BEMBA HEGEMONY, EGOCENTRISM IS KILLING PF
The Candidates’ Comment
Anyone who is a Bemba by tribe and has capacity to hire handclappers in the Patriotic Front feels and actually believe they can be President of their party, and subsequently lead this country. Perhaps, this is why even the majority of those who have lined themselves up to take over from Edgar Lungu are Bembas. Bembas say it openly in PF that it is now time for someone from any of the Bemba-land to take over from Edgar. They have made it a strict edict that the President of their party, this time around, can only come from areas where they speak Bemba and other aligned but related languages or tribe.
An aura of Bemba hegemony is so arrogantly vivid in PF that it sometimes stinks.
At the moment, being Bemba is a very huge advantage in PF. If you hail from any of the areas considered Bemba-land, you are ten times ahead than any other person from a different region or tribe. The first qualification to being a President in PF at the moment is being a Bemba. Even allowing Edgar to lead them was a by the way thing of necessity. If they had their way, Edgar wasn’t going to be allowed to be the successor of Michael Sata. In fact, many of these Bembas in PF never liked Edgar. They only liked the benefits of the power he had. In public, they pretended and projected that they loved Edgar but in the privacy of their toilets, they insulted and swore against him.
It is this Bembalisation of PF which will cost them and will lead their party to death. They simply cannot see their party being led by anyone else than Bembas only. This is why; everyone who wants to be President in PF is either Bemba or comes from a tribe that is not far from being Bemba. They simply expect all those from other areas to be useful idiots in their quest to preside over Zambia’s affairs.
When you scan carefully at the dispositions of the elements who have lined themselves up, to take over from Edgar, who is upright among them? Most of them are idiots and have no proper disposition to lead anyone. Yes, they may have been leaders here and there but that is because they were appointed into those positions based on patronage. Most of these elements have no substances in their heads. They are worthless elements who cannot lead anyone. But there they are, they want to be Presidents.
If this kind of nonsense was being done in any other party, they would be on top of their voices shouting blue murder saying it is tribalism.
Actually, the PF have run with a narrative that it is a rule in UPND that only a Tonga can lead. They have accused Hakainde Hichilema of being a tribalist and that UPND is a tribal cult. Yet, whatever they say is tribalism in UPND is also happening in PF. It is an issue of umwine wachisushi doesn’t smell it.
We know that beyond those empty elements who want to succeed Edgar, there are many other sound people like Joe Malanji who is has some sort of morality and leadership disposition and better placed to lead a disorderly party and give it proper direction. But they can’t look at Joe because they consider him an outsider simply because he hails from Northwestern. We have actually been reliably informed that Raphael Nakacinda was almost appointed PF secretary general not until when some Bembas tribalists in this party violently objected on a premise that he is half Tonga, half Easterner.