It’s Not a Crime, It’s Illusional: Liswaniso’s Daydream Of Eternal UPND Rule

It’s Not a Crime, It’s Illusional:Liswaniso’s Daydream Of Eternal UPND Rule

By Dr Mwelwa

When I listened to Gilbert Liswaniso’s words, I could not help but shake my head. He declared with confidence that for the UPND to lose power in 2026 would be a “criminal offense.” What daydream is this? Since when did losing power at the ballot become a crime? I am 61 years old and I have never seen anyone jailed for dreaming, not even for stealing in a dream. Dreams remain dreams, and in politics, illusions are not laws.

The ballot box is not a courtroom; it is the voice of the people. And when the people rise to say “enough,” no propaganda, no police, no youth chair, no rhetoric can jail their decision. Kaunda thought UNIP would last forever — the people ended it in 1991. Chiluba thought MMD was invincible, promising 100 years — it collapsed in 20. Edgar Lungu convinced himself that his “popularity” was unshakable — the ballot swept him away. Was it a crime? No. It was democracy in action.

Liswaniso’s statement is not just a slip of the tongue; it reflects the arrogance that blinds leaders and their praise-singers. They begin to confuse themselves with destiny, thinking Zambia cannot exist without them. They call truth treason, dissent a crime, and losing power a sin. Yet history has one stubborn witness: all who ignored the cries of the people were humbled.

Today farmers sit on unsold maize, students in private colleges live like beggars, bus drivers sleep in agony under impossible targets, civil servants drown in debt, miners choke on pollution while profits leave the country. Yet, instead of addressing these realities, the youth leadership is busy criminalizing a potential loss of power. Is this politics or comedy?

A government that mocks suffering, that silences truth, that surrounds itself with daydreams of eternal rule, prepares its own grave. The Bible is clear: “Pride goes before destruction, a haughty spirit before a fall” (Proverbs 16:18). Pharaoh had his illusions, Goliath had his, Ahab too — all fell when truth confronted them.

UPND will not fall because it is a crime. It will fall, if it does, because it refused to listen, because it turned the cries of Zambians into background noise, because it mistook propaganda for food and graphs for jobs.

Gilbert, it is not a crime to lose power. It is not even a crime to dream. Dream on, but remember: when the people wake up, they turn dreams into nightmares for those who mocked them.