All People’s Party president Nason Msoni has accused Speaker Patrick Matibini of being a desperate cadre for attempting to blackmail opposition members of parliament using the emoluments card in their fight against the constitution.
Opposition MPs have virtually paralysed parliament demanding credible and comprehensive responses on the constitution making which President Michael Sata and his ministers have discarded.
Matibini has warned protesting MPs who have stayed away from debate of disciplinary action and loss of sitting allowances.
But Msoni, like many well meaning Zambians and other credible organisations, has come to the defense of the MPs action and called on the once respected but turned cadre Matibini to quit.
“We find his continued partisan cadre-ship-like behaviour incompatible with the most coveted office of speaker of the Zambian parliament absolutely unfit. He is unfit to be speaker,” Msoni said.
Below is Msoni’s Full Statement
Speaker’s desperation to hold parliamentarians to ransom on emoluments and perks is a cheap-shot. It is unprecedented in the history of parliaments in all commonwealth countries for a sitting speaker to attempt to resolve a national crisis of this magnitude by using a stick and carrot as a means of diverting and resolving the self-sparked constitutional crisis brought about by his partisan stance of refusing to allow members of the opposition to debate the motion.
We think that the debate should now shift and focus on the competence and failure of the Zambian speaker to demonstrate that he is up to the task.
For all intent and purposes the incumbent Zambian speaker is dangerously incompetent and must resign forthwith for bringing the house into ridicule and shame.
You cannot hold respectable members of parliament hostage by withholding petty allowances and payments and making thinly veiled threats as a means of side-tracking their principled political position on the most important national assignment like the constitutional making process.
Members of parliament are the legitimate representatives of our people and the total sum of the authority that is vested in the Republic and given the legislative powers to enact laws of the land and must therefore be respected.
We therefore find his continued partisan cadre-ship-like behaviour incompatible with the most coveted office of speaker of the Zambian parliament absolutely unfit. He is unfit to be speaker.
We think the tragedy of the nation currently is to have an incompetent President leading the executive on-one-hand and an incompetent speaker on the other hand leading parliament, sadly the final death nail of the separation of powers of the arms of government lies in the crippling appointment of the do-nothing acting chief Justice leading the Judiciary. Hereinafter lies the death of the Republic. MHSRIP.
The post Matibini is A Desperate Cadre, says Msoni appeared first on Zambia Reports.