Former UPND Vice-President Dr Canicius Banda says only doctors can tell if indeed he is running mad, as he personally feels he is still in his right frame of mind.

And Dr Banda says he will continue serving the people of Zambia and defending their interests as long as he has the platform whether nude or not.

In an exclusive interview with News Diggers! Dr Banda said wished he was the man in the nude picture which was posted on his Facebook page a fortnight ago, saying “the nude guy looked extremely nice”.

Asked if he was still in control of his mental faculties, following his various controversial social media comments, Dr Banda laughed, saying he was not sure.

“Hahahahah! Maybe I am actually mad but I don’t know, I am not sure. I think that’s not for me to tell it’s for doctors to tell. But look, this is just a campaign to malign me. About that picture on my Facebook [page] it was just the work of people who want to bring me down but they will not succeed. And that picture which you saw there is not the only picture that they have posted, they get all sorts of nudes I don’t know where from and they were linking them to me. I don’t even understand the meaning of that recent picture,” Dr Banda complained.

“But I got and saved it too, the person looks like me but I don’t really know if that person is me or not, I think that’s photo-shopping. But I wish it were me in that picture because honestly that guy in the shot looks very great, though I don’t think that’s me. So these people are making every effort to bring me down but they are using wrong methods. So what they should do is to base their challenges on truth,” Dr Banda said.

Dr Banda wondered if advocating for clean water and access to social amenities was the same as madness since people had been calling him mad for advocating for such things.

“Sometimes they publish things to say ‘Dr Banda is having sex’ come on! Okay, maybe I don’t have the latest copy of the Republic Constitution maybe having sex is illegal now or is it? I think instead of talking about Dr Banda’s abnormality, its best we focus on clean water and nutrition security, housing and other things to improve the livelihood of our people. But if a mad person comes to you and says ‘all people should have access too clean and safe water and they must be nutritionally secure’, then I would become an advocate of madness. So I think those people who say I have lost my mind are the ones who have lost theirs, they are the mad ones because myself I am not mad, at least not yet!” Dr Banda said as he luaghed.

And Dr Banda said he would not go back to UPND, unless he was going to take over the presidency.

“You know with the competencies that I have, I think I am capable to serve this republic of ours. I am a free citizen, well educated and I am capable of leading this country even as President. But if I went back to the UPND I can’t be deputy President again because I have been Deputy President before,” he said.

“As for the PF I can join even as a member. President Edgar Lungu has indicated that he wants to work with me so if the President has a platform for me, let him make it known to me and then I will say okay let’s serve again. I shall continue to serve the people of Zambia as long as I have the platform until my last breath weather nude or not,” he said.

Meanwhile, Dr Banda said it was entirely UPND president Hakainde Hichilema’s fault that he continued to loss elections because he makes decisions without consulting others.

“Hichilema knows exactly how he lost elections in 2015 and 2016 and to a large degree, it is entirely his fault as an individual. In 2015 he made a significant judgmental error and in 2016 he made the same error and both errors hinge on vote protection. You know the Electoral Commission of Zambia provides that each participant in elections should ensure that the process is honest, devoid of errors and fraud. But both times, Hichilema has failed to do that. In 2015 Hichilema hired people to do the job of monitoring the vote and he called them experts, he gave them thousands of dollars to conduct that activity but when he lost the elections he turned to his Central Committee and told them ‘we were conned’ but I disagreed with him, I told him that ‘no, you were conned alone because these people were not consulted’ and he got offended and told me ‘I am the President, there are certain decisions that I can make without consulting you’ unfortunately he made that decision and it cost him the Presidency,” said Dr Banda.

“But after President Lungu is inaugurated then Hichilema and his boys and girls begin now to call me a moron, they begun to say ‘Dr Banda was sent to the UPND by President Lungu’, but they forget that I joined UPND when the President of Zambia was Michael Sata whom we took to task. Hichilema should have become President in 2015 because that was when his popularity was at it’s peak but he never capitalised on that. And today Hichilema and the UPND want to say they were feeding me, that’s malicious, I am an elder and I can take care of myself and as I speak to you I am a landlord. I am one of the happiest and peaceful Zambian. So what Hichilema is saying are lies because well wishers actually helped us sell that man and he is not aware of these well wishers, he doesn’t know and he doesn’t have to know them.”