Against All Odds: President Edgar Chagwa Lungu’s Rough Journey to State House
By Anthony Mukwita – Partridge Africa, 2017
11 Jun 2025.
Editor’s Note: This chapter is drawn from Against All Odds, the only published biographical account of Zambia’s sixth President, Edgar Chagwa Lungu, authored by Ambassador Anthony Mukwita—diplomat, journalist, and international relations analyst.
First released in 2017 by Partridge Africa, the book chronicles the turbulent and improbable rise of a soft-spoken lawyer from Chawama to the highest office in the land.
What follows is a dramatic and, at times, darkly humorous retelling of one of the most politically explosive weekends in Zambia’s modern history.
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29 November 2014
The day began as a calm Saturday, but Zambia’s political climate was anything but peaceful. Just eighteen days after President Michael Sata’s funeral, the ruling Patriotic Front (PF) was in disarray—desperate to keep its walls from caving in.
The so-called Cartel, loyal to Acting President Guy Scott, had convened a PF National Conference, parallel to the official one Edgar Lungu was attending chaired by Ms Inonge Wina, the ruling party national Chair at The Rock in Kabwe.
The stated purpose? To select a new party leader. The real motive? To block Edgar Lungu’s presidential bid and settle old political scores.
The stakes were not just high—they were existential.
Zambia’s democracy, long seen as a continental model, was now on trial. Sata’s legacy was in the dock. His vision, his leadership ethos, and the continuity of his political project were all up for grabs. In the eye of the storm stood Edgar Lungu.
Former Defence Minister. Former Justice Minister. Former Home Affairs Minister. Secretary General of the PF.
Acting Party President. And now, the unexpected front-runner—a target for elimination.
To his critics, Lungu was an accidental politician. A man out of his depth. But to the PF grassroots, he was the torchbearer of Sata’s vision. A continuity candidate.
A political survivor.
Just days before the party convention, Lungu appeared on Muvi TV. The tone was prosecutorial. The questions barbed. But Lungu remained composed.
He spoke of infrastructure as a national imperative. He recited the projects in motion—roads, universities, rural initiatives—not as dreams, but as duties.
“I’m not here to reinvent the will,” he said. “I am here to finish what we started—what President Sata started. Ask me about my vision after 2015.”
It was a disarmingly simple line. Calm. Pragmatic. Politically unassailable. For PF supporters, it was scripture. For a hostile press, it was a provocation.
The attacks escalated.
The Post newspaper launched a barrage of headlines—every stumble, every rumour, every whisper recycled for maximum damage.
Online tabloids frothed with speculation. Internal PF memos leaked like sieves.
If someone somewhere stubbed a toe, Lungu got the blame. If a banana peel claimed a victim, Lungu was somehow responsible.
But Lungu did not flinch.
What was supposed to be his political requiem became his resurrection. His supporters mobilized.
The silent middle leaned in. Even critics were forced to acknowledge his tenacity.
On the Let the People Talk program, Lungu dropped a viral bombshell:
“You don’t disband the army and shoot all the soldiers just because the General is dead.
President Sata may be gone, but his vision is not—and neither are those of us who believed in it.”
It was defiance. It was loyalty. It was leadership.
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Unravelling the Resentment
So why the hostility?
Lungu was no criminal. He hadn’t looted public funds. He hadn’t courted scandal. If anything, his “sins” were embarrassingly mundane.
Meanwhile, many of his loudest critics had colourful pasts—some as alleged wife-batterers, others with reputations for public brawls and backroom deals.
The real threat Lungu posed? He was popular.
He didn’t posture. He didn’t play the tribal card. He was relatable. Accessible. The komboni candidate.
So, they launched a scorched-earth strategy. Media warfare. Character assassination. Discredit, mock, magnify—repeat.
But each attack only seemed to fortify him. Each insult made him more familiar to the Zambian everyman.
By the time the PF convened at the historic Mulungushi Rock of Authority, Edgar Lungu was no longer a question mark. He was the people’s answer.
He had become the rock that refused to crack, the stone that the build had refused that became the head corner stone.
If pressure makes diamonds, Lungu was one being forged before the nation’s eyes.
And he wasn’t about to let titles or tenures outlast his resolve.
He had walked through political fire. He had been written off.
And yet—he stood. Still standing. Against all odds.
To be continued…
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In Memory of Edgar Chagwa Lungu
Sixth President of the Republic of Zambia (2015–2021)
Born: 11 November 1956
Departed: 5 June 2025
This excerpt is published in honour of a man who defied political gravity and carried a nation’s hopes—quietly, resolutely, and unshaken.
— Amb. Anthony Mukwita-Author.
And that premature biography earned you a diplomatic job to Berlin…
Well said Kubeja Badala.
These ficalas are the devil incarnate and raping Zambia. Lungu bribed his was to the presidency. That’s all he was good at.
May he rot in hell
Fake biography that got you a job in London with distorted facts. It was in fact lungu’s gathering that was illegal not guy Scott and company. Lungu and his henchmen even ensured that neither guy Scott, nor anybody else including first lady kaseba, kilometers or anybody who was seen as a contender or threat to lungu ascending to the presidency was barred , chased, ridiculed, beaten etc from the same gathering.