UPND spokesperson Charles Kakoma says political analyst Dr Alex Ng’oma is lost in his analysis because it doesn’t make sense for him to say that the opposition parties in the country are divided.

On Monday, Dr Ng’oma said opposition political parties in the country were divided and fragmented adding that they were incapable of offering any meaningful checks and balances to the government of the day.

But in an interview, Tuesday, Kakoma said Dr Ng’oma was living on an island because the opposition was keeping government on its toes.

“Dr Ngoma is obviously lost in his analysis. The credible opposition in Zambia have come and are working in an alliance. So it doesn’t make sense for him to say that they are not united. We are working together to provide checks and balances to the PF government on common issues. Such as the constitution and for example, on the Bill No 10. We have collectively rejected the constitution amendments. We are voicing out our concerns nearly on a daily basis. He is basically living in on an island away from Zambia. He doesn’t know what we are doing in the opposition. The fact that we have managed to put the PF on its toes means that we are working. And we have managed to rally the people of Zambia behind the opposition and we have rejected the PF politics and its constitution amendment,” Kakoma said.

And Kakoma justified his party’s position of calling on international communities to put pressure on the PF government to fix the economy saying government was not listening to the opposition.

“The International communities also help to apply pressure. Because this government is not listening to the voice of the Zambian people. The International communities have to tell them. For example, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) have to tell them that this economy is broken. That they are over borrowing! They are spending on luxury expenses. That is the type of pressure we want the international communities to apply. We want them to tell the government that people are faced with starvation in Zambia. They need to declare the hunger situation in Zambia, a disaster so that they can respond to the hunger situation in Zambia,” said Kakoma.

“The World Food Program, for example, they cannot send any relief food to Zambia if we continue denying that there is no hunger in this country. Meanwhile, there are people that are starving! And that is the international pressure we want. That this government is risking the lives of its citizens by pretending that there is no hunger. The prices of mealie meal are going up and the government is telling everybody that there was a bumper harvest. And the food reserve has a lot of maize. So if the food reserve has the maize, why are they not releasing that maize to the millers so that the millers can produce the mealie meal at a cheaper price? Why have they let the prices go up and failed to intervene in the market by releasing cheap maize from the Food Reserve Agency (FRA)? So basically, this government is not telling the truth! They are lying! What we know is that the government carelessly exported the maize. Now the reserves are empty that is why they are failing to intervene in the market. FRA depots throughout the country have closed! There is no maize inside there.”