GOVERNANCE activist Brebner Changala says it is time Zambians rose up to reclaim their country because the PF has torn the it apart and pushed citizens against the wall.

Commenting on last Monday’s bush protest organized by satirical singer Fumba Chama, alias Pilato, musicians B-Flow and Maiko Zulu, among several other youths, Changala urged ordinary Zambians to finally rise up and reclaim the country’s lost freedoms.

He observed that PF had destroyed national institutions, clamped down on a free press, stifled the Judiciary and sabotaged the country’s parliamentary system, which had all been exacerbated by government’s relentless abuse of the police to arm them against defenceless citizens.

“For us who were there in 1991, when we did away with the One-Party State, this is very sad. I never knew that in my life time, I would see the return of one-party dictatorship of one’s show that PF has brought to the Republic of Zambia where harmless placard-carrying youths, who are in the majority, have to go and protest in the middle of the bush because the roads and streets of Lusaka, where they are supposed to match towards Parliament buildings or State House, were raided by armed paramilitary to protect the dictatorship, which has creeped into the country. The police, who are supposed to maintain law and order, have now become the law unto themselves and the people of Zambia, who are supposed to be protected by the police, are now running away from the police because the police are there to protect the interests of a corrupt and criminally-inspired group of citizens. The police are now there to protect elected criminals,” Changala said.

He said the youth only wanted to be heard as they had a message of high unemployment, among other things.

“The needs of our youths are so many, but they can’t achieve their dreams because of corruption, intolerance and criminality by the PF. It’s a sad story. But I must give credit to Maiko Zulu, Pilato, B-flow and other gallant young youth, who are ready to take up their positions in this country. Those gallant youth never succumbed to Kampyongo’s threats or the police intimidation; they went and protested elsewhere on Zambian soil to escape the brutality of an armed police service, which has risen against the people of Zambia in order to protect the interests of elected criminals,” Changala said.

“PF has torn the country’s Constitution apart; they have pushed us too much against the wall and it’s high time the people of Zambia rose and claimed their State. As the Constitution stands today, this is a constitutional democracy and Mr Lungu and his cohorts cannot take it the other way round. It cannot be that only they must be heard. They have hijacked our institutions; they have hijacked the public media; the Judiciary and they have destroyed our parliamentary system and they have left us to defend ourselves as they arm themselves to the teeth! They have formed a militia to fight their own fellow citizens. The citizens have got totally different desires and ambitions from what the PF administration has. They want to govern themselves without intimidation, without police brutality.”

And Changala, who encouraged the youth not to relent in their fight for good governance, also asked President Edgar Lungu to remove the police from the country’s streets and direct his efforts on revamping the country’s stressed economy.

“I want to take this opportunity to humbly ask President Lungu to remove the police from our streets and direct his efforts and energy on revamping the economy. The economy is in shambles, it needs urgent attention. It’s not the youth that have a problem, it’s PF and President Lungu, who are a cancer, and this cancer must be amputated for this country to heal. PF has brought division in this country; they have amplified tribalism,” said Changala.

“But I urge the youth not to relent, one day we shall overcome. And this serpent called PF will be swallowed by the multitude of people, who will rise to reclaim their rightful position in this country. PF, as a party, has lost its legitimacy; they are no longer relevant to the Zambian equation, hence the brutality against its own citizens. And I ask the police to search their conscience as to whether it’s ideal and normal to raise harm against the very people that they are supposed to defend; to raise harm against the placard-carrying youth, who are their own children. Why are they trying to suffocate the future? It is unacceptable! It is barbaric and Mr Lungu has lost it all and he has no moral right to continue to cling to power.”