RB
Rupiah Banda says he is surprised that people are talking on his behalf that he cannot return to active politics.
In an interview after attending the morning mass at St Anne’s Cathedral in Chipata yesterday, Banda said he was shocked that some people were speaking on his behalf over the matter.
He said everywhere he goes, journalists ask him to comment on the public’s call for his political comeback.
“Many of your colleagues ask me the same question. There is nowhere where I go now and they (journalists) don’t ask about my coming back.
That is also the right of the people to call for who they want to come back. Just like what I have said in the church, we lost the elections, people said no, that was the wish of the people and if the people are now calling for my comeback, all that I can say is ‘I want to hear from everyone, they should be allowed to speak’. I don’t like when I read [in the papers] that some of my friends say that ‘no, he should not come back’; ndine mwana waanyina olo ndine mwana wako (Am I the son of their mother or am I their son) to tell me that I should not come back? I have got a constitutional right to come back, but that is up to me and my colleagues to do my work. If the call to come back is genuine, I will make the decision,” Banda said.
He, however, said the nation would be told of his position on calls for his return to politics.
And when asked to respond to Nevers Mumba’s statement that people who were calling for his return to politics wanted to create hatred between him and the MMD president, Banda said the two were inseparable.
“ It is not possible to create hatred between us as we are inseparable. I am a member of the MMD and I respect him as a leader of our party. We work together, we stay together and if it happens that
he makes a decision on the calls for me to stand, we are elders, we are going to sit down and decide. I never heard Mumba talking about that but I am just getting it from the people. But nothing can separate us,” he said.
And speaking earlier at the cathedral, Banda talked about the importance of peace in the country.
“When I lost in 2011, there was celebration throughout the country and I started getting calls to consider a recount but I conceded defeat because I valued peace. Unfortunately, if it was for selfish gain, I wouldn’t have conceded defeat in the elections and we wanted our
friends to take over as everything has got a system, though we have problems now but this is to teach you more things,” Banda said.
He said he stopped over in Chipata from Malawi where he attended the installation of Paramount Chief M’mbelwa V by Paramount Chief Mpezeni on Saturday.
Recently, Banda said his comeback would be dependent on the people.
And Banda’s son, Andrew, said some people had approached him to convince his father to make a political comeback.