Editorial by Zambia Business Times
During the run up to the just concluded August 12 general elections, we saw the then incumbent and now former President Edgar Lungu’s campaign being anchored on showcasing infrastructure projects that his administration had implemented.
Some political commentators and some of former President Lungu’s critics said he had no vision, that he had no fresh promises to make, no grand ideas to promise. This was despite that the man had served about seven years as head of state and had full access to superior information sources some of which is held as state secrets. Lungu was simply low on grand promises.
On the other hand, our current President Hakainde Hichilema, then main opposition rival went on to campaign on the pedestal of being visionary. He went on to make grand promises which are now making headlines and a subject of daily social media discourse.
Some of the few but big promises making daily discourse today is the provision of free education from Primary to University, the selling off of the Gulf Stream Presidential jet which was then considered an extreme luxury for a poor country like Zambia, the upholding of the debt swap arrangement for civil servants, the restoration of meal allowances for University students and appointing a cabinet on principles of meritocracy.
We are not saying that all these promises are not attainable, no. The issue here is there has not been coordinated communication on how these promises will be fulfilled or implemented. What has been communicated so far is pointing most citizens, including those that supported the ruling UPND that there is no clear plan or pathway to fulfilling these promises.
With the growing social media access and its powerful storage capability of information, every time one goes on social media, they are bombarded with screen shots of these promises by President HH which are one by one, being confirmed as not being feasible for implementation.
What is shocking is that one would have at the minimum expected even a medium term plan for implementing some of the key promises, but there is non. If it’s there, we are yet to see and have access to them. Please share them if available.
What we are seeing are growing voices of disappointment, frustration and despair. Even some of the most die hard UPND supporters are retreating and running out of social and political responses or excuses to questions being asked about the feasibility of implementing the big promises.
The risk with all this is that as President Hichilema ploughs through and makes more political appointments, dissent even within his own rank and file will only grow. For every appointment he makes, tenfolds of disappointed and expectant appointees are inadvertently created. These are even more dangerous enemies within than known opposition political opponents.
Even some of those that have been given for instance provincial ministerial positions, even those that will be given lesser ranked political appointments in government that eyed full cabinet ministerial positions, get their egos hurt in the process and lose their raw zeal that had propelled their blind and full support before the UPND formed government.
This is perhaps the burden of leadership world over that HH finds himself today. And our people are no exception to vanity, they are also just human with wild and unbridled ambitions.
Experienced political hands will tell you that it’s not storage therefore to find that even people that were mere body guards to one of HH’s entourage’s wanting to become Police IG’s, Army or Air-force Commanders even when they have no discernible experience or qualifications needed to hold such high ranks. Such are common sores or boils that fester as time goes on.
Well, HH wanted to be President for a long time before he finally got announced as winner of the 12 August vote, this period will be his biggest and toughest test ever. He may have experience running big businesses and corporates, but running a country is a bigger test due to a higher complexity, more dynamism and ever evolving multiple interests.
One thing that is clear so far is that those in opposition and those that aspire to lead our beloved country Zambia need to ensure that they watch what they post and share on their personal social media pages, ensure that personal pages posts are vetted before being shared where the page is delegated to media staff.
It would be a lie or tantamount to taking an Ostrich approach to not truthfully state that the HH campaign promises will haunt his presidency if not handled carefully. The promises and consequent indications that they will not be implemented which are being replayed daily are a mounting political baggage that needs expert hands to help navigate.
Some have said it’s too early to point out these holes, but any genuine person who is on social media or living in Zambia today will tell you that the drift and perception is that HH is backtracking on his major promises.
The other day, we saw police officers force workers at Chambishi on the Copperbelt back to work when the demonstrations were largely violence free and peaceful. Tomorrow, it will be another thing which is known that would have been condemned by HH had he been in opposition. The double standards are what leads to loss of political capital.
One thing which is clear is that it’s easy to point out wrongs than to implement solutions. Dear ZBT reader, What is your take on this matter?