Political analyst Alex Ng’oma has advised the ruling party to concentrate on providing leadership rather than dehumanising those in the opposition by painting them black.

And Dr Ng’oma has told the opposition PF to allow the new government to govern and offer support if development is to thrive.

In an interview, Dr Ng’oma said it was incumbent upon the ruling party to to provide leadership by first of all, keeping an open door policy.

“Without hesitation, I think you must tell the people of Zambia that what is happening is a continuation of the polarisation that this country has been in for a long time. In this country, the party in government and the opposition unfortunately never work together and that has been detrimental to the development of this country. So that is what I mean when I say it is a continuation of a trajectory that this country has been on. Now what are its implications? There are two things here; one, is that it is always incumbent upon the government of the day to provide leadership and that leadership is provided first of all by keeping its arms open, keeping an open door policy and investing and encouraging the opposition to work with the government of the day,” he said.

“That is the way to go not to be seen to dehumanise those in opposition, not to be seen to belittle those in the opposition, not to label them as people who messed upon the country and therefore, they are not worth consulting. They have a stake in the country and its affairs. What we hear is that the ‘PF did this in the past, the PF messed up’, we are not going to feed on that rhetoric.”

And Dr Ngoma advised the opposition PF to allow the new government to govern.

“Secondly, on the part of the PF, I think it is very very important for the PF as the major opposition political party; one, to allow the new government to govern and give it support so that it succeeds. If it succeeds, then all of us succeeds. But if it is undermined to a point where it fails, then all of us fail. So there has to be a political will on both sides, the government of the day providing leadership and inviting the opposition to work with it and the opposition being willing to support so that we can work together. But if we just chose to look at each other as enemies then I am afraid we are not going to go anywhere, development is going to suffer. Like they say, when two elephants are fighting surely it’s the grass that will suffer, that will be my suggestion. So if we get united, it’s a decision, it’s a conscious decision that has to be made. But if we continue to remain polarised again, it is an unfortunate decision. What is better? Unity or polarisation?” asked Dr Ngoma.