ACKSON Sejani says arrogance, blackmail, intimidation, corruption, deceit and lies were all on display when the PF government was pushing for the passage of Bill 10.
Sejani, a local government minister in the Frederick Chiluba government, said those who saw justice minister Given Lubinda in Parliament last Thursday can conclude that his time in politics is up.
He has since advised Lubinda, who is Kabwata PF member of parliament, to seriously consider switching to the pulpit and be: “a Christian for somebody.”
Minutes before Speaker of the National Assembly Patrick Matibini confirmed the ‘falling away’ of Bill 10 in Parliament on Thursday, Lubinda gave a moving tribute, akin to a sermon.
The contentious Bill 10 garnered 105 votes, instead of the 111 needed for it to pass the second reading stage.
Sejani told The Mast that when a leader fails to push such a high stakes bill like Bill 10 through Parliament, the next logical and decent move is to resign.
He said such was done because the leadership credentials of such a person became severely damaged in the eyes of right thinking followers.
“The conclusion would be that such a leader’s judgment has become impaired and, therefore, his leadership can no longer inspire anybody. That is the principle behind such resignations,” Sejani said. “It is also less than clever for a government to call for a vote on such a high stakes bill without first ensuring that it has the numbers to push it through. This is so because the consequences of failure are damaging to the government.”
He explained that it was true that governments lose votes on motions and bills but that there were certain types of bills on which it was “taboo” to lose.
“Bill 10 is in the category of those that a government must not lose, especially when the whole life of such a government seems to depend on it,” Sejani said. “National discourse has been dominated by Bill 10 for over a year now with the government emptying the national Treasury in pursuit of this ill-fated adventure.”
He added that Bill 10 brought up the bad and the ugly in Zambia’s political leaders.
“Arrogance, blackmail, intimidation, corruption, deceit and lies were all on display when this government was pushing for the passage of this bill. Somebody must rush any dictionary to Mr Lungu and Mr Lubinda so that these two gentlemen can check up the word ‘consensus’,” Sejani said. “I am sure if they had checked this word up and went with it, they would today be celebrating the passage of Bill 10. They are mourning today because they ignored this word. Arrogance and selfishness ruled them.”
Sejani recalled that at one time, President Lungu boasted that Bill 10 would pass “whether somebody liked it or not” while Lubinda suggested that the PF did not need the opposition to rule.
“Well, the price for arrogance has today been paid because if Mr Lubinda was decent and humble enough to see the value of consensus, he would not be mourning his loss of Bill 10,” Sejani said. “Those who saw him perform on the floor of the House concluded that his time in politics is up and should seriously consider switching to the pulpit. Even there it should not be in the mainstream churches because there is too much decency there. That leaves him with one choice only, joining ‘Christians for somebody’.”
He said Lubinda’s “cracking voice as he was winding up debate on Bill 10 suggested that he took this matter personally and this, therefore, was a personal loss. That is not the way to handle national matters.”
He noted that it was such personalisation of national matters which led to catastrophic failures like the one Zambians witnessed on Thursday.
Sejani pointed out that had President Lungu and Lubinda pursued the path of consensus, “they would not have walked away from the Church-led national dialogue and reconciliation efforts to set up the ill-fated National Dialogue Forum which gave birth to the poisonous Bill 10.”
“But they felt powerful to the point of even insulting the Church mother bodies. There are lessons to be learned from such episodes to those that are wise,” he said. “Mr Lungu and Mr Lubinda are two arrogant leaders who have planted this arrogance in other institutions like the Electoral Commission of Zambia who are now pursuing the path of unilateralism in managing national elections. ECZ will be a subject for another day; today it is Bill 10.”
Sejani called for the immediate resignation of both President Lungu and Lubinda, “for their scandalous mishandling of the constitution-making process in Zambia.”
“These are the two main culprits because the others like Tutwa Ngulube, Andrew Ntewewe and Brian Mundubile were just a nuisance. In resigning, I would further demand that they refund all our money they spent on this useless exercise. We will not allow another robbery of our meagre resources as [it] happened before,” he said.
Meanwhile, Sejani thanked the “gallant” members of parliament who “resisted the 30 pieces of silver” to betray their motherland.
“Theirs was a historic achievement. Similar appreciation goes to all progressive forces that stood firm in opposition of this bill, the genuine churches, civil society, genuine opposition parties and many others,” said Sejani. “Collectively, we have rescued mother Zambia from the jaws of a crocodile. Although, proverbially, a cat is thought to have nine lives, I don’t think Bill 10 is a cat. This must be the end of it in earnest.”
From the time Bill 10 was conceived, there was a stern ‘tug-of-war’ between opposing and amenable voices.
Due to numerous deferments – some natural and others needless – the emotive bill was only tabled and debated, at second reading stage, on Thursday, where it needed a two-thirds majority vote to pass to the third reading.
UPND members of parliament, except for Solwezi West’s Teddy Kasonso, Mukumbuta Mulowa of Senanga and Professor Geoffrey Lungwangwa of Nalikwanda, NDC’s Joseph Chishala and some independents walked out and that meant Bill 10 was killed by a numerical explanation.
To those who were members of parliament between 2006 and 2011 and were actually in the Chamber on Wednesday March 9, 2011, the Bill 10 downer was merely a déjà vu.
The National Constitution Conference (NCC) draft constitution, spearheaded by the MMD, failed to marshal two-thirds majority in Parliament on that date.
A majority PF members of parliament and some of their counterparts from the UPND did not vote for the NCC draft constitution.
Here is a simple timeline to the Bill 10 journey.
In March last year, it emerged that the government was in the process of establishing a bloated NDF whose objective, inter alia, would be to provide for a national dialogue process to facilitate the constitution refinement process and regulation of political parties, public order and electoral process reforms.
It established that Forum and it was headed by a chairperson, Professor Muyunda Mwanalushi, appointed by President Lungu.
The other objectives of the national dialogue (Constitution, electoral process, public order and political parties) Bill 10 2019, whose signatory was Attorney General Likando Kalaluka, was to establish the NDF and provide for its functions.
Bill 10 facilitated the implementation of the Siavonga Resolutions of political parties relating to the constitutional and institutional reforms, separation of powers and judicial independence, tolerance, freedom of assembly and civility in politics and electoral reforms.
It provided also matters connected with, or incidental to, the foregoing.
On April 24, 2019, the NDF opened at the Mulungushi International Conference Centre in Lusaka.
It closed on May 16, 2019.
Opening the Forum on April 25, 2019, President Lungu, who begun by congratulating all delegates for their appointment to represent other Zambians in the Forum, reminded them the importance of the gathering.
The President, as a matter of fact, received an ovation when he told delegates to the Forum that “the Church is bigger than the three Church mother bodies.”
“This is a big responsibility which we should all undertake diligently for the good of the citizens in the country,” said President Lungu. “This Forum is a quality assurance validation forum and, therefore, we do not expect new submissions. Rather, we are expected to provide inputs or clarifications on earlier submissions which were made. This is in order to refine our Constitution and governance-related legislation such as the public order Act, electoral process Act and the political parties’ bill.”