CAN THOSE WHO SERVED IN ECL ADMINISTRATION BE TRUSTED?
The Candidates’ Comment
We have often stated that the people of Zambia do not hate Edgar Lungu. In fact, many people do like him because of his humility, humbleness and good heart. Albeit, at the height of this consideration, the very people chose to punish Edgar by voting him out brutally. They did so because his administration abused the respect and love they had for him. We all know that Edgar’s standing with the people was utterly destroyed by the people he chose to entrust with responsibility and power to govern this country. The people that surrounded Edgar destroyed him. They turned him into an evil being detested by the people of Zambia. Even when it was unfashionable for many people to vote for Hakainde Hichilema given his soiled character that has resulted him into being rejected several times before winning, the people decided that enough was enough, PF had to go at all cost. It was never about whether or not Hakainde was alleged to have taken an active role in privatization or the tribal tag which his party has. It was about the ills the PF did against the people.
There are many theories to this effect but the truth is, part of the mistakes that Edgar personally made was to be a weak leader who was easily manipulated by every other fool there is in PF. Any fool could walk to Edgar and feed him lies. These fools were domiciled both in government and at the PF Secretariat. As they fed Edgar lies, they were busy committing crimes against the laws of Zambia such as corruption and thugery. Sadly, Edgar found himself sandwiched between lies and criminality that rocked his regime. Today, it is difficult to identify anyone in PF who is clean of sin, of corruption. Almost every one you look at smells corrupt. That is why, it is even difficult to correctly diagnose whether or not, the fight against corruption which is being practiced today under the New Dawn administration is persecution or indeed a noble cause.
But aside that, it seems many elements in PF have not learnt a thing or two from their fall from grace. There are elements in PF who did all they could to engineer the ousting of Chishimba Kambwili from PF. Equally, they engineered the expulsion of Kelvin Fube Bwalya as well as many other reasonable people. These elements remained posing as leaders who had the magic to serve the people of Zambia and take PF to greater heights in its pursuit for its pro-poor policies. When they were expelling Chishimba, they claimed he was not bigger than the party and that he was a nonentity. But that Chishimba defeated them miserably in Roan, in a by-election when the party he was consultant in, National Democratic Congress (NDC), won the Parliamentary seat with a landslide victory. Even when their party was in ICU, they went to this same Chishimba to beg him, to return to the party he helped establish with late Michael Sata.
Today, these same failures who led their party to exist and served at the party and government level are busy championing causes to replaced Edgar with themselves. How can the very failure that unfairly and stupidly chased party members and caused Edgar to lose election, win an election ever? It is stupid to think that the same elements who served in Edgar’s administration and indeed his party at senior levels can be trusted by anyone.
Of course, the truth is none among all those who served in Edgar’s cabinet and his party at various senior positions must be allowed anywhere near the leadership of the PF , if they are interested in ever being relevant to Zambians.
People rejected PF because of numerous sins these crooks, criminals committed which rubbed off on Edgar and his administration. Even if PF brought back KBF in the same way they brought back Chishimba to salvage their party, people had already decided that regardless of what consideration they may have for Chishimba, the PF needed to go because the sins the party committed before the embracing of its former members were grave.
But as much as this is true, Edgar must be sober about this issue now. He must not allow people to mislead him again the same way they misled him when he presided over a kangaroo Central Committee that was busy expelling people only on the premise of wanting to pave personal ways to Presidency.