IF IT’S NOT US, TULEFILILA MU NSENGA MENTALITY: PRESIDENT HH IS RIGHT

IF IT’S NOT US, TULEFILILA MU NSENGA MENTALITY: PRESIDENT HH IS RIGHT

There is a dangerous mentality in our country which President Hakainde Hichilema spoke about during the swearing in of the Deputy Auditor General (Audit), “If it is not us…” In Bemba, I would describe it as tulefilila mu nsenga, literally, “we shall eat it in the bush.” In its deeper meaning, it is the mentality which says that if I cannot have it, then nobody should have it. If it cannot be ours, let us destroy it.

This mentality is bigger than politics. You find it in Government. Someone is appointed Minister and somebody underneath immediately begins calculating how the Minister can fail. Someone becomes Permanent Secretary and another senior officer begins withholding information, creating administrative traps or quietly undermining the office. Someone becomes CEO and, instead of the deputy helping the CEO succeed, the deputy begins positioning himself for the CEO’s failure.

We have seen versions of this problem elsewhere in Africa. Malawi is an instructive example. Its multiparty era has repeatedly experienced serious political ruptures between Presidents and Vice Presidents. Malawi’s constitutional arrangement also gives an elected Vice President substantial security of tenure whereby the President cannot simply dismiss the Vice President at will. The lesson is larger than Malawi. When the person occupying number two begins seeing number one primarily as an obstacle between himself and the top job, government can become dysfunctional. The deputy’s responsibility should be to help the administration succeed, not to make leadership impossible because he wants the chair above him. The Malawi experience speaks for itself.

This is an African political culture we must interrogate and graduate from. Leadership cannot become a permanent war of succession. You do not destroy the ladder simply because somebody is standing on the rung above you. What have you achieved when the institution itself fails? The President’s reference to the wisdom of Shlomo HaMelech (King Solomon) when two women claimed the same child was particularly striking. Solomon proposed dividing the child into two. The real mother immediately said, “No. Give the child to the other woman, but let the child live.” The other claimant was prepared to see the child divided. Solomon therefore knew who truly loved the child.

That is the test of patriotism. If you truly love Zambia, Zambia does not have to be destroyed because you are not the President. A ministry does not have to fail because you are not the Minister. A department does not have to collapse because you are not the Permanent Secretary. A company does not have to fail because somebody else is CEO.

Jewish wisdom goes even further. Rabbi Chanina, the Deputy High Priest, teaches in Pirkei Avot, “pray for the welfare of government, because without functioning authority people would swallow one another alive.” The Gemara develops the same idea in Avodah Zarah, “without order, the powerful consume the weaker.”

There is another lesson very close to my heart. My father began working as an ordinary cleaner despite having received training that qualified him for more. He did not say, “This job is beneath me.” He cleaned so diligently that his work caught the attention of the Yugoslavian CEO. From cleaner, he rose through the ranks until he became Stores Manager and part of senior management. At one stage he worked at ZECO where his workmate was Mr William Banda, now a senior UPND figure. That’s why I call Mr. William Banda, “Dad” just like my own father who is now over 84 years old. The lesson my father taught me in my boyhood and continues to teach me is that whatever responsibility is placed before you, perform it exceptionally well.

If you are a cleaner, be an exceptional cleaner. If you are an assistant, make the person you assist succeed. If you are a deputy, strengthen the person above you. If you are a civil servant, make your institution work. Your excellence will eventually speak for you.

Zambia was not created for one individual, one tribe, one political party or one generation. Today you may be number two. Tomorrow you may be number one. Today somebody else may occupy the office you wanted. Tomorrow responsibility may come to you, but there must still be a Zambia left for you to inherit.

The tulefilila mu nsenga mentality has destroyed organisations, families and nations. Taken to its extreme, the belief that “if it cannot be ours, nobody must have it” has contributed throughout history to political violence and communal conflict. We can disagree fiercely. We can compete. We can aspire to higher office, but we should never confuse ambition with entitlement.

If the person above you succeeds, help the institution succeed. If the institution succeeds, Zambia succeeds, and when Zambia succeeds, all of us have something worth inheriting. That is the mentality we need to build.

Zambia Forward, TOGETHER in UNITY 

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