. Chanda

By CHUSA SICHONE –
STATE House says it is compelled to respond to people who have continued to criticise President Edgar Lungu’s foreign trips because the peddlers of such talk are capable of misleading the nation.
President Lungu’s Special Assistant for Press and Public Relations Amos Chanda observed that people baselessly criticising the Head of State’s foreign trips were uninformed and ignorant about the importance of such trips.
Mr Chanda said this when he addressed journalists at Kenneth Kaunda International Airport in Lusaka yesterday shortly before accompanying President Lungu to Ethiopia to attend the African Union (AU) Heads of State and Government Summit.
“In a democracy, debate can be tolerated, but uninformed debate can actually mislead the nation and, therefore, we are compelled to respond to that. When uninformed criticism of that nature comes up, we are not bothered, but we are compelled to make sure that when there is debate, it’s informed debate,” Mr Chanda said.
Mr Chanda said the President received foreign invitations almost on a daily basis, but that State House turned down “so many trips” and only settled for those which were very necessary.
Mr Chanda said it would be undiplomatic of him to mention the foreign trips which President Lungu had turned down and that was not how the Government operated.
“There has never been a visit that has not been carefully chosen and that has not delivered results. All the State visits that the President makes, all the foreign visits like this one, which is the AU Summit, is absolutely necessary. The President wants as much as possible to stay at home and he has made more local trips than foreign trips except that the ignorant debaters are unaware of that,” Mr Chanda said.
He said the AU Summit was one such extremely necessary foreign outing as it was meant for Heads of State, and President Lungu, being the ‘He For She’ Campaign champion, was tasked to make a presentation on behalf of his counterparts on ending child marriages.
Mr Chanda said President Lungu was at the same summit expected to make a statement on the Committee of 10 (C10) comprising 10 Heads of State and Government.
He reiterated that in international diplomacy reciprocal obligation was encouraged, which involved that the host Head of State of a visiting president was expected to also visit the counterpart’s country and that the discussions between them were beneficial to their countries.