, the wind of change was visible and you could tell the government was going,” he said.

“This time around people were quiet and it was very difficult to see that the wind of change is coming, and I think that is why most of us disputed. So everyone must be careful now that the wind of change is no longer visible as we used to see in the past. If we had gone that route, I think there would have been a blood bath. There were some people who were not ready to accept the results and they would have killed each other. Even for me, much as I have all the evidence of the malpractice, violence and attacks on myself, I told myself that it is not worth fighting for. Going to parliament must not be the only thing that should preoccupy my mind. I told myself that I will not petition even when I knew that my life was in danger. I was the first one to urge the former president. There were a lot of factors surrounding the issues and some people were ready to continue fighting on the streets. That is why we said the people have spoken, let us leave it as that.”

Ngulube said there was no government since independence which had performed the way the Patriotic Front did.

“For us as Patriotic Front, the record speaks for itself. There is no government since independence that has actually performed the way the Patriotic Front has performed. There has never been a member of parliament, anywhere in this country that can actually match the amount of projects that I put up in Kabwe Central. That is why I am wishing my successor all the best. I am not disappointed. I think former president Edgar Lungu still remains one of the very popular candidates that Zambia has ever produced. As far as we are concerned as PF, no one knows how we lost so it would be difficult for me to speculate,” said Ngulube.