DON’T LISTEN TO INDIVIDUALS CALLING FOR YOUR POLITICAL COMEBACK, THEY DON’T LOVE YOU!- Brian Hapunda

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DON’T LISTEN TO INDIVIDUALS CALLING FOR YOUR POLITICAL COMEBACK, THEY DON’T LOVE YOU!

By Brian Hapunda

LUSAKA, Monday 3 October, 2023)

Former Republican President HE Edgar Chagwa Lungu should not entertain calls from certain individuals for him to withdraw from Cabinet Office his letter of resignation from active politics. We PF members should not be the ones in the forefront of putting our beloved former President up for public ridicule and political humiliation.

President Lungu currently has the political power to annoint the next PF president and subsequently the next Republican President and he must use this political annointing power now before it is too late, the way President RB did to him in the 2015 Presidential by-election. RB literally became ba “shibukombe” to ECL giving us an upper hand in that election against HH and the UPND then.

We should respect President Lungu for he did his part and ran his race so well and he must be left to enjoy his presidential retirement entitlement in peace as a Statesman. Those calling for his return to active politics do not mean well to the former President and they are doing so with ulterior motives of personal aggrendisement. It is sad that these people do not feel for President Lungu and his family as they push this agenda of his political come back. The onus is squarely on President Lungu to publicly reject these calls from people surrounding him now for these people are up to no good. They are misleading our dear President, they mislead him while in office and they have continued to mislead him even after leaving office. By publicly rejecting these calls of his political come back, President Lungu will save himself and his dear family from public ridicule and humiliation from his political opponents who are now in the governance driving seat of this country.

It is very sad that the arrogance being exhibited by some high ranking personalities in the party and those now surrounding the former President is ridiculous and it seems we have not learnt lessons at all as to why Zambians voted us out of power on 12th August 2026.

If my party the PF is serious about bouncing back to power in 2026 or 2031, we must take rebranding of the party very serious for Zambians voted us out inter alia because of the arrogance exhibited by most of our leaders who had stopped listening to the masses and were conducting themselves annoyingly with impunity to citizens. 2 years after losing elections, there has not been any serious rebranding of the party as the same people that costed President Lungu and the Party to lose the elections to HH and the UPND are still surrounding the former President and misleading him with calls of a political come back. Surely these people do not feel for President Lungu and family. These selfish individuals do not love President Lungu at all, they are actually abusing President Lungu. Instead it is people like us who love President Lungu for we have not shied away from voicing our personal options to the former President and the party to do the right political things now so that we can begin to mobilise the party for ahead of in 2026 general elections.

My worry is that if President Lungu entertains these calls for q political come back and the party continues on this trajectory of non rebranding, the party risks going into the August 2026 general elections without a President candidate for we are allowing ourselves to play in the lions den of our political opponents who now are in government and will do anything within their powers to ensure that President Lungu is not seen on the ballot paper. It is obvious that we as a party are not learning political lessons, we saw what happened to Hon. Malanji in Kwacha and Hon. Bowman Lusambo in Kabushi Constituency respectively and how they were barred from contesting those elections. We are dealing with a very ruthless regime and we must not allow ourselves to play in their court! In 1996, UNIP and KK suffered their last political blow when President KK MHSCTRIP pushed his political come back and tried to feature on the ballot paper in the 1996 general elections after government evoked the Citizenship Clause and barred him from running in that general election. Out of political frustration, UNIP ended up boycotting the elections, a situation that completely made UNIP politically irrelevant henceforth.

Now that we have a new Secretary General Raphael Mangani Nakachinda, I implore him to quickly get on the ground and organise the convention which is slated for end of October 2023. As a Chief Executive Officer of the Party, Nakachinda must also not be seen to be pushing the Alewelelapo project (political come back of ECL) for it is a futile exercise that will divide the Party into many factions the way it happened to MMD after former President RB MHSCTRIP attempted a political come back and he failed leaving the party divided into two factions, one led by Nevers Mumba and the other led by Felix Mutati. Today MMD has become politically irrelevant in the political dispensation of our country because of the grave mistakes they committed of trying to push for a political come back of RB. So the first task of the new Secretary General is to organise a convention to elect a new party leader and other party office bearers who would then start a serious countrywide party mobilisation of the party and marketing the new party president to citizens ahead of the 2026 general elections. It is better the convention is held now as opposed to holding it in 2025. Holding the convention this October is advantageous as the move will give enough time to the party to heal. The move will also give the party enough time to mobilise itself and market the new party leader.

If the party holds a convention or “installs” a new leader in 2025, what time are we going to have to campaign and market that new party leader? Holding the convention in 2025 is a big gamble as the party risks going into the August 2026 general elections very divided and weak.

Brian HAPUNDA

PF member and former Diplomat

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