WHEN BILLIONS TRY TO BUY STATE POWER- Saviour Chishimba

WHEN BILLIONS TRY TO BUY STATE POWER

Dangerous weapons in the hands of a fool can be extraordinarily destructive. Wise people with an agenda of pure hatred can stand behind a fool and produce foolish outcomes in any nation. Many failed states have suffered from this.

That is why serious nations worry when States with weak institutions seek possession of nuclear weapons. The weapon itself may be technologically sophisticated. The person controlling it may not possess the judgement, restraint or institutional discipline necessary to understand what he holds in his hands. The same principle applies to money.

Billions in the hands of people desperate for State power can become a political weapon. More than US$3.1 billion is the amount of cash that illicitly got into a few corrupt hands between 2011 and 2021.  I shall leave that figure there. Money on this scale can buy influence. It can finance political networks. It can flood social media. It can manufacture perceptions. It can finance sophisticated operations. It can compromise institutions. Given sufficient organisation, it can even create the illusion that State power itself can be bought.

This is why Zambia must follow the money. There must be a massive forensic audit of the asset registers of councils throughout the country, with particular attention to Lusaka and the Copperbelt. Every major disposal of public property must be traced. Who bought it? What was paid? Who received the money? Was ownership transferred? Who is the beneficial owner today? Where property stands in somebody’s name, does that person’s known economic history reasonably explain the acquisition?

Follow the buildings. Follow the properties. Follow the beneficial owners. Follow the money. There are properties for which money was allegedly paid while records of ownership tell another story. There are buildings whose apparent ownership raises obvious questions about financial capacity.  Under the #BringBackOurMoney, we, in the UPP, placed evidence before investigative institutions. What happened to those files?

Zambians may now better understand why I once attempted to become Mayor of Lusaka. I wanted to open the books. I wanted a forensic examination of the property and asset register of Lusaka City Council. Lusaka City Council was historically one of the wealthiest local authorities in Zambia. Its balance sheet was healthier than mining companies. Councils are statutory corporations possessing land, buildings, revenue streams and enormous economic potential. What happened to those assets? That question must be answered.

There is an even bigger question. When people leave government, what happens to money accumulated through corruption, abuse of office or theft of public resources? It does not necessarily disappear. It can return. It can return wearing political colours. It can return through businesses. It can return through intermediaries. It can return through political financing. It can return through social media. Eventually, stolen money can attempt to buy back the power from which it was originally stolen. This is the danger Zambia must confront.

A fool with billions can attempt to buy power and wise people can even give an applause when deep down their hearts they know very well that the fool has no clear national agenda. The situation becomes considerably more dangerous when the fool is surrounded by intelligent people. Never assume that wise people surrounding a fool will necessarily produce a wise outcome. Wise people organised around a fool can produce extraordinarily foolish outcomes. History is full of them.

Prejudice makes this even more dangerous. Intelligent people consumed by hatred, tribal prejudice, racial prejudice or political vengeance can knowingly lend their intelligence to an irrational project. Their individual intelligence does not rescue the project. It merely makes the machinery around the foolishness more sophisticated.

People saw enough of this in 2025. Every achievement became failure. Every improvement became propaganda. Every statistic became a conspiracy. Every institution became illegitimate whenever its conclusions were inconvenient. President Hakainde Hichilema could have rebuilt the ruins stone by stone and, according to this narrative, he would still have accomplished absolutely nothing.

That is not ordinary political opposition. It is the industrialisation of a narrative. Social media has made such operations enormously more powerful. China blocks many of the world’s major international social media platforms. The United Kingdom has enacted extensive legislation regulating online platforms and imposing legal duties concerning illegal content and online harms. These countries understand something Zambia must understand.

Cyberspace is national security space. Cybersecurity, cyber defence, hostile information operations and the protection of the country’s digital infrastructure cannot remain peripheral matters of government administration. Zambia’s entire institutional architecture for cyberspace requires serious reconsideration. In fact, cybersecurity and telecommunications must fall under the ministry of defense and security.

Then look at what happened during this election. How does somebody declare himself winner of a presidential election before the statutory national counting and declaration process has established a winner? He declared himself a winner within hours of closing the polls. This was before a single ward finished counting. You have the figures already? From where? Generated by what system? Received through which network? Verified by whom? That confidence itself deserves investigation.

The Electoral Commission of Zambia subsequently warned candidates that declaring themselves winners was an offence. Do not investigate only the declaration. Investigate the architecture behind the confidence. Who generated the numbers? Who received them? Who financed the operation? What systems were being used? Who was connected to whom? Follow the evidence wherever it leads. Into politics. Into business. Into financial networks. Into former positions of public or diplomatic privilege.

Zambia cannot be frightened away from investigation merely because the people who may require investigation are wealthy, politically connected or surrounded by sophisticated networks. There must be a serious forensic examination of unexplained wealth, suspicious financial flows, public asset disposals and the networks through which political money has moved.

The Drug Enforcement Commission must account for credible information previously submitted to it. The Anti Corruption Commission must account for its files. The relevant institutions must follow the assets. Never again should money suspected to have been stolen from the Zambian people be allowed to return as ammunition for an attempt to capture the Zambian State. Never again should we assume that because intelligent people are involved, the objective itself must be intelligent.

A fool with money is dangerous. A fool with billions is more dangerous. A fool with billions surrounded by clever people can become a danger to the State itself. Follow the money.

Saviour Chishimba
President
United Progressive People (UPP)
UPND Alliance Partner