By Wiseman Tembo.
Political | Analysis: HH’s Pride And Arrogance, His Political Flaws.
…. otherwise he would have been Republican President by now.
The late Anderson Kambela Mazoka built the UPND from scratch and within three years, he had built up a formidable infrastructure that almost defeated the MMD in 2001. However, Hakainde Hichilema has been using the infrastructure Mazoka left behind to bargain for political power thereby exposing his lust for power.
Since taking over the UPND (by default), HH has always been looking for who to use to get to State House. He found himself on a silver plate of the United Democratic Alliance (UDA) already was already in place consisting of the UPND, FDD and UNIP, ready to challenge Mwanawasa and the MMD in the 2006 general elections. Despite being a novice in Politics, HH bullied his way to being the Alliance’s presidential candidate insulting, in the process, the FDD leader, Edith Nawakwi, that she belonged to the kitchen thus she wasn’t fit to be the Alliance’s presidential candidate. Mr. Hichilema contested the 2006 general elections and came out third getting 25% of the vote and the UDA got 26 seats in the National Assembly. The Alliance, understandably, disbanded in 2008.
On 4th June 2009, the PF and the UPND announced the formation of an electoral pact called PF-UPND Pact. Sata and HH were hailed by their supporters as patriots that had cast aside their selfish and parochial interests to foster unity in the opposition to help defeat President Rupiah Banda and his MMD.
The formation of the Pact was clouded in secrecy and the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed provided bare information. However, a secret agreement existed, that provided that although a presidential candidate would not be announced till 2011, PF leader Michael Sata would stand while Hakainde Hichilema was designated as Vice-President. Further, the secret agreement stated that Sata would only rule for one presidential term while Hichilema would take over the reins in 2016. Hence began the troubles of the Pact.
As a way of proving their imaginary political superiority over Sata and the PF, HH and the UPND began to predict that since President Mwanawasa was a “Bantu-Botatwe” and was no longer on the scene, they could recapture the strongholds the party lost to the MMD after the 2006 Elections and previously held after the 2001 Elections.
While Hichilema was in the USA in May of 2010, he called for a press conference prior to his arrival. Upon his arrival, Hichilema declared that he was the most suitable presidential candidate for the pact because of his young age claiming that this was the world trend Zambia had to follow. He claimed that what had happened during that period in the USA, Russia, Tanzania and the United Kingdom where young candidates in Barack Obama, Dmitry Medvedev, Jakaya Kikwete and David Cameron beat older candidates gave him hope to lead the Pact.
During the same press briefing, HH threw shade on the PF and Sata by claiming that PF had lost significance ground in their strongholds in Luapula, Northern and Copperbelt Provinces following former president Frederick Chiluba’s public support rendering to President Rupiah Banda and the MMD, and this brought immediate concerns from the PF and Sata. This was followed by attempts by the UPND to justify and underplay Hichilema’s mild statement. But Sata and the PF could not be fooled because HH’s greediness had already been exposed. Rumours of the Pact splitting started gaining momentum.
On March 11th 2011, the UPND officially announced that it had broken away from the electoral pact with the PF. They accused PF President Michael Sata of being disrespectful towards the UPND. Announcing the party’s decision to break away from the Pact during a press briefing, UPND Vice President, then, Mr. Richard Kapita, expressed confidence that the UPND were going to emerge victorious in the September 20 elections.
7 months later, the general elections were held and Sata and PF won the presidential elections, defeating incumbent Rupiah Banda of the MMD. PF got 42.85% of the total votes cast while UPND which came out third got only 18.54%. The PF emerged as the largest party in the National Assembly, winning 60 of the 148 seats.
The lesson to learn from HH’s political flaws and lust for power is that patience, humbleness and humility pays. Had HH humbled himself and let the great Micheal Sata to lead the PF-UPND electoral pact, he would have been Republican President today. His pride cost him the Vice Presidency and much worse the Presidency. As the word of scripture puts it, “pride comes before a fall”.
About The Author: Mr. Wiseman Tembo is a social and economic issues analyst.
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