Peoples Alliance for Change (PAC) president Andyford Banda says President Edgar Lungu’s remarks that development will only follow those who cry the most are a clear indication that the PF government is not committed to developing areas that did not vote for them.

Speaking when he landed at Solwezi Airport in North Western Province where he went to officiate at the provincial expo, Monday, President Lungu said if MPs didn’t want to cry for development because they were waiting for another president to come in 2021, the people in those areas would also keep waiting until then.

“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,” said President Lungu.

“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.”

But in an interview, Wednesday, the PAC leader said President Lungu needs to understand that he has to serve every person regardless of whether they support him or not.

“It is very clear that the PF government have not laid a fair platform for everyone to progress that’s the reason why you would hear the President say that. And when you say that development is going to come to the people that cry the loudest, of course you know what he means. He means that he is going to take development to the places where he is getting votes and we have heard this in campaigns where he says, “if you vote for the opposition, you will not see development”, so meaning that by not voting for him, you are not crying out loudly which is a misplaced comment. You need to understand that once you are elected as president, you have to serve every person including those that don’t agree with you,” Banda said.

He wondered whether President Lungu’s advisors were working.

“I don’t know who advises the President (laughs) but it’s very disappointing. I think I would like to advise his team to actually prepare him to issue statements properly or if he does not understand what he is doing, maybe he needs to get a team that will help him understand that he needs to create a platform that is equal for everyone and not for those that he feels are voting for him. So we are very disappointed by that comment,” said Banda.