12 REASONS WHY ECL WAS MORE THANKFUL TO ME, SEAN TEMBO, PROF. DANNY PULE, HON. EDITH NAWAKWI AND SG NAKACHINDA FOR TONSE ALLIANCE THAN ANYONE IN PF – Chris Zumani

12 REASONS WHY ECL WAS MORE THANKFUL TO ME, SEAN TEMBO, PROF. DANNY PULE, HON. EDITH NAWAKWI AND SG NAKACHINDA FOR TONSE ALLIANCE THAN ANYONE IN PF

By Dr. Chris Zumani Zimba

…….The fool says in his heart,   “There is no God.” They are corrupt, their deeds are vile; there is no one who does good (Psalms 14:1)……

1. When PF was politically sold to UPND by Miles Sampa and Chabinga in 2023,  l was in imprisoned in Chimbokaila and Mwembeshi on malicious charges. The noise makers in PF we see today did nothing to remove the shame and embarrassment around ECL.  Some PF leaders were even hosting media talk show programs were they could host people like Laura Miti or Dora Siliya who embarrassed and politically undressed ECL more. They imposed more pain and shame on ECL.  These are chaps who had no loyalty or true respect for our boss.

2. Many of these noise makers in PF were just eating sausages and chips, dancing donchi kubeba and drinking strong wine in their homes mocking ECL as a “former President without a party”. This is because most of them saw ECL as a dangerous political rival and competitor since they also wanted to be PF presidents. They indirectly endorsed  Miles Sampa for trading PF to UPND and ECL was fully aware about it.

3. When God acquitted me & l came out, I found ECL betrayed,  stranded & politically undressed. Our boss was brutally embarrassed, broken and left depressed by the treacherous actions of Miles Sampa and team. Out of desperation,  ECL decided to start hunting for political solutions outside his PF leaders and called it #REBRANDING. He went everywhere including joining UKA in his capacity alone as Former President and not with PF.

4. ECL was forced to reduce himself and made company with politician who he thought were different from PF traitors in view of what happened in 2023 from Miles Sampa and team.  Before long, UKA disrespected and failed him terribly as young political players who have never been councilors, MPs,  PSs, Ministers or SAPs started addressing him as “comrade Lumgu” and their “equal member”. Some of us didn’t accept these political insults for our father.

5. Then Sean E. Tembo & myself decided to create Tonse Alliance specifically for ECL and his followers in PF and outside without consulting anyone and not even ECL himself.  Our objective was simple: “to stop the disrespect,  betrayal and embarrassment around ECL  and give  our boss an alternative political platform he can own and use his for 2026”. Sean Tembo solely designed all the Tonse logos and paid for everything himself.  I worked on the constitution alone and we edited it with Tembo.

6. When we finished working on the constitution and logos,  Sean Tembo sent me to present this Tonse Alliance project in July 2024 to my boss and convince ECL to kiss it. I had a four hours meeting with ECL alone to discuss Tonse Alliance and why it was the best alliance for him and Zambians. Tonse Alliance was purely a political baby for ECL and never a PF project as some noise makers want to mislead people. They have zero idea about the history of Tonse Alliance apart from making false noise around here. These are folks who never presented solutions to ECL’s predicaments to date.

7. As former President,  ECL liked the idea of Tonse Alliance but never wanted to show disruption by openly leaving UKA.  He didn’t want the fall of UKA to be blamed on him. So, he gave me one condition if he was to take up Tonse Alliance leadership: “we must convince Edith Nawakwi,  Prof. Danny Pule and Sean Tembo to join Tonse Alliance first before me”, he concluded.  ECL treasured these opposition leaders for political rebranding and he wanted it this way going into 2026: more of new faces around him and not the same old PF faces. .

8. Thank God, Sean Tembo was already onboard with me on the Tonse Alliance project and ECL was very happy.  Few days later, we had a second meeting with ECL,  myself and Sean Tembo. ECL strategically appointed Sean Tembo as the face of the Alliance.  Our boss was happy to inform us that he had talked to Madam Edith Nawakwi and Prof. Danny Pule and the two leaders equally agreed to join Tonse ahead of ECL so that UKA is left to fall own it’s own. ECL even appointed Prof. Danny Pule as the Care Taker Chairman until when Tonse Alliance is officially launched and ECL takes over leadership.  Prof. Pule acted in this role from August to November,  2024.

9. Had President Sean Tembo,  Hon. Edith Nawakwi and Prof. Pule refused to be part of Tonse Alliance,  ECL would not have accepted to take up leadership in this alliance. ECL accepted this Tonse Alliance project as a result of support from Nawakwi,  Pule and Tembo. Therefore,  as someone who has been on this project from day one, l know that ECL was eternally grateful to these three for making Tonse Alliance project a reality for him, not the PF leaders. This is the background that most of these noise makers dont know except to “urinate lies” everywhere.

10. For ECL,  the PF top leaders were not his priority for any alliance but his PF followers, loyalists and structures countrywide as well as other opposition leaders. Thats why in UKA,  ECL went alone and only started to pull his PF loyalists and supporters one by one to join UKA.  When ECL was in UKA,  he only worked with few of us who supported him but sidelined above 95% of PF leaders.  ECL had already abandoned PF to the political auctioneer,  Miles Sampa and his UPND friends.  This is where we trace and  engineered THE #ECLMOVEMENT concept. 

11. When all these conditions were secured of convincing the 3 above, that’s when ECL asked me to bring PF SG Raphael Nakachinda and present the idea of Tonse Alliance to him too. Nakachinda was a classic ECL trustee who never hesitated but kissed the Tonse Alliance project for our boss and PF.  ECL was equally happy that his SG was game to run with Tonse Alliance as opposed to UKA or People’s Pact. In PF,  Nakachinda was ECL’s most trusted leader for this Alliance than anyone. At that time, People’s Pact had endorsed ECL as their Chairman but ECL just went mute on them. He didn’t believe in them and never wanted to commit himself to them.

12.So, some of our noise makers in PF must learn to say the #TRUTH and say #THANKYOU to many of us who showed up with political solutions to ECL when he most needed it. If they can’t say thank you to me or SG Nakachinda as true political sons of ECL for this Tonse Alliance project,  at least say thank you to Sean Tembo,  Prof. Danny Pule and late Edith Nawakwi.  There is no one who thought of helping ECL from the pain, shame & cruelty Miles Sampa & Chabinga imposed on our late Father apart from myself and Sean Tembo as well as Danny Pule and Edith Nawakwi at that time.  At death, atleast ECL died as Chairman & 2026 Presidential Candidate of Tonse Alliance and not PF.

Dr. Chris Zumani Zimba is the Tonse Alliance Chief Architect,  National Coordinator,  Lead Consultant and ECL Movement Chairman.  He was the Political Advisor of President Edgar Chagwa Lungu from Dec. 2019 to June 2025. He holds a certificate,  bachelors,  masters and PhD in Political Science.