Intrigues of the PF presidency

By Alfred Chioza

It was predictable that the PF presidential race would knock off many confident hopefuls.

The formidable and confident Chishimba Kambwili and sneaky, flamboyant former ambassador Emanuel Mwamba were handed their early deserved defeat and exit. The question on many Zambians’ minds is: didn’t they (Mwamba and Kambili) know this technicality? Didn’t they know how subjective PF can be, when it suits them? These seemingly smart and indestructible politicians didn’t have any hints or intel? Most interesting is that their friends had already scripted the eulogies of CK and Emanuel! The beauty of this; killing two birds with one stone and same tribal birds! What the evil politicians do to others comes back to haunt them within the shortest period of time. It’s a good technical knockout worth watching again and again. It goes to show that there are intrigues in the selection of PF a president. Old habits die hard!

History repeats itself, given what had happened when PF outfoxed then acting president Guy Scott. One of the architects who hounded out Dr Scott from participating in the selection of the PF presidential candidate in 2014 after Michael Sata’s death was Kambwili. The proverbial saying is explicit, “Tasting own medicine.” Guy Scott must be laughing the loudest at the turn of events and he has good reason to do so.

The PF presidential contention is dangerously narrowing down to the extent that the party may end up with no formidable and credible candidate. We can all guess what this will finally mean: doom of course! For, PF to rebound back to power will be impossible! The PF pundits may throw in many contenders from one tribe or region on the premise that whoever wins will still be their own after all! This permutation may not still go well with the members from the other tribes and regions. They will cleverly devise a rebuttal like they did in last year’s elections and still beat PF hands down!

The importance of having a smart, formidable party president can’t be overemphasised. He or she becomes the positive face of the party and it means half the battle is won. One who can articulate the party’s vision and aspirations.

To the contrary, having a dim-wit party president means the party will have already lost before going into an election. Mind you, we have a lot of such party presidents who are totally lost and are nervously groping in the dark. They take pleasure in being called Mr president and it ends there! Such noisy characters are the ones who, more often than not, want to be rented by other dominant parties. My free advice to PF, take it or leave it, try to pick a candidate from the other regions other than Eastern or Northern. If you ignore this, pick a candidate from the power-hungry region; a candidate who could immediately, seriously and honestly denounce divisive tribalism. Not one who would repeat what Kambwili did. He is not honest and keeps shifting positions for convenience. You will recall that he had gone to Southern Province to tender an apology to one of the traditional leaders for the stance he had on tribalism against Tongas. He even gifted the chief with a big plasma TV to demonstrate his remorse! Before the ink dried on the paper the apology was written, he returned and conveniently forgot the apology and started field days insulting Tongas. He did the same to PF and ECL. He denounced the party and ECL as corrupt, rotten and vowed never to rejoin PF. Before the sunset, he was cozying up with PF! This shocked many Zambians who had trusted and saw him as a formidable politician who would challenge or replace ECL.

PF was smarter than all the loud mouths who had called PF and ECL names. Somehow these street smarts posing as politicians were blackmailed and lured back into PF. It was now easier to deal with them. None of them can salvage their political fortunes. Don’t mess with PF when it comes to intra-party elections.

Send comment to: alfredchioza@yahoo.com.

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here