Makebi Preaching the Lungu Gospel in Fractured PF

🇿🇲 ELECTIONEERING | Makebi Preaching the Lungu Gospel in Fractured PF

Makebi Zulu has a new mobilisation approach. With the PF convention suspended, internal factions paralysed, and Edgar Lungu’s religious fanatics political base drifting in silence, Zulu has stepped into the vacuum with a preacher’s rhythm and a politician’s precision. His latest message is simple. Finish the National House of Prayer. Restore the spiritual legacy of Edgar Lungu. Reawaken the “Christians for Lungu” base that once believed Lungu was anointed.

Over the weekend, Zulu stood before congregants at St John UCZ in Kabwe and repeated a promise that mirrors Lungu’s own rhetoric. “There is power in unity of purpose,” he said. “We must stand together, work together, and pray together for the prosperity of our nation.”

The language was not accidental. It was deliberate political signalling aimed at a Christian constituency that still views Lungu as a chosen vessel.

The House of Prayer has become his chosen campaign altar. He called it a national symbol, a unifying sanctuary, and a place where citizens will gather to seek God’s guidance. In PF circles this is more than an infrastructure project. It is a reminder of the Lungu era, when State House operated through scripture, prayer breakfasts and religious networks.

Makebi knows that among PF’s old spiritual warriors, the House of Prayer carries emotional power.

At the centre of this revival is a familiar figure. Former Minister of National Guidance and Religious Affairs Godfridah Sumaili remains close to the elders who surround Makebi. Her influence inside Christian networks is quiet but deep.

Madam Sumaili built the language that framed Zambia as a moral battlefield during the Lungu years. Her presence around Makebi signals that the old religious machinery is preparing for activation once more.

Inside PF, Makebi’s religious mobilisation is being read through two lenses. His supporters see boldness. A candidate who is not waiting for a convention, who is willing to rebuild the party’s lost spiritual identity and who is speaking to a base that feels ignored.

His critics see calculation. A candidate stitching together Lungu’s old constituencies for personal gain while avoiding the hard reality that PF remains leaderless and divided.

But the most important audience is the one outside PF structures. The Pentecostal Clergy groups that once defended Lungu with prophetic zeal. Many of them have retreated from political commentary, embarrassed by the past or unsure about 2026. Makebi is now calling them back into the arena.

His message is crafted to revive the idea that PF still carries a divine mandate. In his framing, finishing the House of Prayer is not construction. It is restoration.

This strategy is also a political test. If he can re-energise the Christians for Lungu base while the party’s political wings remain paralysed, he strengthens his claim to be the natural heir to Lungu’s constituency. If the base refuses to answer, he exposes the limits of religious mobilisation in the post-Lungu era.

For now, Makebi is building momentum through churches, media appearances and local gatherings. He speaks with the posture of a saviour, not a candidate. He promises unity in a party that is not united. He promises peace in a political landscape that is unsettled. He promises moral clarity in a movement that is struggling to define its future.

This is political theatre rooted in scripture. It may work. It may collapse. But it is the clearest signal yet that Makebi Zulu is not waiting for PF structures to endorse him.

He is building a spiritual constituency around himself while others argue about procedures.

Whether that constituency translates into convention votes or national appeal remains the question that will define the PF race.

© The People’s Brief | Francine Lilu