Nawakwi Asks Mwanawasa to Quit Jehovah's Witnesses

WE shall file an injunction against MMD presidential candidate Levy Mwanawasa's nomination if he does not renounce his faith in Jehovah's Witnesses, opposition FDD secretariat chairperson Edith Nawaki has warned.

Nawakwi said Mwanawasa was still a dedicated member of the Watchtower which did not believe in earthly governments and wondered how he was going to reconcile the two.

"We are all aware of the Watchtower sect faith, they pay no tribute to the flag, how is Mwanawasa going to stand in the podium and get 21 gun salute, how is he going to look up to the flag?" she asked. Mwanawasa, when asked about his association with the Watchtower last month remained dumb and just waved his hands.

Commenting on Sata's resignation letter to President Chiluba, Nawakwi said she had received with interest the revelations of Sata that President Chiluba had manipulated the electoral process which elected Mwanawasa as MMD presidential candidate.

Nawakwi said with such revelations from Sata who had defended President Chiluba for a long time it was clear that the MMD and President Chiluba were being destroyed.

"My last words to Chiluba were that the party will be destroyed and he will be destroyed and all I can say is that the President is now laughing," Nawakwi said.

"It is very interesting for this moment in time for the former national secretary of MMD to reveal exactly what we were saying that Chiluba was manipulative from government management to treasury management, political management of the party and individuals." Nawakwi said President Chiluba was a chief manipulator who had manipulated almost all the people he had worked with.

She disclosed that former deputy minister Ackim Nkole and Newton Ng'uni and herself had warned Sata that he was being used by President Chiluba but he never took the advise.

"I am glad that we told Chiluba to his face when we met him at Nkwazi House that he was using Michael Sata in the presence of Chitalu Sampa but he said, 'I cannot use my elder brother'," Nawakwi said. "We knew Chiluba wanted to use Michael Sata and when he is through with him dump him."

Nawakwi has also advised President Chiluba to make peace with all the people he had manipulated because when he leaves State House in the next few months he will discover that he has no single friend left. She warned President Chiluba that money cannot buy everything. Nawakwi also advised Sata and former MMD Lusaka Province co-ordinator Esther Nakawala to make peace with Zambians whom they had caused anguish during their reign at the MMD secretariat.

"I expect people like Nakawala to go to Honourable Patel and Honourable Desai and apologise that they were misled, this is the time for people to sit back and reflect that their President was cheating and manipulating them for his personal benefit," she said.

Nawakwi warned President Chiluba that transferring and victimising police officers who were trying to be professional was creating fertile ground for harassment when he leaves State House.

"If Chiluba wants to live in peace let him make peace, stand up on a platform and say Zambians forgive me, in my quest for excessive power search I misled you, I was too selfish," she said. Nawakwi advised Mwanawasa to distance himself from the MMD electoral fraud before he was consumed.

"Sure, as a lawyer and a senior state counsel he should give a little bit of respect to the profession, a sham is a sham and Mwanawasa is involved in a sham, it doesn't matter how much mask he wears he continues to be a puppet," said Nawakwi.

The Lusaka MMD district committee has described national secretary Michael Sata's resignation from the party as "good riddance". MMD district secretary Steven Kalande said Sata had made so many people leave the party. Kalande said the adoption of Levy Mwanawasa as MMD presidential candidate "has brought a lot of hope to the nation".

He warned that people should be careful with what Sata was going to be saying about President Frederick Chiluba.