President of newly formed PNU party, Highvie Hamududu says the PF sent him avouches with a view of making him a ruling party MP in Southern Province, but he refused.
However, Hamududu who is former UPND Bweengwa member of parliament, says he is willing to work with President Edgar Lungu and the PF in developing the country.
Speaking when he featured on Hot FM’s Hot Seat Radio programme this morning, Hamududu who apparently shares the same initials with UPND leader Hakainde Hichilema, said he was not a power hungry person.
“I was invited to be president of the Party of National Unity, and I answered that call; the national call. Those who know me closely know that I am not power hungry, if I was power hungry I was going to be in parliament because there are many routes to Parliament. I want to tell you that even the PF sent avouches to me on whether I should be in Parliament but I told them that I have question-marks before I can accept because I knew I can serve the country in a complimentary manner elsewhere. This political party will offer clear alternatives and if the ruling party wants, they can copy [because] we want a situation where we can be inclusive,” Hamududu said.
“My acceptance to lead this political party is simply out of my own passion, the passion I have to serve my country and I believe that we are stronger together than divided. By forming this political party, we are not calling for polarization but we are asking that can we work together across political parties and so we are providing a platform of unity and dialogue for all political parties, maybe by doing so we can fix the constitution as a starting point and then other things will begin to fall in place.”
And Hamududu said he was willing to share ideas on how to improve Zambia with the PF government if they cooperated because he believes that development was not like witchcraft which needed to be hidden.
“We are ready to work with anyone because we believe that development is not like witchcraft which we must hide, for us we don’t have to wait for 2021 before we can start implementing. We are ready to meet President Edgar Lungu between now and 2021 so that we can give him guidance on how to run the nation,” said Hamududu.
Hamududu also said PF and UPND were not qualified to be in government because their hurt for one another had continued to polarize the country’s political atmosphere.
Meanwhile, a founding member for the Party, Kasote Singogo said Hamududu did not form any political party but was only invited to be president.
“Let me perhaps put it on record for the listeners, president Hamududu did not form any political party but rather, we formed a political party and invited him to be our president based on his qualifications and his gifts, based on his talents and abilities. Number one; he has been in Parliament for over 10 years; number two, he is a principled gentleman and number three, he has a humble and approachable disposition and he is inclusive in his discussions in a way that even when we are in our own cabinet, our national cabinet and central committee you can see a leader and I am sure even as you hear him speak today you can see for yourselves that there is a national leader in Highvie Hamududu,” said Singogo.