NAREP president Steven Nyirenda says PF wants to be re-elected so that they can fulfil their personal greed and satisfy their egos.

In an interview, Nyirenda wondered why the ruling party was insisting on being voted back into power when they had failed to run the country.

“I was thinking that if President Edgar Lungu would be genuine enough, he would have resigned or he would have given way because they have failed. But we don’t know why they are insisting. They may be insisting to come back because it is about them fulfilling their jobs, their personal egos. I don’t think there is any national agenda. I can just think that one way of wanting to come back is to make sure they fulfil their personal egos, their personal greed. It has nothing to do with the development of this country. How can the PF correct the high cost of living? It is impossible for the Zambians to believe that. How can I say ‘I will correct after I am elected to power?’ After I have had more than 10 years chance. The PF have totally failed to run this country. Essential commodities have shot up,” Nyirenda said.

He said once ushered into office, he would amend the constitution to ensure that the economy was not controlled by politicians.

“When we take over, we will not depend on donors, we will create wealth from what God has given us. As Zambians, we don’t own anything so we have no chance to control and manipulate our economy. The first thing we are going to do is to cement the constitution and to make sure that no politician should be controlling the economy. It needs to be controlled by the private people, people who are independent from the politicians. This country is one of the richest in the world. We have 40 percent of the water bodies within the region. But what has been lacking is the proper direction in the leadership. We cannot service the debt, we can’t pay the civil servants on time. All these things depend on donors,” he said.

Nyirenda argued that it was only Zambians who would develop the country and not foreigners.

“Our approach is completely different from the rest. We tell the people, look at yourselves in this country, ask yourselves who owns the country, the land, the curriculum we are using, who owns the tourism industry and the answer is the foreigners. We are saying that if we give this to the Zambians, they will develop this country. That is why we advocate that our national agenda is Zambia for Zambians. It is only the Zambians that will develop this country, anyone else, it is a lie,” said Nyirenda.

“We pledge that we are going to give a job to everybody else in the country. My team and I will make sure that the Zambians start controlling their wealth and agenda and once they do that they will create jobs for everybody else because the money is going to remain in the country. Zambia is for Zambians and only us will develop it.”