By Abraham Kalito.
Former UPND vice-president for politics Dr Canisius Banda has charged that it’s idiotic for his former party to say “Bandas are a problem”, following the defection of the adopted candidate for the Kasenengwa by-election.
Dr Canisius was responding to a statement by UPND spokesperson Stephen Katuka who said Banda’s are a problem, a comment made in the wake of Dr Faustin Banda’s disappearance and subsequent failure to file for nominations in Kasenengwa.
Dr Canisius who is former Ministry of Health Spokesperson did not however take the comment lightly and went on a rant against Katuka and the UPND.
He wrote in a WhatsApp group that the UPND is now very lame and mortally wounded without him.
“This is my response to Stephen Katuka’s statement that ‘Banda’s are a problem’. What Stephen Katuka must know is that his party, or any party in Zambia, will never win an election without the Bandas. Insulting them, therefore, is both idiotic and suicidal. Banda’s are NOT the problem. Bandas are merely intolerant of treachery, ethno-centred politics and idiocy. In fact, Bandas make very good servants. Stephen Katuka, the UPND secretary general, must let sleeping dogs lie. He must leave me alone on my path of nationalism and patriotism. I can be politically acerbic, strategically poisonous to the dreams of his party,” Dr Canisius charged.
“Stephen Katuka is a friend of mine. Either Stephen Katuka misspoke or now there is something cancerous about his mind. Stephen Katuka knows that I am not the problem. He knows that I was the solution to UPND. He knows that I nearly made Hakainde Hichilema win in 2015, and that, by omission, I made him lose in 2016. Stephen Katuka knows that, without me, the UPND is now very lame, mortally wounded. Stephen Katuka knows that the problem in the UPND is his boss Hakainde Hichilema – Hichilema’s own deceptiveness, treachery, lack of sincerity.”
He predicted that there would be worse deceptions than that of Faustin Banda because the party was founded on deception.
“Dr Faustin Banda is merely an isolated symptom of the cancer that has now become the UPND. Worse is coming. More people, even closer to Hakainde Hichilema, will soon deceive/betray this pitiable man. This is karma. Hakainde Hichilema has deceived many people in his political career. I am one of them. I, as a victim of his treachery, I am one of the witnesses of his duplicity. When you plant deception, you will reap deception. Hakainde Hichilema is now merely harvesting what he planted. His is a classic case of chickens coming home to roost. Today, it is not surprising that he is surrounded by a dangerous horde of infidels. Hakainde Hichilema is today very insecure. The number of those deceiving him will only increase,” said Dr Canisius.
“Because he has been practising deception himself, he too now will suffer deception. As age old wisdom tells us, as a man makes his bed, so must he lay in it. Stephen Katuka by attacking Bandas is merely consolidating the community perception that his party is only a sick platform for the projection of ‘ba Toka’ pride. The education that Faustin and I have, but Stephen Katuka doesn’t have and detests is the very bedrock upon which the foundation of a united, peaceful and prosperous Zambia shall eventually be built.”
