João Lourenço launched the challenge this Thursday, at the inauguration ceremony of the leader of the largest opposition party as a new member of the Council of the Republic, replacing the former president of UNITA (National Union for the Total Independence of Angola), Isaías Samakuva.
The head of state stressed the rather heterogeneous composition of the Council of the Republic, believing that with the appointment of Adalberto Costa Júnior "it gets richer".
"In the hope that he can contribute with his knowledge, with his political experience in the councils to be given to the Head of State", João Lourenço stressed the need to "be advised on matters of importance, above all of political importance that the nation goes through" and, for this reason, he trusts in this "range of councillors of the Republic".
In statements to the media, the leader of UNITA said that the post brings "an increased responsibility, imbued with a spirit of national interest of great responsibility".
"So we will bring the best we have, so that we can look at the country and be useful in helping the many challenges that we are embracing at the moment", he said.
According to Adalberto Costa Júnior, the Council of the Republic is an important body and the President of the Republic "showed the hope that this presence can add value".
"This is our purpose and we will always do it with the same foresight, respecting the spirit of being able to share complementary visions of national benefit", he stressed.
Adalberto Costa Júnior stressed that the country is experiencing a huge economic crisis, but also at some institutional level, and UNITA's position is that there is a need for the country to embrace reforms.
"It takes courage for them to happen and we would also like to be able to be a voice of understanding of this need that the country has", he said.
Regarding the first local elections planned for this year, the leader of the country's second political force said that the country should not go through the year it has now begun "in the uncertainty of public commitments".
"There are public commitments that effectively indicate that local elections will be held in 2020 and we hope that, in fact, this national commitment will be confirmed," he noted, adding that if Angola had referendums the Angolans would be one hundred percent in agreement that the implementation of the municipalities would take place simultaneously in the country's 164 municipalities.
And Adalberto Costa Júnior stressed: "I am one hundred percent sure that if we had a constitutional referendum and we were to listen to individual Angolans we would be close to one hundred percent in the option of holding municipalities in all municipalities simultaneously, I have no doubt about this issue and we need to move forward".
