Sikota slams unnecessary Bill 10 roadblocks
LACUNAS in the republican constitution need major alterations and not the unnecessary road blocks to the refinement process being witnessed, says Lusaka lawyer and United Liberal Party President Sakwiba Sikota. Mr Sikota said the deferred Constitution Amendment Bill no. 10 had encompassed most of the lacunas in the Constitution. He said in an interview that it was only immature people who would not see that constitutional refinements were inevitable. Mr Sikota observed there had been so much insincerity from people who were opposition Bill 10 as they had failed to point out which clauses were inappropriate. He said that most of the statements from Bill 10 attackers were based on misinformed claims that were not contained in the Bill. Mr Sikota said that Bill 10 was a great step in refining the Constitution and that what were needed were contributions from patriotic Zambians on what other things to include. “A good number of lacunas in our constitution have been captured in Bill 10. So we have identify the issues in the Bill, let’s be mature about it not just saying we don’t want this thing. When you ask Bill 10 attackers which particular parts they do not like, you find that they do not even know what they don’t like,” he said. And Mr Sikota advised Zambians not to politicise Constitution Amendment Bill no. 10, saying what was needed was a healthy debate aimed at perfecting it. He said the propaganda that had being created to fight the Bill was not necessary and was anti progressive. “What we need now is a set of mature people which is going to discuss the bill and see how it can be perfected,” he said.