Lusaka Lawyer Kelvin Bwalya Fube (KBF) has vowed to recruit all members of the Patriotic Front who believe in Michael Sata’s principals, into a crusade that will fight to redeeming the spirit of the party founding father.

And KBF says he is tired of advising President Edgar Lungu to prune corrupt people around him, who now feel untouchable because the Head of State is shielding them.

Speaking when he featured on the Lusaka Star programme on UNZA Radio yesterday, Fube also said he had ambitions of leading the country as President in the near future, adding that his immediate role in politics would be to demand accountability from those in charge of the country’s governance.

Asked if he had intentions of leading Zambia at some point, Fube said there was nothing wrong with that.

“What is wrong with that? There is nothing wrong with having [presidential] ambitions. This is a thing that we must get out of the system. If I speak about my intentions of becoming a leader in this country, it doesn’t necessarily mean I don’t like the people in leadership. I am saying I can offer [an] alternative, I can offer maybe better ideas, that is what I am saying,” Fube explained.

He said he did not agree with the people surrounding President Lungu, and could not help it but start a crusade to bring back Sata’s spirit.

“I don’t agree with the people around him (Lungu), but I can’t help it. Those are the people he is comfortable with. I have a lot of people who still love PF and are still sympathetic to the spirit of Michael Chilufya Sata and still want this party to continue but we must change and drop a few people. The PF needs a lot of pruning. Some of the people who have come into this party know nothing but they want to bring ideas of confusion because they are sitting somewhere in a privileged position, confusing our masses. We are saying Sata’s spirit must come back. The remnant of the old members who know what Sata stood for, I am appealing to them, join me in this crusade,” Fube appealed.

He also advised President Lungu to cleanse himself from corruption-aligned allegations and prove that the allegations against him were false.

“The President must remove his veil and it must be seen to be removed so that people in office today are exposed. And the Zambian people must feel that the President is not shielding these people. That is a very important decision [which] the President must take personally. Now, if people out there begin to talk about my President, the President of this country, and say ‘the reason why he hasn’t disciplined so and so is because so and so is doing deals with the President.’ That’s not a very fair statement on the President. He must cleanse himself from that, unless what is being said is true. It sends wrong signal,” he observed.

Narrating his relationship with President Lungu, KBF said after PF won elections, he continued to offer advise to the Head of State through his advisors, who along the way, stopped responding, thereby prompting him to stop.

“The President and I used to talk a lot, and a system has been established. We know how to communicate. I normally talk through the aides [but] I have stopped talking to them. Why? Because they don’t respond. So you don’t know whether the advice you are giving is reaching the President or not. Recently, there was this so-called identity scandal of the President. I gave a few tips, I called somebody and I said ‘I think this is important and it must be dealt with’ and the only person who can answer this is the President himself. I left it there. Whether it was taken, that is another story. But for me, I have spoken for this party to the best of my ability and I will still keep talking,” Fube said.

“If the President wants to talk to me, he knows my phone number; if Amos [Chanda] wants to see me, we go to the same church, he can call me; [Freedom] Sikazwe, KZ (Kaizer Zulu), these are people I know, but I won’t keep calling them because as far as I know, if you call people too much, they think you are looking for something. I have a job, until I quit this job, I am still a lawyer, but soon, I will stop this job. And I will get into the field. Then I will start talking much more than you think I am talking. Even when I say very soon I am going to leave my job as a lawyer and join politics, those people doing politics they better watch out because when I am committed to something and I speak, I mean it.”

And KBF insisted that some government officials in President Lungu’s inner circle had became untouchable because President Lungu was perceived to be protecting them.

“Lack of discipline, it’s as simple as that. When you are an executive and you have people in your executive or in your Cabinet being accused of corruption, don’t shield them. Every man interns the natural consequences of all his actions and if somebody is being corrupt, he should know that the law will visit. So don’t protect them. Indiscipline comes from being shielded, indiscipline also comes from the fact that somebody is too loyal and you think you cannot discipline that person. As a chief executive, your point is to make decisions. That is what an executive does. It takes decisions. What’s the best decision for the nation? In the face of huge corruption scandals, what do you do? I know and with the greatest respect [that] my President Edgar Chagwa Lungu is a lawyer just like me. And, yes, as lawyers we always talk about evidence. But I want to humbly submit [that] it is not always about evidence,” said KBF.

“Sometimes, in politics, it’s about perception; what message are you sending? And if the President could send the signal and fire people for being accused of corruption, that is enough. If they go through the merits and due process of [the] law and they are cleared, he can bring them back. I am a proponent of ‘you are innocent until proven guilty’ and from the criminal side, it is a constitutional right [which] everyone enjoys but when we talk about politics, it’s also about perception. And somehow, when people behave as if they are untouchable and they give the perception that the President is shielding them, that’s a wrong signal. And we shouldn’t do that in politics. And we shouldn’t be scared as an executive to take those decisions because it’s affecting the popularity of the Patriotic Front. It’s affecting us as members who love this party, who want to see this party prosper. But now we are failing to defend the too many corruption alleged scandals.”