Movement for Multi-Party Democracy (MMD) president Nevers Mumba says since disengaging from the UPND, he has not yet met President Edgar Lungu, but adds that the meeting is bound to happen soon.

And Mumba said Zambians have failed themselves and everyone is to blame for the influx of the Chinese people in the county.

Speaking during the ‘people debate program’ on Pan African Radio in Lusaka, Wednesday, the former vice-president who is a faction leader of the MMD said it he would soon be meeting President Lungu to discuss politics, which is their common interest.

Asked if it was true that he had been snooping around State House trying to get audience with President Lungu, in the aftermath of the dismissal from Cabinet of another MMD faction leader Felix Mutati, Mumba said there was nothing wrong with meeting the Head of State.

“It will always be the case in Zambian politics. First of all the rumour that go out in politics have never changed from the beginning. You will always hear that this one is snooping here, this one is snooping there. But I think those are very unnecessary things I have not met President Edgar Lungu myself, ever since we disengaged from UPND. But I have also heard those things that have been said. And I also have to be very, very clear that look, meeting President Lungu is not something that someone should fight against,” Mumba said.

“We should be able to meet each other and that is why I hope we are going to come to the issue of dialogue. I mean HH met President Lungu on Monday, what’s wrong with that? And I think that we should all be encouraged to meet one another, that’s what you should be doing as a media person. You should be happy if you heard that Nevers met with President Lungu. You should be happy if you heard that Nevers met with HH, you should be happy if you heard that Nevers met with Kambwili because these are the players that we are going to shape the country with.”

He said he was looking forward to meeting President Lungu just like businessmen meet to discuss deals.

“So, the only thing I can say is yes, I have not yet met the President, but I do know that as we move forward, because we are in the same field we are going to meet and discuss just like businessmen when they meet and talk about their deals and transactions and the market. Because they are in the same industry. I’m in the same industry with President Edgar Lungu, the same industry with HH, so we are going to at some point sit down and say how do we proceed and how do we make the lives of our people better,” he said.

And Mumba said the influx of the Chinese people in Zambia and the subsequent ownership of local assets implies that the government together with its citizens have failed to manage country.

“Zambia China relations, there is a lot of talk when you go on the streets. There is a lot of talk internationally, lately off course Zambia is being called a Chinese colony. Zambia is being called every name as having handed over her sovereignty. Zambia is being called that it has borrowed so much from China that it cannot pay the debt to China in this lifetime or in the lifetime to come. You see nation have always traded with each other and they will continue to do so until the end of time. The problem is not necessarily our trading partners, whether US, Europe or China in our case. If there is any failure in equitable trade in Zambia, it will be local failure not investors failure,” he said.

“We as Zambians are actually expected to make rules which favour the Zambian person in every deal that we do that’s what leadership is there for. So, to fight the Chinese in the streets is a show of our failure to manage ourselves. We ourselves should make the rules not the Chinese. The foreigners have to abide by the rules that we make,” he said.

And Dr Mumba advised President Edgar Lungu and his UPND rival Hakainde Hichilema to humble themselves during the dialogue process to ensure a smooth procedure.

“The main root cause for the suffering of our people is the lack of dialogue amongst us as leaders. Its really the main cause for pain that we are going through as a nation. Once you cannot talk, you cannot make economic progress, your security as a nation is compromised, the foreigner becomes stronger in your nation because the foreigner takes advantage of your division,” said Mumba.

“Dialogue demands from us leaders a spirit of humility. Why? Because there are a number of things that have brought us where we are and this issue of dialogue is not a new issue. Some people feel they are so educated that they cannot dialogue with people they consider illiterate, they think that they are better than the others, they think that they are more enlightened than the others, they think that others are just a street people who cannot be a challenge to them intellectually. But dialogue has nothing to do with a University degree. It has nothing to do with intellectual, it has something to do with humility.