By Martin Mushumba
Mr. Bowman Lusambo, the Kabushi Member of Parliament is free to decide and do what he feels is right for him and his family. He is free to apologize to the anyone he feels he offended in his dealings including the Head of State, President Hakainde Hichilema.
It’s now on record that Mr. Lusambo has apologized to President Hichilema for the insults he has been unleasing on him both as an individual and Head of State. That’s his personal decision, we must respect it. He pledges a fresh start and a new approach to his politics as he make a clarion call on all Zambians to support President Hichilema across the two terms of office; that’s his personal decision and again we must respect his decision.
He has not apologized to the Zambian people. He has apologized to President Hichilema! To the Zambian people, he still remains answerable for the allegations before the Courts. He is being dragged to court by the Zambian people and not President Hichilema. It’s the Zambians that want him to answer to the allegations of corruption and possession of property reasonably suspected to be proceeds of crime.
Mr. Lusambo’s apology has nothing to do with the Zambian people or the United Party for National Development (UPND) supporters. His apology has nothing with UPND supporters accepting it or not. Neither does it have anything to do with Zambians accepting it or not.
Therefore, Mr. Lusambo’s intentions whether genuine or not have nothing to do with the UPND. His move whether political or not, has nothing to do with UPND and it’s supporters. Mr. Lusambo has pledged to change his way of doing politics, that’s his personal decision and again it has nothing to do with the UPND or the Zambian people.
Actually, we the Zambians can only appreciate the fact that he has come to terms that President Hichilema is now the Republican President voted for by the Zambian people themselves through a democratic and unchallenged election. We can only appreciate that Mr. Lusambo now joins the many reasonable Zambians that respect our Republican President and are working with him to deliver development to this nation.
Whilst it took Mr. Lusambo this long to accept that his Patriotic Front party was rejected by the Zambians, we are happy that he is recovering from the trauma and psychological effects of an election loss. This surely saves the state lots of public resources that could otherwise have been spent on treating him at Chainama Mental Health Hospital. We are happy that his mental problem that caused him to hallucinate day and night has been healed. Indeed we all pray for a healthy Zambia, and every citizen matters including Mr. Lusambo!
Once again, it’s good to note here that Mr. Lusambo’s apology impacts nothing on his court cases. Absolutely nothing! This is because over the last nine months, President Hichilema and the UPND government have demonstrated their respect for the rule of law. They have divorced themselves from interfering with the judiciary in order for justice to be served fairly to everyone regardless of their status in society. Therefore, the Courts have nothing to do with this apology between Mr. Lusambo and President Hichilema, especially that the crimes Mr. Lusambo stands charged with are against the People of Zambia (The State) and not President Hichilema.
With these revelations from Mr. Lusambo, we the Zambians have now clearly seen that President Hichilema’s corruption crusade is not malicious and neither is it targeted on his political opponents. We now see clearly that instead his political opponents are the ones maliciously fighting him and his government to make this country ungovernable.
Therefore, we urge others behaving in the manner Mr. Lusambo did such as Mr. Raphael Nakachinda, Mr. Nickson Chilangwa, Mr. Given Lubinda, Mr. Emmanuel Mwamba, Mr. Sean Tembo, Mr. Chilufya Tayali, Mr. Antonio Mwanza, Dr. Fred Mmembe and Ms. Saboi Imboela to reflect deeply on what Mr. Lusambo has done and allow the UPND government space to work for the Zambians during this five years mandate given to them by the Zambians. Whilst some people could take this as a political script, it is important to note that even strong political figures like Mr. Michael C. Sata (MHSRIEP) did apologize to Levy P. Mwanawasa (MHSRIEP) after realizing that his politics of malice and slander was achieving nothing but only frustrating national development. Afterall, we only have one Zambia and one political party that forms government at any given time.