ACKSON Sejani says President Edgar Lungu can be and can even claim to be anything but never a democrat.
Sejani served as local government minister in Frederick Chiluba’s MMD administration.
He told The Mast that in the PF today, one can do anything to President Lungu, and get away with it.
“You can steal as much as you want and you will not hear a word from Mr Lungu. However, the moment you show even the faintest desire to contest the PF presidency against Mr Lungu, you will just feel a tonne of bricks dropping on you,” Sejani said, adding that such is what happened to Chishimba Kambwili and Kelvin Fube Bwalya (KBF).
Sejani described President Lungu as: “a pure dictator who rules by decrees and is not afraid of disregarding the law, if that law is an obstacle to his enjoyment of power.”
He noted that the “hypocritical Lungu” is now unleashing his new set of friends to fight sitting PF members of parliament in their constituencies.
“He (President Lungu) says people must not be afraid of competition in a democracy. This is a good statement on its own because nobody should indeed be afraid of competition in a democracy. However, I have serious issues with the person making this pronouncement because he does not believe in it,” Sejani said. “Mr Lungu can be anything and can claim to be anything but he can never be a democrat or believe in democracy. His actions on this speak louder than his words.”
Sejani wondered who the President is trying to fool by claiming that he is not afraid of political competition.
He further asked: “how has he himself behaved towards competition both within his party and outside of his party?”
Sejani noted that the best people to answer that question were people like KBF and Kambwili.
“These people and others were expelled or ostracised for merely showing interest to contest the PF presidency. In PF today you can do anything to Mr Lungu; you can steal as much as you want and you will not hear a word from Mr Lungu,” Sejani said. “[But] aspiring for PF presidency is an unpardonable sin in the eyes of this dictator. The example he gives of himself not fearing competition from the likes of Harry Kalaba, Felix Mutati and others is a wrong example. Firstly, this competition is not within PF but outside.”
He advised President Lungu to instead be saying: “‘look at me; I am allowing KBF to contest the PF presidency and so you also allow your internal competitors in your constituencies.’”
Sejani stressed that President Lungu does not even allow competition from other parties, “genuine opposition parties.”
“Look at what he is doing now to ensure that he remains in power! Mr Lungu is fighting on multiple fronts to secure his stay in power. He has unleashed mayhem in the NRC and voter registration exercises to advantage himself,” Sejani explained. “As if this is not enough, he is proceeding with schemes aimed at eliminating his opponents from the ballot box in next year’s elections. Fictitious cases will be manufactured against his opponents and orchestrate their convictions.”
He said while Lungu was who he is, “PF MPs are dying for and spending sleepless nights thinking about how they will help him secure a third term, through Bill 10.”
“We do not know what will make these sleepy PF MPs to wake up and smell the coffee,” Sejani said.
“I do not need to be a prophet to predict that more than three quarters of these MPs will be crying come May next year when Mr Lungu will have put his newly acquired friends in their constituencies. Unfortunately, at that time, nobody will be listening to their cries.”
He further pointed out that in unleashing his new friends, “Mr Lungu has also undermined his hapless secretary general [Davies Mwila].”
“‘No more circulars’, bellowed the dictator! ‘What I have decreed is the law and its final because I am the Alpha and Omega in this party and by extension therefore I am also the Alpha and Omega in this country called Zambia.’ Let Mr Lungu talk about his democratic credentials to people who live on planet Mars and not this earth,” said Sejani.