NTHAWI yanu yasila a Lungu, step aside, you have done your work, so leave the fight to the next generation, Kelvin Bwalya Fube has advised Edgar Lungu.
KBF says the nation has walked with ‘ba Lungu’ and has seen his leadership; “the kind that can’t take Zambia to an economic prosperity level”.
Bwalya prays that the country does not put judges and the Zambian Constitution to the test over the issue of Edgar’s eligibility.
“Let’s look at countries where these things have happened; just our next door neighbours here in Malawi, we saw what happened. We are also following on social media what is happening in Uganda, where the constitution is being violated and raped. We have basically created a tyrant in Uganda. There is a problem in Africa. Many times people don’t want to speak against a President who is incumbent, because everybody is thinking they must bootlick him, must massage him, no, a wrong is a wrong,” he said.
He prays was the judges would be strong enough to say what the Constitution says and not just follow the whims and fancies of the politician.
No rational Zambian can argue with KBF’s position and that of many Zambians on Edgar’s push to contest in the August 2021 presidential election.
Edgar is constitutionally ineligible to stand in 2021. This is the simple unvarnished truth. The sooner he comes to terms with reality, the better for his party the Patriotic Front, but more importantly for our nation. He has run his race. Our country’s democracy and future is by far better without this man-made chaos he’s hatching. Why should we head into the 2021 elections navigating the minefields of illegibility with a leader trying to force himself on the ballot through incumbency? Edgar’s push for third term is nothing but entrenching a cult of strongman regime, a cult of mediocrity!
The constitutional bell is very loud and clear that at the end of this current term, it’s time to go for Edgar.
Clearly, there is no part of the Constitution of Zambia, which Edgar signed in 2016, that supports him to stand for the third time. Edgar was first elected and sworn into office in January 2015. Edgar served until August 2016 when he was again elected and sworn into office in September for the second full-term that runs up to August 12, 2021.
But his persistence on contesting a third time is what is perplexing many. Not only is it perplexing but also contemptuous defiance of the supreme law of the land, the Constitution that he swore to protect. Any court that would entertain Edgar’s wish to run again would be destroying the sacred document and setting the stage for chaos in the country.
We have faith that the institutions of state and members who were appointed by Edgar to such institutions will be honourable to follow the Constitution.
Constitutions are prospective and not retrospective. They continue what is already in existence like laws or discontinue but cannot write out of existence what has already taken place like deleting a term of office that has already been served like Edgar’s first term.
Therefore, the PF have to find someone else to nominate for 2021 because Edgar does not qualify under the 1991 Constitution or the amended 2016 Constitution. It is not only how Edgar has failed to deliver economic prosperity, he has run his full course and indeed, it is time up for him.