By Sara Imutowana Yeta II
The Zambian Constitution clearly hammers home that a person who has twice held the office of the president cannot contest for the same office again.
We know that Lungu held office from 2015 to 2016 and held office from 2016 to date.
For this reason, Lungu cannot hold the same office again. It is done!
It is therefore important to advise Lungu to take time to sit back and reflect on his temptation to vie for the presidency again.
He should not fool himself to think he is eligible to stand for elections in 2021.
If he cannot spare a moment for self-reflection on what the Constitution says about twice holding office, then he does not have balls to face his real self and this is likely to bring serious problems to himself.
Lungu should not be fooled by his selfish whims and external voices from cadres to desecrate the Constitution by going for the third term.
Wisdom holds that most mature human insights come from an individual’s introspection rather than from outside investigation.
I therefore, in the spirit of the Zambian Constitution appeal to Lungu to understand that going for the third term will undermine the major constitutional innovations that accompanied the transition from the authoritarian rule to more competitive and pluralistic mode of governance in 1991 through the adoption of presidential term limit.
On a serious note, Lungu must reflect upon his third term bid and reflect on the ramifications of his bid for the rule of law, democracy, and the nature of politics in general.
It is extremely important for him to take a moment out of his busy political life to clarify his Constitutional values, if he has any, to avoid defiling the Constitution through his third term bid to benefit himself and his cronies.
He really needs time for introspection to scrutinise his internal feelings by going inward, to help him to come to terms with the fact that he has twice held office and should peacefully check out of the presidency.
As a lawyer, he should not have problems to take time for introspection to rebuild his lost relation with himself and the Constitution.
It is only through self-assessment that can give him a real picture of how he should conduct himself in relation to what the supreme law of the land says about twice holding office.
His associates should tell him the hard fact that he is not eligible to hold the same office again.
Let him not cause unnecessary problems that may destabilise the country.
It is not too late for him to search his soul and renounce his evil third term bid.
Power is like liquor, it blurs thoughts and judgements making it easy to make monkey decisions that may set the country on a dangerous course.
Taking time to reflect on his life will help him to avoid crappy stuff that is currently consuming his mind-space misleading him to go for the third term.
But then again advising Lungu to reflect is like expecting a rabid dog to take orders because he is a well-known constitutional delinquent who swindled a client, elected party president by raising fists, refused to hand over power during the presidential petition, told his ministers not pay back the money earned after dissolution of parliament, appointed unqualified judges, sworn in by a high court registrar, and the list of his unconstitutional conduct goes on.
Failure to have time for introspection to check out what is hampering his ability to think with clarity and conviction in light of the Constitution will land Lungu in trouble.
Let him do the right thing by getting rid of the unconstitutional third term distractions and bring the focus of his presidency back where it belongs.
He should not look very far to deal with the third term nonsense but right within himself.
It is an observable fact that when people take time out to reflect, they give themselves chance to push a refresh button and purify their evil thought process.
To weed out the third term nonsense, Lungu should sit quietly with himself, talk to himself in a moment of solace purely directed to his own-self.
This is the only way he will align his evil thought process with the Constitution.
I hope Lungu will take time to take the only truthful journey within himself to avoid being his own enemy and enemy of the people by defiling the constitution through his third term bid.