Development will be delivered to those who cry more because if you are silent, it means you are doing fine, says President Edgar Lungu.

And President Lungu says if MPs don’t want to cry for development because they are waiting for another president to come in 2021, the people in those areas will keep waiting until then.

The President was speaking when he landed at Solwezi Airport in North Western Province where he went to officiate at the provincial expo.

“Even the sun as it shines up there; it will affect the taller ones first before it hits the short ones. It’s very important we know the trajectory because many people are saying that PF has failed. We all belong to Zambia, development will be shared accordingly but some depends on who is crying more. If you are not crying more, we will not give you because we will think you are okay. You with your MPs who don’t cry, councilors who don’t cry, you are waiting for your new president to come in 2021 or 2026, I will not know about your plight,” President Lungu said.

“I have said it before and I can give you an example, in brief, there is a story of a woman who had two children, a set of identical twins and one was making noise and demanding that she is given access to the breast and she was sucking the milk, the other one was saying no, I can’t cry because I am troubling my mum and eventually, one of the children died from malnutrition. So if you don’t cry because you don’t love me and you are waiting for your mother to come in 2021 or 2016, that’s your problem.”

He called on the people of North Western Province to appreciate efforts made by government to bring development to the area and highlighted some of the notable projects done in the province.

“So those of you who are worried about the pace of development, please give us chance to work because we are working. You wanted a Chingola-Solwezi road, we have done it. You wanted connectivity to the national grid; all parts of North Western Province are now connected to the grid, Zesco. The people of North Western province were craving for connectivity on the network and now they are able to phone on MTN, Zamtel, Airtel, they are able to call wherever they may be, this we have done. You wanted township roads; we are working on township roads right now,” he said.

“I know the pace might not be acceptable to some of you but the dual carriageway in Solwezi has already been done, we are doing the bridge now. We are doing agriculture, fertilizer has been distributed all over, and we are on seed now so that by the time the rains come, we have both fertilizer and seed in readiness for you to plant. My job is to bring fertilizer and seed and I have seen Bishop Kasonde here so that he is going to pray for the rains and the rains will come on time. It’s important to appreciate and continue doing the right thing because I have heard people complaining that we have failed the people of North Western province, we haven’t failed you at all.”

President Lungu also asked the people of North Western Province to “forget about the voting pattern of 2016 and focus on working”.

“What I want to emphasize is that I am grateful that people of North Western Province are showing appreciation of the one Zambia one nation slogan. UPND, PF, MMD they are all part of Zambia. The Tongas, the Bembas, the Luvales, the Ngonis, they are all part of Zambia. We should continue showing this unity of purpose, this unity of oneness in whatever we do. Forget about the voting pattern of 2016 and let us continue working,” said President Lungu.