President Lungu will join several heads of state and government at the inauguration of the new Ghanian leader.
Minister of Foreign Affairs Harry Kalaba confirmed the President’s trip to ZNBC news. Mr. Kalaba said President Lungu will on Sunday, January 8, 2017 hold bilateral talks with his Ghanian counterpart before returning to Zambia.
At the invitation of the government of the Republic of Ghana, President Edgar Lungu will travel to Accra, the capital city of Ghana for the inauguration ceremony of Ghana’s president-elect, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo on January 7th, 2017.
About 12 Heads of State from some African and European countries are expected to attend the swearing-in ceremony.
President of Cote d’Ivoire Alassane Ouattara will be the Special Guest Speaker at the inauguration which will also see in attendance 13 other government representatives, five international representatives of multilateral organizations and a number of ex-presidents from West Africa and other parts of the world.
The ceremony will take place at the Black Star Square in the national capital, Accra, on Saturday, with close to 6,000 guests attending, according to Shirley Ayorkor Botwe, a member of the Transition Team of the incoming administration.
Nana Akufo-Addo defeated incumbent President John Dramani Mahama in last month’s general election after polling 53.8 percent of the total valid votes cast while Mahama garnered 44.4 percent.
He will be the fifth president of Ghana since 1992.
Meanwhile, President will today travel to the Copperbelt for state and party programmes.
The President will be accompanied by the following members of the party central committee: Dr Ngosa Simbyakula(national chairman); SG Mr Davis Mwila; Hon Jean Kapata(chairperson for elections); Mr. Alexander Bwalya Chikwanda (chairperson for finance); Mr Samuel Mukupa (presidential campaign manager); and Mr Frank Bwalya (chairperson Information);
When we have presidential inauguration in Zambia, only two presidents attend: Museveni and Mugabe. All other invited presidents send representatives (even Ghana just sent a representative). Is it a must that Lungu attends in person??
Mugabe and M7 attended to celebrate their rigging efforts. Which other president on earth not operating under the influence of cocaine and whisky wants to be associated with lawlessness that has become the hallmark of Lungu’s self imposed leadership?
Ba Lsk please stop using the same writers from t.umfweko, the grammer on this headline and may other before is cause for concern. If this continues your esteemed website will move from being the premier source of reliable independent news that has esteemed columnists such as Brig Gen Miyanda and Lilian Kasonde Esq to being relegated to a sh!ting yard from sickminded blood thirsty animals such as Nez (new evilminded Zambian), chilyata and bucktooth!
Understandable let him go.
It is the ballooned entourage that leaves a bad taste in my mouth. Why ?
Thanks
BB2014
Here we go….. first Trip of the New Year……. lets see if we can set a New Record for Trips and Air Miles in 2017!!
kamwendo! chapwa twakolwa again…
Wow! this is very nice Mr President please go and enjoy. We Zambians would love to see you out of the country always. I don’t like to see you peeping through the roof of the car. At least go away.
PS dont come back
I CARE LESS ABOUT EFFORTS AND VIEWS ADVANCED BY KALABA TO TURN ECL INTO A VASCO DA LUNGU
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While Busseola fusca is busy ravaging our maize fields and amidst limited resources (Finances and Knowledge), Kalaba is busy organizing ECL’s trips and Siliti is AWOL. Kalaba must be investigated. He is so concerned with the president’s travel than other even more important foreign related affairs. How much does Kalaba gunner from his boss’s trips. Should ECL have a trip every month? Is a problem to have an energetic president? Are claims that ECL has no vision true? Shouldn’t Zambia have its own unrivaled development blueprint? Why, why oh why should Kalaba consistently use words like “Zambia needs to learn from…”
I hated RB’s foreign trips to the core, no…
Cont’d
.. no special treatment for ECL. There are more important local trips nationally, please.
@Thorn in the flesh we advised you guyz before the elections that this man has no vision.He is a kamwendo,kadansa and chakolwa.Now everyone is dancing dununa regret…
It’s not a must that he goes in person. Just wasting govt resources.
There goes Lazy Bum Lungu, one day he talking about working hard to fight the army worms but he is busy packing his bags…if what importance is him attending his ceremony. The man simply has no vision whatsoever.
@Phwanya nyini
I hear you bro well well but I have failed to find cause to fall in love or even have a second look at your candidate. I found and still find your candidate still incompetent for the job.
Please understand, I was presented with two unfavorable candidates to chose from like the old folks at the 2011 polls. I am afraid yours did not impress me a bit. There is just something about your candidate that does not make me favor him. Believe me Arderson was a better leader. I still think we are better-off with this unbecoming leader now than yours. I steal wish your candidate good luck next time without my vote of course, sorry.
THIS IS WHAT MAGUFURI DOESN’T LIKE.
There goes tax payers’ money again, trips on when we have the army worms taking over our lives.
Who is paying for the party cadres? Frank traveling on govt ticket?
I just wonder why in Africa presidential birthdays, inaugurations and, independence day are celebrated with so much fanfare that invitations to be feted are cast far and wide to foreign leaders and dignitaries when economies are struggling! Soon Donald Trump will be inaugurated as the 45th president and there is no mention of foreign leaders or dignitaries invited to be in attendance except for the past presidents still alive and it is according to their wish to attend! I am sure African leaders are just wondering why they are not invited to such inaugurations for if it were open they would want to attend each and every one of them as they happened! Africa, aawe mwe!
While our busy president is aah working in Ghana, army worms will rule. Filth will encroach every corner our country, kids in schools will sit on the floor as their money send the presidential jet beyond the clouds and while rest of us still have to bribe every govt officer to do the job they were actually employed to do. Our president is to smiley to be angry at all this…and too humble to purge misdeeds!
Food for thought- yeah? If a farmer weeps now, you better weep a thousand times more!
I wonder how many of us Zambians get employed to put performance at the center of our day to day activity. He(the president)was calling for MPs to get even with the borer in those maize fields. Where are your leaders? It goes a mile to tell you that there is more juicy and honey in foreign trips than getting even with the national challenge at hand. Get a young president, you have what we have right now. Get an old folk, you got yourself a funeral at your finger tips. But RB was not young and loved his trips and he is still leaving.
Takes you back to the question”How many of us Zambians get employed to perform”?
Food for thought- yeah? If a farmer weeps now, you better weep a thousand times more!
I wonder how many of us Zambians get employed to put performance at the center of our day to day activity. He(the president)was calling for MPs to get even with the borer in those maize fields. Where are your leaders? It goes a mile to tell you that there is more juicy and honey in foreign trips than getting even with the national challenge at hand. Get a young president, you have what we have right now. Get an old folk, you got yourself a funeral at your finger tips. But RB was not young and loved his trips and he is still leaving.
Takes you back to the question”How many of us Zambians get employed to perform”?
The man is Bad , Mmembe when he hears name Lungu he goes ballistic ! The Bad man is now playing music for Kambwili to Dance .We hear CK is now Dancing to the Tune . Well …. we expect him to tune to the Dance no doubt about it !
Lusaka Lusaka times have failed to announce best blogger because I a upnd supporter won it by landslide. They are pf sympathisers and have been bought. It is disgusting to let people vote and only to delete the vote because the outcome does not favour certain of your interests. You disgust me
Iwe chi NEZ it’s Mushota who won. I didn’t even see your name among the candidates. Mushota won Best Blocker and Most Irritating Blocker
Holiday time is over, and this tourist needs to resume his schedule of flying around … meanwhile his children’s food security is at stake as army worms and all sorts of caterpillar bora are feasting on maize fields …
This is one drinking opportunity Lungu couldn’t allow to pass by.
why can’t he just send Kalaba its an inauguration for gods sake what bilateral talks can you have with someone just coming in…
more money in his pocket…
He is traveling because he has the trust in poeple that covers him. with a strong instruction
Why stay 3 days for a one day event? Are the other presidents staying 3 days too? Bilateral talks could be held on Saturday and then go back home to fight army worms.
Imagine doing what for 3 days when his colleague has not even announced his cabinet…laziness!!
Jet lag? Hangover? Per diam allowances? Spreading Christianity? Cheap fuel? ………..
After stealing the 2016 Election from HH & GBM ,Lungu has no shame to attend this inauguration. Only 2 Heads of State attended his so called inauguration. The person who is being inaugurated was in Opposition for years and beat the encumbent President recently. What is Lungu’s interest in attending this inauguration leaving a Petition in Court against his own re-election? In the bilateral meeting with Lungu, the newly sworn President must tell Chakolwa that he is illegitimate until he can prove in Court that he genuinely and fairly won the 2016 Elections.Nanna Akufo-Addo must tell Chakolwa in his face that the Presidential Petition Must be heard and determined urgently and without fail. If this Petition is not heard then the Zambian Election Dispute will become an Agenda Item for SADC &…
Well said Mwape! Perhaps he and other heads of states like him will learn from the success story of Ghana when they attend. Long live Africa. Silas – Ghana
Lungu is a shameless hypocrite. He steals elections from the Opposition in Zambia and attends the inauguration of an opposition leader as President in Ghana. In the meantime Lungu is blocking the Hearing of a Petition against his own re-election. Nanna Akufo-Addo should tell this illegitimate Lungu to go to hell. He must tell Lungu to hear the Petition and dispose it b4 he can be recognized as a legitimate President of Zambia. Lungu has no financial discipline at all. He is taking PF Officials and Cadres to the inauguration at Taxpayers’ expense. Its illegal to use state resources for partisan purposes. Lungu is thanking the likes of Alex Chikwanda for their contributions in rigging the 2016 Elections. Shame on Chakolwa and his Election Rigging Gang.
Trip no 1 in 2017, can bet anybody that this year min of 12 trips by this lazy bum. Either he is driving around Zambia and cant sit down in his luxury car that he must always be peeping through the roof of the car. Today he is going to C/Belt with PF Chairperson bill being paid by Govt.
And you claim he follows the law.
He is a thief…
IS PF’s Foreign Policy all about ECL’s Trips?
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Kalaba is irritating my nerve, guts and insulting my intelligence right now! Kalaba is a thorn in the flesh. I am beginning to dislike Foreign Minister Kalaba.
Kalaba seems to suggest that the president just need to have those foreign trips no matter what? MmmmmmM!
The last time I checked, when the president was busy marcopolling, he found banks to keep stolen money’s in those foreign lands that ended up frozen in those lands.
Inauguration 12 heads of state,this means that the elections were free and fair,Inauguration 2 heads of state means the elections were NOT free and fair,
He is either travelling, opening a cheap shopping mall or swearing in some body. What time does he work?
That it is his work.
what’s Lungus foreign policy,anyone?and why did we just have two heads of state at our inauguration..
If can spend K20million for the President to sign the amended constitution of 2016, we can spend a little more for him to travel and wave at the masses that will gather to watch their new president in Ghana. It’s not like our exchange rate, loadshedding, price of petrol, PAYE, bread, mealie meal, lack of employment, police brutality, $30 million worth of missing maize are urgent things to look into!!!
Who is paying for these party functionaries: Dr Ngosa Simbyakula, Davis Mwila, Alexander Bwalya Chikwanda, Samuel Mukupa and Frank Bwalya? I hope no public funds are being used to line the pockets of these non-government officials.
Lungu”s delegation reveals that he is taking his PF Campaign officials for a joy ride at Taxpayers Expense. Chakolwa is thanking his PF Campaign officials for their various roles they played in Rigging the Elections for him. If Lungu had his way Essau Chulu and Priscilla Isaac of ECZ and the three muskateer Judges at Concourt would have been in the delegation. Its a thank u trip to the likes of Alex Chikwanda and others. Lungu hopes to pacify a faction within PF to stabilize the situation following his fierce tiff with CK and KBF. Lungu is solving PF internal problems using govt resources illegally. Cry the beloved Zambia.
Lungu is taking Zambians for granted. He will end up badly, I don’t why we Zambians are allowing Lungu to be playing and flying around while other Presidents are busy working improving things in their countries e.g. Mugafali of Tanzania. For how long will this go on and when shall we see improvements?
Fact: Zambia benefits literally nothing from this trip
Uyu president angoyenda yenda. We wasted our votes
This the biggest army worm in Zambia nevas mumba was talking about yesterday.
In my view its more logical to attend inauguration ceremonies of presidents from around neighboring countries because we share borders and there is a lot of cross border trading between neighboring countries.But I find it hard to understand why our president should travel with an entourage all the way to the other end of Africa up north just to attend an inauguration ceremony,and there is very little trade as far as I know between Ghana and Zambia.This trip is a sheer waste of time and resources
What a finished country. How can Kambwili’s birthday be news or Even Edgar Lungu’s?These birthday things are irrelevant to Zambians. These are for those characters with their families. What is relevant, to know only, is these senseless trips by government officials. It gives us visibility of the never ending wastage.
If you listen to all the rantings of UPND cadres, you can’t tell sense from nonsense. They criticise everything and anything that even the little time that they msy speak sense its drowned by their usual nonsense. Sense+rubbish = nonsense, just like contaminating your well prepared meal, you cannot eat it.
Since they have now messed up their electoral chances for 2021, they are not helping themselves for 2026 and 2031at all. Or maybe it does not matter, after all at this rate the party will probably self-destruct by 2017.
@terribe, you’re a terrible PF cadre wasting Zambian money in a foreign mission.the tourist is again on the move for more Jameson with no brains for transforming Zambia. Look at Lumumba road. The money he is wasting can fix that road overnight. He tours other countries but has no brains of transforming Zambia because his brain is full of Jameson. While he enjoys his Jameson, Kagame is producing laptops and Museveni is producing buses. What benefit is his Ghanaian trip to Zambia. We have Kwame Nkuruma university in Zambia? What is the memory of Zambia in Ghana?
I DOUBT THIS WAS AT THE INVITATION OF THE GHANAIAN GOVERNMENT. IT IS SPECULATED THAT THE ZAMBIAN DELEGATION WAS NOT ACTUALLY INVITED BUT REQUESTED TO ATTEND. GHANA HAS NO STRATEGIC INTEREST IN HAVING BILATERAL RELATIONS WITH ZAMBIA. MOST AFRICAN LEADERS HAVE DOUBTS ON THE CREDIBILITY OF OUR LAST ELECTION AND THIS GOVERNMENT IS TRYING TO ESTABLISH INTERNATIONAL LEGITIMACY BY VISITING THESE COUNTRIES. WRONG STRATEGY. LUNGU SHOULD INSTEAD BE IN HIS OFFICE DIRECTING POLICY WITH A HANDS ON APPROACH. HANDS ON IS WHAT WE NEED!!!
Another luxurious and wasteful trip. He could not just send a congratulatory message?
If Lungu was not invited but begged to attend the inauguration then Akufo Addo should treat him not as a VIP but an illegitimate Begger President.President Akufo Addo must tell illegitimate Lungu to atone. He must tell him point blank that he doesn’t recognise him until the Petition is heard and he is declared the Winner of the 2016 Elections. Lungu is seeking recognition thru State Visits. SADC for a change should emulate Ecowas and force Lungu to hear the Petitioners and respect the Will of the People.
Peace be with us all
Lungu is travelling back, after his holiday in Zambia.
Ba LT this is not news because we all knew that Lungu would be going to Ghana. After that he will go to Gambia when Jammeh has been removed, then he will go to Gabon after that DRC after that he will go to the US for Trump’s inauguration even if he wont be invited
If he is not coming back with Gold, oil deals or Cocoa so Zambia can make Chocolates, he should send Minister of Foreign Affairs Harry Kalaba on his behalf.
Lungu’s thinking and actions are most puzzling. The outgoing President of Ghana Mahama never bothered to attend Lungu’s “inauguration” so why is he bothering to attend the inauguration of Nana Addo-Kufo an opposition Leader until now? In Zambia Lungu has stolen Elections from the Opposition led by HH and is refusing to Hear and dispose off the Presidential Petetion. Ghana is a beacon of Democracy so what does an Election Thief and dictator got to do with the inauguration of a Democrat? Addo -Akufo should just tell the illegitimate Lungu to regularise his re-election by allowing the Petition to be heard. Until then SADC and AU should isolate illegitimate Lungu and his illegal regime. Lungu is a dictator clinging on to power illegally just like Jammeh in Gambia and Kabila in DRC…
Is there a way he can stay there forever?
We hear that the Leader of the main Opposition MDC Party in Zimbabwe, Mr Morgan Tsvangirai and his Deputy have been invited to the Inauguration of the New President of Ghana Akufo-Addo. We hope HH & GBM have also been invited. It is saddening to read that illegitimate Dictator Chakolwa Lungu is also attending. This is an August and Democratic Inauguration Ceremony so why is Dictator Lungu attending after recently stealing elections in Zambia? The incoming President must give Chakolwa Lungu a Lukewarm reception and in their bilateral talks tell him they don’t recognise him until he can allow the Petition to be heard and he can prove In Court that he genuinely and fairly won the Elections. President Akufo-Addo and his officials should tell Chakolwa Lungu that until a Winner of the 2016…