 On their behalf, as we come to the end of the year, we would like to mention that just in a few days from now, we shall cross into 2024, Zambia as an independent state is going to clog 60 years. As leaders, we should ask ourselves some basic questions. How does a responsible 60-year-old person look like? Or how do other nations of similar age look like today? If we do not make the vision clear for 2024, our fear is that we risk having politics as usual as we have had in 2023. All of us aspire to move beyond the politics of 2023 to a new set of politics that is going to focus on the needs of the Zambian people and our aspirations. And we can achieve that. That's how other countries have achieved it. They decided that they're going to build their nations and now we all run to those countries to go and enjoy ourselves on holidays because they decided to do politics in a manner that it does not interfere with progress and the development of their country. I am looking forward to a 2024 where all of us in politics begin to realize that it's not about us individually, but it's about us cooperatively moving together to build a society that is going to help our children and our children's children. And I want to assure you, we can change politics in the manner that we've been doing it to something that will make our children and their children proud of us long after we are born. So the new movement, our party envisions a mature Zambia in 2024 with a patriotic responsible citizenry. We want to envision a nation in 2024 of a nation which takes hold of its natural resources and ensures that those resources are used by the Zambian people and they become the prime owners of our copper, of our cobalt, of our lithium, of our gold, of our diamonds. That time we must start to work on it in 2024 to become absolute owners of our resources as a people. So we envision also a nation in 2024 which is fully developed competing with the best organized and best run nations in the world. This summarizes my lifelong vision of Zambia shall be saved. I am restless to see this new Zambia start to take shape in 2024. But the reason we are gathered here too is to help especially the younger generation that probably was not there when the MMD began by giving you a little short history and a walkthrough of where we are coming from where we are as a party and the future of the movement for multi-party democracy before I come to deal with other national issues. The movement for multi-party democracy has turned 33 years this month. During this period we have witnessed a lot of things in this country. We have seen the economy rise and we have also seen the economy go down. We also are aware of certain things that need to be done to intervene in a foreign economy by our own experience as the movement for multi-party democracy. And so this is the state of our party. When we took over government in 1991 the economy had almost tanked, characterized by food riots for the younger people you don't remember this because you're probably not there, but the food riots across the country and an unsustainable debt stock of $7.5 billion. At that time it was a huge amount it is now that compared to the size of our economy that was a huge debt. Unique socialist policies had ruined the economy to that effect. When MMT took over we told the nation about the state of the economy and the pain we were all going to experience to get ourselves out of the economy crisis. Several interventions were made including an arrangement with the IMF which resulted in the privatization of parasitic accompanies. This led to the biggest retrenchment programs Zambia's ever undertaken. People suffered in this country during that time when MMT took over. Prices of essential commodities rose including of millenium following the removal of coupons because the unique government realized that the people were not going to manage it because the price of millenium was so high and they had to bring coupons. Those of you that went to buy millenium took coupons there in order for you to buy it at a reasonable price. But all that was removed. Many Zambians were angry as a result of that just as they are angry today. The opposition unique made a political case that Zambians had made a mistake to remove them from power. It became very clear. The angry and angry Zambians believed the report of unique. And the unique simply said that you made a mistake to vote in the movement for multi-party democracy. Now look at how you're suffering. Will you need to come back to unique? Kenneth Kaurander riding on this huge dissatisfaction announced his return to active politics. Sounds very familiar. The rising unique was only stopped by a constitutional change which prohibited Dr. Kaurander from standing on the basis that his parents were not Zambian. Many political analysts believe that if this had not happened MMD could have possibly been a one-term government. The naked truth, however, was that the mess that MMD was trying to clean up was created by unique and needed more than the five years that MMD had to clean it up. Especially that it took more than 20 years to create the economic mess. Even after President Lover won the Zambians, to tighten their belts, hunger prevailed and a new chance that MMD had failed two groups. Actually, it took 10 years to correct the economic crisis that had been created by unique. So allow me now to speak to your hearts, fellow Zambians. Armed with this history and we are privileged as MMD because we come to the table of politics with a rich history that can interpret the present. Armed with this history, I refuse to act responsibly by immediately rising up against probably the UPND and President Haka Inechilema to say that he has failed because this what is happening now has happened before where President Lover was told that he had failed because the million new prices were high. And I think that if we fail to explain to the Zambian people why the million new prices are high and how long it's going to be that they are going to remain high, we will continue to have problems like MMD had in the initial days. And that's what we're sharing this today because of some of the decisions MMD has made. What I know is that it will take time to heal the broken economy handed down by the patriotic front. Like at the time of Unib, the patriotic front had almost destroyed the economy and consequently lost international appeal which culminated in Zambians losing all hope in both the PF and Mr. Edgar Lungu. This was evidenced in the one million vote gap between him and the winner Haka Inechilema. Like Unib, the PF left a staggering debt stock which the World Bank in 2017 placed at 29 billion dollars, three times bigger than what Unib left. This is unforgivable. The PF broke the record of being the only country to default on its debt repayment during the COVID era. This further deeply injured our credibility and appeal as a nation. It's only in Africa that such politicians like those of our colleagues who stand and hold the microphone and says they are returning to active politics and people clap for them only in Africa with that happening. But maybe let me not say only in Africa. I think let me be clear that this is a historical fact even in the scriptures where the children of Israel although there were slaves in Egypt when they found the challenge along the way to the promised land they said we want to go back to Egypt really they really want to go back to Egypt but it was a frustration that what they hoped for has not come quick enough and for me I understand that and we want to debate that want to talk about it and you must understand that we are not here to speak for anybody. We are giving our history as MND the challenges we first compare them to the challenges of today and make our position which we will be making towards the end of the statement. If there if there was any morality of emotion our colleagues in the PF they should be going from regular station to regular station asking for the forgiveness of the Zionist people but instead they believe that the current economic challenges are an indication that Zambian should suffer targeted amnesia and go back to the patriotic front which I have none of that as the movement for as a movement for for multi-party democracy. We read, we remember and we do have some morals to do the right thing. We are unhappy about the economic status like many Zambians but we agree only with the process of our colleagues in the UPND that they have put place in place to restore the economy and the integrity of the economy. It would serve the UPND well to inform the citizens that the reconstruction of the economy is not going to be an overnight exercise it shall take time. Not all the economic variables are under our control therefore we cannot say next month this is what's going to happen in the economy we can only work on the economy and the UPND must take the responsibility to constantly engage the Zambian people as to how far they have gone. The reason we have given that history fellow Zambians is to just outline one fact of where Yemen distanced. From October 2021 we have stood right along to support our colleagues in the UPND in the matters of reviving the economy, matters of ensuring that the group of law is maintained in the country, ensuring that order returns to this country so that we can become a civilized nation that does politics that are civil and not insults or backwardness, I mean politics or backwardness. Now I would like to talk about the MMD for a few minutes because there are assumptions going out there that Nemez Moomba and his National Executive Committee found a vibrant movement for multi-party democracy and running to the ground. There are those people that rise up to say that let me let me encourage leaders across the board not just MMD leaders let me encourage anyone who is a leader in any political party in any nation or in any organization. Every leader has a Judas Iscariot who is always going to keep you in check and is always going to criticize everything. You criticize the food you eat, the clothes you wear because that's his role. He's a Judas Iscariot. Even God has opposition. The devil always stands up when God is doing something. I have not met a leader in the world that does not have his own private devil, his own private Judas Iscariot. Any leader that God has used in the world has a Judas. So don't worry when people rise up against you to speak about you because the world operates on a democratic realm. God has a two-party system and that is good and evil. So whenever good stands up, evil will rise up. Whenever evil stands up, good will rise up. That's why sometimes when I don't hear criticism of myself, I start to look around to find that maybe I've lost direction because when I speak, there should be an opposition voice because that's the way God wired the world. So to you that are leaders and God has called you, do not worry when people rise up against you and speak against you. You have your own devil, you have your own Judas and you must celebrate that they're in your life to make you feel you know succeed in what God has called you to do. A few setbacks in the MMD that we are first. I want to make it clear that the challenges of MMD are not today's challenges. The MMD setbacks started a long time ago. The MMD came into government in 1991 with over 70 percent of the national vote. By the next election in 1996, the party faced their first setback. They lost popularity for introducing a liberalized economy and by keeping Kenneth Kaunda off the ballot. Remember that Zambians before MMD were used to handouts. Kenneth Kaunda's government, the unique government, even when we went for independent celebrations, they gave us chocolate milk, they gave us biscuits. It was a country of handouts and Kenneth Kaunda was trying to do that to bring equity in Africans, you know, ask black people who just got our independence. So we were now traditionally hooked to being given everything. So when the movement for multi-party democracy moved from that type of socialist economy to a liberalized economy, a lot of Zambians fell through the cracks and rose up against the movement for multi-party democracy and they were angry that we want Kaunda back and when Kaunda was, President Kaunda was about to stand, you know, the movement for multi-party democracy through the constitutional arrangements, we found out that Kenneth Kaunda was kept off the ballot. Zambians were not happy about this. Zambians were not happy about moving from being given free things to try to find a job and a private enterprise to govern our economy. The second setback for MMD came in 2001 when President Chiluba attempted to run for the third time. This party split into three, General Christon Tempo's FDD, Michael Satter's patriotic friends, General Godfrey Meander's Heritage Party. The result was that MMD barely won the 2001 election. If you remember those of you that were there for the first time in the history of our country, a president became president with 29% of the vote, the lowest since the independence of our country. And the competitor, the late Anderson Mazokame, so rest in peace, had 27%. So President Manawasa only had 2% above Anderson Mazoka, the reason was MMD at that time was only holding on because it was in government. And I want the Zambian people to understand this, especially those that say neighbors today has come and destroyed the MMD. And we have a solution for MMD and I'll talk about it in the next few minutes. But it's important for the younger generation to understand this, that at that time MMD was considered a government made simple. That's why we call it that a government made simple because of the difficulties that we are describing now. And this was the deepest decline of the MMD since inception. Why are we saying this? It's important for us to lay the foundation and tell the truth about where we are and why we are taking the measures that we are bound to take. In September 2011, the MMD faced their third setback with a devastating loss to the patriotic front. Members scattered in fear and 11 of our MPs went to PF for jobs under Mr. Maikosa's government as Deputy Ministers. It was a dark day for the once mighty movement for multi-party democracy. And at this time, I was in Canada as your High Commissioner there when this loss took place. Upon our return, there was a convention that was called, and I'll talk about that in a few minutes. But following the loss, MMD held a national convention in 2012 where I won the presidency with almost 70% of the vote and led the party into four concepts that this is what they were not telling. When I became president of MMD, I led MMD into electoral victories for four by-elections, almost one after the other. We had Casenemua. We went there and beat the new ruling party. We went to Chipata Central. I led the troops there. We beat the new ruling party in Chipata Central. We went to Kaika in Petawuke. We beat the ruling PR party there. We went to Central province, Mochinda. There, we also beat the ruling party. So when they said that Nevers came and destroyed the party, I think that history must be correctly read. We won those by-elections. Unfortunately, after the death of Mr. Sata in 2014, our late former president, Rubio Bandadi, decided to return to active politics and split the party into three. After losing the court case, he took a substantial number, mostly from Eastern province to the PF, a group of others migrated to the UPND, and the other group remained in the MMD under my leadership, a fragmented entity. This is the status quo we have painstakingly been working on until today. So the accusation that my leadership or lack of it has destroyed MMD does not even come close to the truth. But rather that we have paid the highest price to even keep what is left. I am very proud of the resilience and loyalty shown by the current National Executive Committee to the cause of democracy. And we have a National Executive Committee of 53 people, as I speak. We have provincial leaderships in place. The Lusaka provincial leadership is also here. We have the district survey committee for Lusaka. It's in this meeting. And we have several leaders of our party. But these have stood the test of time. I'm proud of them, because they have fought a good fight of faith for democracy. Now, having said this, what is the future of the movement for multiparty democracy? The party has endured a seven-year-long leadership fight, which was only concluded on November 5, 2019, through a landmark judgment from the High Court that declared me as the legitimate president of the movement for multiparty democracy. The result of this prolonged leadership fight was a dented party image that rocked us for the original trust that the Zambian people had reposed in our party when I took over as president in 2012. Our opponents, who laid the onslaught on our party and lost in court, have tried to reverse the narrative that it is my leadership, or lack of it, that injured the image of the MND. The truth is that through the vigilance of the current National Executive Committee, the MND has survived. Our team is not down, not to recognize the damage that has been caused to the party, but those who now stand on the other side to place the blame on those who have democratically fought for the party in the courts of law. Our intelligence tells us that we cannot present the injured party to the Zambian people without a total makeover of this organization. The party we shall be presenting to Zambian next year shall be a new phenomenon, and we trust that we shall finally recapture our political space. So exactly 12 months ago, the Movement for Multipartial Democracy National Executive Committee resolved to embark on a process of changing the face and configuration of the former ruling party in order to cast away its old image. We are glad to finally announce to the nation that the process is now complete, and a full program to start on the January 15th, 2024 is soon to be launched by the office. This will be under a renewed movement driven predominantly by the youth and women who we have been mobilizing in what I call the silent 12 months. Further, the National Executive Committee is also proposing and has proposed the main change for the party to the National Convention which will take place next year. We shall start the year with the Constitutional and Policy Conference to be immediately followed by an administrative convention to adopt the new constitution and policies. Later in the year we shall hold a National Youth Conference and announce our National Youth Policy and shortly after that we shall hold a National Women's Conference at which we shall announce our National Policy on Women. Let me be clear, MMD is one of the very few parties in the country that is in firm and good standing with the registrar of societies. This National Executive Committee was elected in March 2021 and their names appear so at the registrar of societies. We had a convention at Bonanza which was very well attended and these are products including myself and their mandate goes up to 2026 and the registrar of societies has that on record and it's open for the public to know. I've said this only for the sake of those that I said in the beginning everybody has his own Judas Iscariot. We also have our own Judas Iscariot. Every time neighbors open their mouth they only open their mouths when neighbors open their ears. When neighbors mouth is shut they are shut they have nothing to say. When I open my mouth they talk and say that neighbors has lived too long as President of MMD. I will tell you what they are implying. Between 2016 and 2019 and I do not want to go into that I was trying to avoid it. The movement for multi-party democracy was hijacked by the patriotic friends. You remember it was in the media all the time and they instituted a new leadership and you remember that my own brother was met the President of MMD from 2016 to 2019 when the courts said no. The rights leadership is the Nevers-Mombalé executive committee. But during those four years we didn't have access to the party. I was not the President unless they want to say that MMD between 2016 and 2019 had two presidents, had four vice presidents, had 66 members of national executive committee. I mean had a hundred something members of executive committee of two fact groups but what happened was unfortunate that our colleagues held a convention outside the authority of this leadership with the help of the ruling party at that time. When we reported to the police the police ran to Coway to go and stop them they came from Gili hundreds of them to go and stop that illegal convention in Coway. When they arrived in Coway they found an instruction from the PF government telling them don't catch them they are the blessing of the government. So those police who went to displace them became the protectors of that illegal convention. I know the way you're looking at me sounds very familiar and you're wondering has it happened before? Well there were policemen around that illegal convention that was set against the movement for multi-party democracy. Immediately they finished the convention in the morning I was cleaning up listening to BBC only to hear on BBC that the names of neighbors movement is exactly commenting from the register of societies has been removed without any recourse to us without even telling the sitting leadership to submit papers to say we are handing over to this exactly the same thing we're hearing today and some people my argument is when people say this is impossible it has never happened this is wrong I wish people could be consistent and call wrong today and call wrong tomorrow it should not only become wrong when it works against you it should be wrong because it is wrong it must be right because it is right and that is why some people are saying you're not very gracious to your colleagues who are going through this problem it's not about me being gracious it's about truth always coming to take the day so these are the issues that we went through and during that time my leadership stepped away and we were not in leadership until we took the party back in 2019 December had a convention in 2021 elected this received another mandate and now this mandate expires in 2026 so it's important for you the media to know that because I know that you've been receiving some information the neighbors number stayed for too long I didn't stay for too long they cut out our term gave it to somebody else for four years and when the party was given back to us we had to go back and start all over again on politics one multi-party democracy entails a tunnel between the ruling party and the opposition it should never slip into unreasonable toxic politics that eventually hurts the ordinary citizen whose interests we claim to represent politically Zambia is in a bad place and headed in the wrong direction we call on all political players to reconsider our ways and return to responsible politics we all agree that life has become unbearable for most Zambians but we must not behave as though this is the first time that this has happened in our country the UPND must not be shy to inform the Zambian people as to the source of our current economic wars and the several interventions that they are making to mitigate these economic problems effective communication is cardinal in maintaining peace and order in the nation we have advised our colleagues like I've said we have been working alongside the UPND since October 2020 because of the issues on which we agree and somebody asked me the other day I said but Dr Moomba why why does why why why is UPND constantly talking about PF when they in child they should forget about that I said it's a trap it's a trap they are setting for them if I were them I will never stop talking about PF and what they did because we are going through what we're going through because of what they did borrowed without a plan of how to repay so if UPND if I was UPND I'll be talking about it every morning every night so that Zambians know that what we're trying to do and solve was created by this group and if you don't say this group will turn around and look like saints and start to laugh at people with whom they have left a problem as the failures and I think that UPND needs to be careful so that the scene of one group is transferred to you make sure that you solve this problem because your government but at the same time let the Zambian people know there's a problem and we have to solve it together and it was created by this boy to tell them that they should not talk about PF it's like telling Israel never to talk about the holocaust where six million of them were killed that don't talk about the past just move forward you'll now have your independence you have your country forget the past now the past should never be forgotten because it shall repeat itself if it is not told over and over again I thought I needed to say that so Zambians from the four corners of our nation are facing huge social challenges the cost of living has negatively affected the very weak of our society families are disintegrating as a result of social pressures the youth continue to struggle to find the way they can stay alive under the economically troubled times statistics reveal that suicide cases among the youth has risen to alarming levels jobs are hard to come by although these challenges are not only restricted to Zambia alone it's nevertheless contributes to instability in the nation the high cost of essential commodities like minimum cooking oil foodstuffs has aggravated the social status and security of our nation any party in government that find itself in this situation who face relentless criticism you bnd needs to have an ongoing conversation with his nation and create hope that if we all hold together we shall see a better tomorrow you bnd must generate hope in the midst of despair leaders are dealers in the commodity of hope beyond hope however you bnd must pull all their resources together and seek to find a short-term solution to mitigate the high cost of middleman while waiting for a long-term solution the current status quo cannot be sustained in 2024 our position as a party over the past two years i have received relentless criticism that my patriotism has been compromised and have been recruited as a praise singer for the u bnd and in particular president have in each hand our critics have insisted that i should speak more openly on the issues of the economy and the state of democracy i wish to assure the zambian people that the same neighbor's mumba of yesterday is the same neighbor's mumba of today and by god grace will be the same neighbor's mumba of tomorrow for 44 years today i have fought the vicious fight for justice equity and peace in our nation i have carried the burden and vision of zambia shall be saved without fear i have relentlessly pursued this vision throughout all the seven administrations along the way i have bitterly disagreed with some of the presidents whose values differed from mine and what i consider to be progressive values for zambians during the same stretch i've agreed with several presidents whom i thought were pursuing the progressive in both cases i've generated both allies and opponents today i'm being attacked and for us as mmd commending some of the efforts that president chilema is making they consider my stance that and that of mmd has been unpatriotic and so i however hold a different view some people believe that the only way to be patriotic is to speak in a certain way against those in power which i do when the opportunity comes but i have not been i'm probably the longest-saving member of the opposition amongst the crew that is there and everything they are saying i've said everything that i've done i've almost done even more if there's ever been an opposition leader that stood during the days of president michael sartow is when very few could talk to him i was there to resist every move that we consider and democratic so the issue of us remaining faithful to this country cannot be doubted as of today the mmd believes that the government has u p and d has taken is what's supporting for now it is important that they be supported this does not mean that everything u p and d is doing is right but that their compass is pointed in the right direction the true north we agree with u p and d in principle that the direction of economic recovery is the only way to go we borrowed from the west we have to talk to the imf we have to talk to the west people say why don't we use our own resources in zambia to pay for our debt yes we will but right now we owe money that they want from us we have not processed our minerals we have not even put our minds in order for them to start to generate that kind of money it's a project we must be working on but right now this government must pay back the debt that the patriotic front accumulated there's a word been going around democratic space the health of any democracy and i want you to hear me now the health of any democracy depends on the free exercise of the god given freedom of speech freedom of expression freedom of religion freedom of assembly and association right to equal protection of the law these are freedoms that must never be denied to any zambia these are fundamental rights regardless of political party or tribe mmd will never abandon its fight for the protection of these rights we therefore urge government and all state institutions charged by law in self-guarding these rights to do so in fairness and in the fear of the law any suspension or abrogation of these rights will always fuel instability and lawlessness in the country i wish to comment on the mantra shrinking democratic space the uvm the government has been accused of having shrunk the democratic space in the nation we are overviewed that this mantra is an inappropriately used and a misrepresentation of a current situation you can only shrink something that was in existence before in our case democratic space had been suspended and frozen in the pf era mmd is ready to testify in any court of law having been one of the leading victims of suspended democratic space under the pf in our view the mantra the mantra should be up and please restore the suspended democratic space this is more appropriate than saying that the democratic space has shrunk because there was none before so the statement should be please up and on going experiments we cannot claim that all the freedoms are available to everyone at any given time it is that this reason we must keep fighting for what belongs to us the mmd shall insist on the full restoration of freedoms in 2024 as enshrined in our constitution let me also make a few comments on the weaponization of the tribe or tribe it is becoming clear fellows and means that the politics in our nation has crossed the line of national reconstruction to national destruction by using the weapon of tribe and i call it weapon because it's a dangerous path a couple of months ago a colleague confronted me and accused me of siding with the enemy he claimed that some of my own tribesmen are deeply disappointed with me for seemingly defending the position of what they call a thunder president he claimed this is no longer politics but a tribal war in the making i wish to address this i've addressed this before but i want to address it again it's easily spoken a thunder president member president a lambda president and body president a senator president and there's nothing wrong with being a member of the thunder president but what is wrong is for you to feel more entitled than the other tribe where you think that only your tribe can become president that now brings problems that other countries are going through right now this confrontation of this gentleman who challenged me opened my eyes that whenever a people start to front tribe will stop listening to each other and can never commend any positive achievements of the other as long as they come from another from another region we now have reached a dangerous stage in our democratic process this moment calls for a state calls for citizenship and patriotism i wish to advise my fellows and we are intertwined together as one people to the members my brothers and sisters let me be clear please understand that tongas are not going anywhere to the tongas members are not going anywhere either we are stuck together in God's infinite wisdom and this is true for the rest of the 71 tribes the quicker we get this the safer zander shall be or shall be safer for our own children the elevation of tribe in pursuit of political power reveals the bankruptcy of such a politician i want to run for president and win based on the content of my character and capacity to govern and not try an endowment i never chose no work for i am only member because i was born to member parents tribe should not be the qualification for political power but rather the capacity of the individual am i a proud member yes i am and you should also be a pride a proud person of your tribe because that's how god created us i've also been confronted with concerns that most strategic positions in government are held by people from mostly three regions southern western and northwest mmd believes that democratic rights include the right to take part in electing the government and the right to access and participate in public service presidents appoint ministers and other constitutional offices based on several factors including qualification and capacity in our case our first president cannot come under tortoise that ensuring that every region is part of the governing system is a matter of national security the constitution affords power to appoint to the president and in his own wisdom decides who should be appointed the subject of certain tribes being left out has been a subject in all the seven administrations i am sure that there any time a tribal issue is raised the president does his own audit and makes necessary adjustments to improve on inclusiveness it is the responsibility of the president to do that without compromising on the quality of leadership that he seeks to serve it is a delicate dance and every president has had to deal with it president haka in the dilemma like all the other presidents has been given power by the constitution to ensure that the appointments into government are regionally balanced for the sake of state security and also to ensure that the unity of the nation is promoted and i believe that that is within the rights of the constitutional authority given to him it remains for president each year to ensure that this tribal balancing is constantly reviewed as every other president has to face the key to national unity is when every zombie feels part of the body politic directing the affairs of their country a word on the corruption fight as a part we have been deeply concerned of the slow process of prosecuting these cases earlier in the year we wrote to the president expressing our reservations on the lack of speed and since we have been encouraged to hear the president announcing the last press conference that is going to take not more than five months to expedite these corruption cases it is important because when this is delayed the victim the the the villains become victims and they start to act as though they have been persecuted when they should have been prosecuted a long time ago the recent case of the former minister of foreign affairs on the australian kakubo sets a precedent in how this vice should be fought moving forward when damning evidence surfaces around any public servant the moral thing for such an officer to do is to resign in order to allow investigative ways to carry out their investigations we therefore commend honorable kakubo for leading the way in this new way of handling any perception of corruption by public officer our corruption fight will only be doubt legitimate when it encompasses those currently serving in government they should never be an impression given that anyone holding offices protected from prosecution on the basis of their public office that they hold only a president has immunity from prosecution if they don't voluntarily resign like honorable kakubo the president should help them by firing them we must win this fight at all costs the corrupt have become more vocal more powerful they feel untouchable because they can buy their way through the judicial system it is time to restore morality and integrity in the nation if we don't crack the whip fast enough we shall be captured as a nation by the power for corrupt another question that came to us as we're preparing for this press conference was on presidential travels the debate of presidential trips has been with us since Kenneth kawanda days like any activity of government we believe a budget is allocated for presidential trials two things must always be satisfied the availability of a budget for certain activity and the importance of the trip to be undertaken our view is that the president should be free to undertake any trip within the allocated budget secondly the presidential trips must be fully assessed by professional team to ascertain the viability of such a trip we have to be satisfied that the trip will add value to the nation as long as these two factors are satisfied the mmb acknowledges the importance of presidential trips as a means to sell the nation's potential to the global community and i just want to be clear that there are many concerns that we have and every president it has to be sensitive as to how many trips can be made and when the high commissioner ambassador can represent the country when the foreign affairs minister can represent the country and when the president must go and i must state having held the second position in this country before that there are certain transactions that cannot be closed until the president shows up wherever that is and to restrict the president from striking good deals for zambia or for any country for that matter is being retrogressive so we believe as mmd that as long as these two conditions are met it's budgeted for and within budget and secondly that trip has been assessed to be viable we believe that the president should have the liberty to represent us in different places of the world to draw the investments we so desperately need and finally let me deal with one subject that many people don't talk about but i can talk about it because i'm a pastor tomorrow the 29th of december zambia shall celebrate 32 years as a christian nation this declaration was made by president chluba of the mmd the party that i am privileged to lead the questions on the minds of many zambias are many how does the declaration contribute to the manner in which they govern we govern ourselves how different is zambia from other nations who have not declared themselves christian the mmd is unsatisfied with the manner in which christian values are not being integrated into the lifeblood of zambian politics we are very concerned the hatred and deep divisions in our nation could be reduced if christian it was given greater prominence this was the intention of the declaration in his own words president chluba declared the following i have entered into a covenant with the lord jesus christ i submit myself the government of the people the government and the people of zambia to the to the lordship of jesus christ may this message reach all civil servants that the time for corruption is over he closed the declaration by announcing what he called a new domain for zambia where christ shall be honored but until today this declaration is only used for romantic reasons the mmd wishes to propose the deepening of this declaration by number one holding all public officials accountable to the basic values of our faith equitable delivery of goods and services to the people and upholding the values of justice and peace as taught in the scriptures secondly to complete the construction of the national house of prayer to stand as a landmark of the declaration of zambia as a christian nation thirdly to combine the days of prayer and fasting with the anniversary date on which the declaration was made and make it a public holiday on which national unity shall be specifically promoted more like the american day of thanksgiving i noticed that because we don't have our own days we sit together in africa anything america does we do it but we need to have something that means something to us on our own and i think that this is an opportunity to enshrine the christian faith i know we pray before political meetings he made we pray after political meetings then we start lying throughout that the discussion in a political situation i know we pray in parliament but we dare not mention the name of jesus in parliament because it will be declared unparliamentary and yet we call ourselves a christian nation we have a long way to go and it is very clear that when the christian wants to run for public office they're always telling these things are not for you you go to the public these things for special people that do not confess christ public and yet we dare call ourselves a christian nation i think we have two choices choice number one do we want to continue calling ourselves a christian nation if that's the consensus up to this end then at least let's not use the name of the lord in vain by doing whatever is possible to align our activities and the only governor ourselves alongside the principles of what god reveals that's a list we can do but if we really think that we don't need it then we have to toss it so that we don't become hypocrites and just be like any other country say your state that way you are safer with god than claiming to be what you're not in the name of god so i'm calling the nation to relook and to rethink on this declaration and ensure that we make it part of the bloodline of our everyday governance system in our country may the declaration of zandia as a christian remain the bedroom of our democracy today and always may god bless the great republic of zambia and may you have a prosperous 2024 i thank you