Keep away from constitution, aliens told
INTERNATIONAL legal entities cannot dictate to Zambia how we must amend our Constitution because no one was blocked from the National Dialogue Forum (NDF) whose aim was to eradicate the lacunas, Observer Team has aid.
Speaking to the Daily Nation yesterday after unveiling its report, group team leader Moses Lungu said much as there were clauses which Zambians did not agree with in the NDF Bills, the refinement process had not been concluded.
Reverend Lungu said he saw no need for entities like the Commonwealth Lawyers Association (CLA) to start issuing alarming statements as though NDF Bills had already been assented into law.
“International law associations must stop causing false
alarm as an invitation was extended to all stakeholders to attend the NDF where all the deliberations on what must be and must not be in the Constitution were held but some of them stayed away.
“Today, it is shameful that the mudslinging debate has unfortunately continued with the UPND, a party that cried foul over the Constitution in 2016, now instructing its MPs to block the NDF Bills in Parliament,” Rev. Lungu said.
He challenged political parties and local civil society organisations (CSOs) which were allegedly going to bed with foreign entities to take deep introspection in what kind of a country they expected future generations to inherit.
He said without a proper legal framework, Zambia could be plunged into turmoil especially during and after elections as the case was in 2016.
“Of course those opposed to this process are determined to use the discord they have created over the NDF Bills as a campaign tool against the PF for the 2021 elections as directed by their paymasters.
“However, we would like to advise our politicians and some CSOs who are in complicity with foreign entities creating this mischief to reflect on what kind of a Zambia they want. We want them to think about the kind of the country they want future generations to inherit from them,” he said.
He said as far as his team was concerned, delegates at the NDF had done a fantastic job and that they must be commended for their work, commitment, and time sacrificed to attend to matters of national interest.
“This is not about the PF or UPND. The Constitution refinement process is a national issue which must be undertaken with a sober mind. The propensity to politicise anything will not take us anywhere as a country,” he said.