Friday, March 29, 2024

People insult me to just gain some media coverage-President Lungu

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President Edgar Lungu talking to Journalists at Kenneth Kaunda International Airport before departure for Ethiopia
President Edgar Lungu talking to Journalists at Kenneth Kaunda
International Airport before departure for Ethiopia

PRESIDENT Edgar Chagwa Lungu has said that some politicians, civil leaders are in the habit of insulting him so as to ride on his name and title so as to gain some media coverage.

Speaking to journalists before his departure to Addis Ababa to attend the African Union summit, President Lungu who laughed off accusations that he was a dictator wondered how a dictator would openly take criticism, or consult with the nation such as was the case in the decision on whether Zambia should pull out or stay in the ICC.

The head of state noted that those calling him names or insulting him are only setting a bad precedence on what the freedom of speech and opinion should be.

“I will not be distracted from doing my job because you are calling me a dictator, when I am not one, they are enjoying the coverage you are giving them when they say Edgar this. I am President so when you insult the President you get coverage and freedom of the press allows that,” President Lungu mocked.

“…So for me those who are thinking they will get mileage or prominence by insulting me, humiliating me, they are just setting a bad precedence for the freedom of speech and opinion. However, I will not take them on because I will be elevating them to my level, I am too dignified for that,” he said.

President Lungu added that he was a very busy man to reduce himself into pettiness, name calling or discourse that does not add value to the nation.

“..they should find more substantive matters when dealing with me because I am a very busy man,” President Lungu remarked.

“I met Catholic representatives yesterday and I will meet the Catholic bishops and I will hear their voice, the Archbishop spoke publicly but I will speak to him quietly and you know that is not what a dictator does.”

He mocked and questioned what kind of dictator he was if he can take criticism and indulge in consultation.

“A dictator does not consult, a dictator does not take criticism. I have taken so much, I have been punched so much but I have not hit back. Obviously I can hit back and all fairness I am a human being. But I believe people should be given enough latitude to contribute, to criticise to do checks and balances and that is what democracy calls for,” said President Lungu.

55 COMMENTS

    • There is a showing leadership Your Excellence! Now go a step forward by righting the wrongs that have taken place since you were elevated to power like the release of all political prisoners including the leader of the largest opposition party HH. Even the playing field by liberating the press and privatize The Zambia Time, Daily Mail and ZNBC for openness and competitiveness. Sir, make a bold statement by employing aides that have had enough global exposure so that Zambia can compete on the world stage. God bless Zambia and her leaders.

    • Remember when Ugandan blogger insulted you that you a WASTE OF S P E R M?

      Your behaviour invites insults:
      – Rigging elections
      – Encouraging cadre Violence
      – Encouraging police brutality
      – Arresting HH
      – Freedom of speech
      – muzzling the media
      – Going for 3rd term

    • This is problem with Edgar, if he wants to punch back at Archbishop Mpundu like he knocked done HH, let him just do so. Archbishop has already won, he has achieved more than 80%.
      Ba Mpundu said publicly that he tried hard to meet Edgar but the pagans at state house didn’t allow him, thus he couldn’t wait.
      Send those graveyard thugs of Kamba to Archbishop, you see what Zambia is made of.

    • @Nostradamus,
      As far as I know from my past drinking days, Edgar wa nsele, especially when he is drunk,,,,,I don’t understand why he is complaining about insults

    • I do not like Lungu. In fact, he reminds me of Hitler and the Nazi Party. He rose to power like Hitler and he promised his PF thugs that only the PF and its supporters are purified Zambians who have a so-called birth right of spreading fear and falsehoods. He will be remembered in the same manner like Adolf Hitler, a mad, man, with clumsy analysis of reality. Viva HH and long-live HH and UPND. Lungu is wasting tax’s and donor’s money through haphazard foreign trips for his own selfish gains. Lungu knows many foreign airports and KK International Airport better than what he know about all regional headquarters in his back water country (Zambia). In fact, Zambia is not supposed to be defined as a back water nation. Nonetheless, Lungu’s nonstrategic arrogance reversed Zambia’s somewhat…

    • Lungu is wasting tax’s and donor’s money through haphazard foreign trips for his own selfish gains. Lungu knows many foreign airports and KK International Airport better than what he know about all regional headquarters in his back water country (Zambia). In fact, Zambia is not supposed to be defined as a back water nation. Nonetheless, Lungu’s nonstrategic arrogance reversed Zambia’s somewhat good position in the booming economic epoch.

    • Quit whining already,
      You confuse criticism for insults.
      When you are a dumb failure, criticism of your performance is always annoying and that especially in politics.
      Grow a pair and move past whining about civil society and opposition politicians.

    • Lunugu should not think he owns Zambia. The Catholics and international community are too big to be ignored. He has no other option but to bend to their calls. Kaunda was brought down to his knees by the same. Mugabe is bearly breathing as he has rendered himself useless to muchvof the world. Where are those thugs like Sunday, Amos etc who used to shout sovereignty. Useless bunch. Your time is coming. Wait

    • LUNGU IS COOL GUY – HE IS DOING FINE, NO NEED TO CONVINCE THESE GRUDGE FILLED FELLOWS
      ======================
      Keep working son of the land. I have until 2021 to judge your works. Don’t get destructed work hard as you await your PERFORMANCE REVIEW from me.

    • ECL IS 100% RIGHT. PEOPLE INCLUDING THE ONES CALLING HIM A DICTATOR, “BALE NYELA FYE KUNTULO”, AND THEY SHOULD STOP SH1TTING AT THE SOURCE OF THE RIVER BECAUSE THEY LIVE DOWN-THE-SAME-STREAM WHERE THEY DRINK FROM.
      ““I met Catholic representatives yesterday and I will meet the Catholic bishops and I will hear their voice, the Archbishop spoke publicly but I will speak to him quietly and you know that is not what a dictator does.”” ECL MUST NOT ACCEPT RELEASING HH WITHOUT DUE COURSE OF THE LAW DECIDING. OTHERWISE IT WILL BE ONE VERY SERIOUS MISTAKE HE WILL EVER MAKE TO HAUNT HIM FOR THE REST OF HIS LIFE.

    • Free advice for ECL, “always remember power is the position you hold not you”, WME-IMG co CEO Patrick Whitesell.
      ” The power is in the chair & its rented. Don’t abuse it”, Fox TV group co CEO & chairman Dana Walden.

    • Lungu is an embarrassment. Nothing about him is beneficial so I am not sure which mileage he is referring to. What Lungu and PF thugs do not understand is that if he went to court to prove he won he clears his name as suspected illegitimate leader not wait for the petitioner to pursue the matter or even worst arrest the petitioner on trumped charges. Second, there is nothing Lungu has achieved since becoming president except bringing hatred, violence, more debt with little development , injustice, increased corruption, and extreme poverty for our people. There is nothing to be proud about having him as leader of Zambia.

    • @Maloza, I’m convinced that its people like you I thirst for when it comes to rebuke and correcting. From your writing, I highly suspect you have either been schooled or informed whichever comes first. And so to launch and cheerlead the use of cheap vulgarities against your perceived enemies is outright wrong. In this day and age one would stoop so low as to engage in foul language just because someone stepped on your foot. What in the whole world do you gain from the tenancy of disparaging language? Opt for the alternative, do you ever think you’d break your face by smiling away or better off walk away.

    • Hmm. I am not sure smart is word you can associate with Lungu. I actually feel sorry for him because the day he leaves that office. He will be in lots of problems. My advice is a great name is better than power. People respect what you stand for and do not who you are or hold. With all his bad actions, he will be a write off in Zambia’s history of leaders.

  1. Aba bena bwafya just how long does it take for him to process situations?? Now suddenly after all this time he can now meet them despite having said he was busy. Yaba! He now has to do it to pacify the situ and I am sure this has to do with funding or some such. If you ask me, he is one lost ussss

    • At no time did he say he was too busy for them. That is what they said – but he has met them before. Only yesterday he was meeting them. So, what are you talking about?

  2. Good afternoon, the PF president Edgar chagwa Lungu will be showered again with all sorts of warnings as the Ghanaian president Akufo did during his visit to open the trade fair. I believe,the next one to criticize him will be Botswana foreign minister, just wait.

  3. Okay, Mr President, we hear you, but can you please deal with the schizophrenic and heavy handed way in which your subordinates are behaving towards people that are criticizing you?

    It is not enough to claim that people are free to criticize you in Zambia and you are not a Dictator. Facts of the matter are that it is not true. YOU CAN BE A DICTATOR WITHOUT EVEN KNOWING IT. Your over zealous subordinates can easily make you one.

    Just last week we read that somebody was sent to jail for defaming you. There are also a number of cases before the courts where people are charged with defaming you.

    You need to dismantle this defamation law and give people freedom of passage to criticize you. Only HH who has an army of lawyers can criticize you. Poor souls like us are scared !!!

  4. By virtue of your position you are a candidate of insults,disrespect and criticism. RB was once were you are Sir and there is alot of silence around him. The day you leave the office, you are out of people’s mouths. You successor will be next. SIMPLIFIED -IT’S YOUR OFFICE AND NOT YOU ATTRACTING INSULTS. IT’S A PUBLIC OFFICE!

    • There are people from one region who have taken the insulting of leaders from the Eastern Province as a hobby. The same insults showered on RB are the same insults ECL is being subjected to by people from one area.

  5. Jesus got ridiculed and betrayed to the enemies by one of his own followers and Obama got insulted /racially abused .So what makes you so special Bwana Lungu?

    • Are the photos of White Jesus getting ridiculed? Is there a date and time or is it just the fictitous claptrap in the evil King James Bible.

  6. Who would use EL’s reputation to gain any form of mileage? Maybe the people that talk about you are overwhelmed with your contradictions full of pronouncements that do not add up and in the process highlighting your incompetence. There is others that look away when you say something because whatever you do or say does not mean anything. Patiently waiting for time when some Zambian is going to come and lead this once beloved nation, until you, comes up!

  7. Insult me? Any President of a Democratic country should be prepared for that. Its not something to waste time on. Focus on what a president should do. We don’t pay you to Shadow box with your imaginary enemies

  8. Bashi Tasila you can only be called a fool if you act foolishly. What I don’t like about you is how you have allowed violence in the once called peaceful country.

  9. You are THE President Your Excellency, they can only be envious that is all they can do, until 2026 when a chance will arise for them to lose again. I mean IF the UPNDonkey party will last another 12 months. Certainly Underfive donkey will not last long at this rate, and he does not seem to realise that his henchdonkeys are sacrificing him. When he is gone from the political scene by becoming a cabbage the UPNDonkey party will not hold together. I think Mutinta has come to her senses now but unfortunately she has left it too late, her underfive husband now belongs to the donkeys and he can do nothing about it.

  10. Someone please tell me where in the world you have seen donkeys of any breed including UPNDonkeys that can think. I think there is a reason why horses and NOT donkeys are used for racing by the British and for pulling the Queen’s carriage. First donkeys don’t think, second they are uncontrollable, third they cannot even recognise the Queen in the name of democracy.

    • Whilst 1mbecile offspring of many fathers supporting useless corrupt and convicted embezzler carry on crapping in public and pretend to be members of “inteligentsia”

  11. Quit whining already,
    You confuse criticism for insults.
    When you are a dumb failure, criticism of your performance is always annoying and that especially in politics.
    Grow a pair and move past whining about civil society and opposition politicians.

  12. If Lungu delegated some trips and ‘turned down’ some of the so-called invitations, we wouldn’t see such endless crowds at the airport. Imagine the resources that would also have been saved by now. It is mind boggling how many times just in the last few weeks, whether for external or internal Presidential trips, that cadres, officials and service chiefs have gathered at the airports. They will be there again when he returns from the summit. Can’t he just sneak back in? The statements he makes on the airport tarmac haphazardly over a number of issues are best addressed at a press conference with room for proper questions.

  13. President Edgar Lungu must know that tongas (upnd followers) will never appreciate anything done by him and his PF Govnt.UPND can only appreciate what HH does or says!!if HH tells them that they must be going to toilet twice per week,almost all bantustans will obey.if HH says stop giving your husbands and wives sex,they will all obey,etc.
    CURSED IS THE DAY UPND WAS FORMED IN 1998,SO GOD MUST NEVER ALLOW UPND LEADERS ANYWHERE NEAR PLOT ONE IF OUR COUNTRY IS TO REMAIN UNITED!!!
    we dont hate upnd as a party,but we hate how upnd do politics which is very evil!!
    PLEASE ECL TURN A BLIND EYE ON UPND LEADERS AND THEIR FOLLOWERS!!!

  14. The only time the president can be queried about the state of the nation is at the airport.

    State of the airport address…

    Why do you even want to build a new state house?Just make use of the presidential suite at the new terminal.

  15. When you see yourself attracting a lot of houseflies, it helps to check yourself to find out why. When you continue insisting that you are clean when everyone tells you about your filth, that is when insults start flowing your way. When the opposition tell you about things you are not doing right, you don’t just reject advice because it is coming from the opposition. The late president Mwanawasa was A listening president. He got some of the ideas and advice from the opposition. Sata at one point protested that the ruling party then was stealing his ideas. Thankfully he acknowledged that those ideas did not have to wait for him to get into power. The Catholic Church has given free advice concerning the things gone wrong in this country. The reason people will insult is when a leader…

  16. The reason people will insult is when a leader chooses to ignore wise counsel and instead takes bad advice from his questionable advisors. The wise receive instruction and increase their knowledge. The simple ones choose to ignore advice and perish. Viva Zambia! Wow to those who ignore sound advise because insults may just follow them!

  17. Obviously the UPNDonkeys either do not wish to be elected into government or they know that they have no chance. For apart from fellow donkeys which Zambian voters will put people whose language is insults into government? By now even the people of southern province their stronghold in 2016 have had time to reflect on this so called political party.

  18. another lost lost ten years under ecl are here ..what a waste! ECL claim to be lawyer but can afford to lock HH for 90 days without trial while he has rocked the case at HIGH COURT..shame on your Mr president for showing a very bad democracy indeed.Be a man of christ and have emphathy for us the poor than bringing in endless projects like new airport in ndola just to create cash for your PF .what we need sir id mulungushi textiles you said will be opened a year ago..what a country.am no longer a zambia am migrating to nyasaland ..

  19. Dignified! A new word from your mouth….people have discribed you has humble! But be careful you seem to be loosing you cool nature which people perceive you to be and pride is creeping in slowly. “I am dignified” “I am too busy” Not the right words to be use by a Leader, a minister or a servant of the people. You are saying you are not distracted by the insults or negative comments of the people well then why single out Archbishop of Lusaka! My advice is that just keep cool, I know you are a human being but as a leader don’t answer back to every comment people make….begin to listen!

  20. Lungu is an embarrassment. Nothing about him is beneficial so I am not sure which mileage he is referring to. What Lungu and PF thugs do not understand is that if he went to court to prove he won he clears his name as suspected illegitimate leader not wait for the petitioner to pursue the matter or even worst arrest the petitioner on trumped charges. Second, there is nothing Lungu has achieved since becoming president except bringing hatred, violence, more debt with little development , injustice, increased corruption, and extreme poverty for our people. There is nothing to be proud about having him as leader of Zambia.

    • …sadly you have to live with your hate till 2026!!!!! I hope your bitterness will not affect your bp….

    • @Zambian Citizen, this is not about elections but a matter of principle. Lungu has caused divisions and continues to do so both economically and socially. Lungu has brought politics of hate and dishonesty. Are these things to be proud of? The man is doing everything questionable to get approval when he can is clear his name in court with evidence even HH will recognize him, simple. He should know that as Zambians they have the right to question him because he paid Zambian taxpayer money. As a matter of fact he should have an open press conference so he can be grilled.

  21. Wise words again from our president. But these words must proceed right cause of action, so as to ensure healing and prosperity in our country.
    Distance yourself sir, from rotten eggs surrounding you. Daily building a bad image of you; for their selfish interest.
    A good leaders desire and strength, is dedicated 24/7 on establishing an enabling environment, where every person can freely excise all the fondemental basic rights without an form of force, fear nor favour has is the case today.
    For a nation to develop as well, the citizen must be allowed to freely enjoy their human rights.
    And it is the duty of every wise leader, to ensure that, he creates a stable, fare environment and sustainable policies that promotes the dignity of the people he or she is governing.
    Hatred, fear of…

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