HH WANTS TO RULE FOR 14 YRS…he’s the lacuna himself, if he wants to change the Constituion we’ll change him – Nawakwi

HH WANTS TO RULE FOR 14 YRS
…he’s the lacuna himself, if he wants to change the Constituion we’ll change him – Nawakwi



By Fanny Kalonda

WHY are you so scared of facing the people in 2026, get a backbone and stand up straight before the people, FDD leader Edith Nawakwi has told President Hakainde Hichilema.

Opening parliament on Friday, President Hichilema

said some lacunas (gaps) in the Constitution could cause the country not to hold general elections for eight or nine years.

He wondered what those who designed the Constitution were intending to do.

“This government is committed to facilitate a least cost, efficient and credible process to address lacunas, omissions or oversights so to say in our Constitution. So we are looking at this House, under your leadership, Madam

Speaker [Nelly Mutti], to be supportive of the process that will be least cost, that will be time conscious, that will not lead to allowances and more allowances and sittings and more sittings. That will not do, absolutely not. After all some of your constituencies are too big,” said President Hichilema. “After all I don’t understand the wisdom how members of parliament were taken out of the council chambers. After all, some lacunas can lead us to a situation where we could have no general election for eight years. That’s not a joke! Yes, we could have no elections for eight or nine years. Those lacunas sit in the Constitution. So those who designed or signed on that

Constitution, I am not sure what they were intending to do.”

But speaking yesterday on behalf of other opposition party Presidents in the United Kwacha Alliance during a media briefing, Nawakwi said President Hichilema was serious about suspending the Constitution to extend his stay in power, adding that Zambians will fight the move.

‘’From the President’s address on the Constitution, the only lacuna is himself, the Zambian people are resolved to change this lacuna. If President Hakainde Hichilema thinks that he can now start preparing the people’s minds to a possibility of postponement, we now understand. He cannot even play gymnastics, or imingalato (tricks), we have understood his statement that he wants to prolong the election from five years to thirteen years. Five plus eight is thirteen, you understand that,’’ she said. ‘’Five plus nine is fourteen, he wants to be in office illegally for 14 years. 14 years of darkness, 14 years of hunger, 14 years of exporting your maize to other countries while you are still suffering. President Hakainde Hichilema yesterday was extremely serious about suspending the Constitution of the Republic. You can’t say it worse than that even if he desires to go back to colonial legislation, and pull off acts like the sedition Act. What the President said yesterday in the House, what the President said yesterday before the people of Zambia is an attempt to cite the Zambian people that he is the Almighty and all powerful leader on the continent of Africa who can wake up in the morning and address the nation that God has given to his charge in the House that everybody pledges that they shall be faithful to the Constitution of the Republic and attempt to say that the Constitution authorises him singularly to move the election date from 13th August 2026 to a period eight or nine years later than the five years of the term of parliament.”

Nawakwi challenged President Hichilema to clearly state the lacunas he was referring to, adding that “one of the clauses you can’t negotiate is the fifty plus one, fifty plus one is none negotiable.”

She said what should instead be addressed is the excessive presidential powers.

‘’If he wants to change the Constitution, we will change him as we have agreed. What the mind thinks, so is the position of the person. You can’t just go on the street and say something that is not in your mind. We as a people gave to ourselves a constitution of the republic and we said that the term of parliament shall be five years. That includes the term of the presidency. Whether he likes it or not, 13th August 2026 is the date; without any hole, without any mistake, without any lacuna that the people of Zambia gave themselves election dates,’’ Nawakwi said. ‘’ But on the African continent, there are some – my brother, my President Hakainde Hichilema – who when power is sweet and the chair begins to make them feel that they are glued to it, can wake up and say I shall suspend the wishes of the people. This country has been through this road before. We are now at this crossroads where our future is threatened by a suspension of our desired process and we want to say this to the President, that, as a United Kwacha Alliance, we want to inform him that we shall not allow him to do that.”

She said President Hichilema was supposed to tell the House how citizens were going to access mealie meal, electricity and water.

“However, the President to our dismay chose to use the occasion to touch a sensitive matter of his solemn belief to prolong by eight or nine years period in between election. This is not only contrary to what all Zambians know as a five-year term, but also clearly contrary to what the Constitution of Zambia provides. Never again are we going to have anyone changing the constitution to suit their feelings, this seems to be the main subject matter that he went to address and he spent three hours, all the sudden he departed from his speech,’’ Nawakwi said further. ‘’The nation will recall that there were a lot of debates, protestations, and consternations towards the enactment of the 2016 Constitution. I think you know, we all agreed, in fact some of us were wondering, some of the members of the opposition who are now ministers, they were drunk on the floor of that House during the debate of that same Constitution; I think you know them. Some political parties such as the UPND, started to walk out of the legislative House process, they were actually part of this document. So, I was shocked to hear that he didn’t know how it was done, because the 2016 Constitution was done jointly by the ruling party – then Patriotic Front and UPND and other members of the House. So he’s squarely responsible. If there is a lacuna he needs to come out and say section five sub section 6 clause 5 and refer it to us to debate as a country. It is not for him to sit at Community House and start dreaming that the chair become so sweet that he wants to glue himself to the chair.”

Nawakwi said every caring citizen must condemn President Hichilema and his administration on the conduct and condescending manner which people are being subjected to over the Constitution.

“Although the UPND seem to have been playing what they believed to have been politics, it must not be allowed, politics must not be practiced in a hypocritical manner! Politics must be practiced truthfully and responsibly. In fact, politics should never be played with regards to the Constitution. Anarchy comes from streets not from the highest seat of the Land. I expect anarchy from the street because you are not getting water, or you are not eating. But Zambians are peaceful, Zambians know, you love your land, you know that 13th August, 2026 is decision day and therefore you are calm,’’ she said. ‘’Even if you don’t have lights for five days, ten days, you are extremely sober and I thank you my dear friends and brothers. I praise you for your resilience because you are a people that love their land and we don’t want anyone of us, we said no in 2000, we are saying no now. Our sixth republican president actually at some point said, these people want to amend the Constitution, who was the first one to rebuff that, himself. But why should you start the fight again ba mudala naimwe (you alos)? It (the constitution) can therefore not be subjected to cheap, dangerous and unproductive politics in the house.”

Nawakwi called on President Hichilema to step back from such an “irresponsible and unconstitutional thought”.

“Allow elections to be held on the 13th of August 2026, exactly 23 months from today, as constitutionally provided by the people of Zambia. If there are any lacunas which the President’s newly found legal mind has noticed in the Constitution, it will be up to the owners of the Constitution, the Zambian people, through their elected representatives, to determine the way forward and not for himself to take advantage of prolonging his no longer welcomed continued stay at Community House,” said Nawakwi. “From the President’s address on the Constitution, the only lacuna I detected was in terms of any cogent argument setting out the lacunas the President was seeing. If I say there is a lacuna, I must say in section 5. We, as the United Kwacha Alliance (UKA), must hasten to say we have read the message in between the lines, and clearly understood the machinations that he wants to prolong the stay. It looks the chair is very sweet. Mr President, as UKA, we dare say don’t you ever entertain such ideas! We have noticed a growing trend of presidents who have lost legitimacy to seek refuge in tampering with the Constitution. Zambians fought the late president Chiluba when he attempted to do exactly what you are trying to do.”