SIKAILE Sikaile has advised opposition UPND leader Hakainde Hichilema to seriously respect and value intelligence information his party receives from well-wishers.
He has also advised Hichilema not to adopt most current members of parliament if he wants to win next year’s election.
In his ‘Open letter to president Hakainde Hichilema on the future of UPND ahead of 2021 polls’, Sikaile who is a good governance and human rights activist stated that a lot of things needed to change for the better in the country’s major opposition party.
“In this letter sir, I wish to address various issues that I strongly feel have greatly contributed to your party’s failure to secure victory on various occasions even after citizens [are] doing their duty to vote for UPND rightly. And these include intelligence [information] handling, roles of youths and women, party leadership, all MPs’ duties and many others,” Sikaile stated. “Mr president, in African politics, to get power from a ruling regime it has proven to be the most difficult thing for many countries. You can win several times but they can steal [in broad] daylight, leaving you crying. How is your intelligence in UPND effective? How does your party respond and handle every report that comes in from sources? Do you have credible men besides you who can handle any classified information not to risk informants? How has your party improved through this information since 2016 elections?”
He explained that so many people would like to give delicate information to the party but they were scared to do so.
“I doubt sir if your party has invested in this though it is an urgent matter, and the problem is not yourself but incompetent people around who fail you. There are so many people in the security wings, credible men and women, who are not happy with what is going on in Zambia and the best they can do is to avail relevant information to you as a strongest opposition leader so that you bring out those issues into the public domain on behalf of the country,” Sikaile stated. “But they need really trusted men and women in your camp to share such information on all evil things PF is working on. Facts are that in politics you cannot win an election without knowing the weaknesses of your enemies. Some of your leaders cannot be trusted with classified intelligence information because they too are intelligence officers for PF government who sell UPND information.”
On youths and women, Sikaile reminded Hichilema that they were his responsibility.
He advised Hichilema to get close to these two groups of party members for strength and coordination.
“Mr president, whether you like it or not, it is only the youths and women who can take you to State House. But the question is, are you in touch with these people correctly? I don’t think so. Despite their much love for you, middlemen have always prevented you from having open platforms to hear these people’s concerns and strategies on how you can go about an election winning amidst a brutal PF regime,” Sikaile stated further. “Don’t be too busy for these people sir, you need them a lot. You need to invest in these people and you will see the results. In addition to this, my advice would be, break this barrier and meet all youths and women in all the 10 provinces at the grassroots. You can be meeting them in small groups; say at ward, provincial or district level and hear from them. They have brilliant ideas for you on how you can protect the votes than those men in suites who only come to you and wait for jobs and favours.”
He warned Hichilema that some of his leaders were too rigid to welcome new ideas, hence their resentment of people with such.
“Some of your leaders are too rigid for diversification of ideas on how effectively your party can operate in an election, making it easy for PF dictators to always succeed. Some of your leaders are corrupt elements that during adoption processes they make so much money through those who buy their adoptions,” Sikaile stated.
“This is why today you have only a handful of MPs who can rise up and defend you and the party accordingly. If all your current MPs were adopted on merit and equal to the task, today you could have not been overloaded like it is. Some of these MPs who bought their way to parliament have turned against you after being bribed by PF government again. For instance, that purchasing of councillors in Western Province is being facilitated by some of your rebel MPs and party officials.”
And Sikaile advised Hichilema to leave out some of the current members of parliament when adoptions begin for next year’s general election.
He advised Hichilema to develop his own list of possible candidates for both local government and parliamentary elections.
“Some of your MPs are arrogant who feel they can’t be advised by, we, the voters, and if you don’t prune them in 2021 you may lose certain seats in your stronghold provided there are meaningful independent candidates in those areas. I remember how one of your MPs insulted and called me a poor citizen for simply advising him not to allow PF government buying him as I had intelligence information of their moves,” stated Sikaile. “I thought your MPs are all your public relations officers who should always wear your jacket when they go out there meeting various voters. Thank God, I’m above that and I did not insult him back. Going forward, I advise you to have your own list of people you think can be adopted on various positions, facilitated through a group of trusted intelligence team under your office so that if [national management committee] NMC sends you questionable characters as aspiring candidates, you can scrutinise them and drop them right away.”