ACKSON Sejani says Zambians are now faced with a daunting dual struggle of rejecting Edgar Lungu’s third term overtures and tossing out, in entirety, PF ubupuba (foolishness).
Sejani is a former local government minister and an ex-member of parliament for Mapatizya Constituency in Zimba district, Southern Province.
He also cautions that the defeat of Bill 10 means the beginning of the real fight against the machinations of the conceivers and promoters of the “deceased” bill.
Sejani told The Mast that time has come, once again, for broad-minded Zambians to mobilise themselves to reject President Lungu’s third term, “as well as to reject the Patriotic Front as a whole.”
“As we mobilise to boot out PF in next year’s elections, we must watch out for the activities of those paid surrogates who have been wounded by the failure of their Bill 10 project,” he said. “In there are some crippled personalities who thrive on malice, misinformation and violence as they bootlick and worship the current PF regime.”
Sejani noted that from now onwards, Zambians were faced with the challenge of choosing a new government to take over from the PF.
“The Patriotic Front has amply demonstrated that it suffers from power hungry leprosy and it is more than ready to maim anybody standing in its way,” he charged. “So, while we are still able and while we still have the energy to change, let’s do it. Otherwise if we don’t do it now, time will come when it will not be possible to change because we will then be too divided and too weak to do so.”
Sejani warns that any delay to curtail the PF’s machinations would result into entrenchment of the same.
“This then is our dual struggle; stop Mr Lungu’s third term and remove PF from power with whoever they will install from their crooked production line,” he said.
Sejani pointed out that Zambians just ushered a period of victory: “amidst a fruitful fight against Bill 10 and the nation is celebrating its achievement.
He congratulated heroic members of parliament who achieved that feat.
“We also congratulate the valiant Zambians who, in their diversity, helped in whipping up public opinion against this poisonous bill. This collective fight reached its logical conclusion by putting Bill 10 where it belongs, into oblivion,” Sejani noted.
“Bill 10 is now history to be used as a point of reference only. The pressing question now is where do we go from here? This question must be asked because the defeat of Bill 10 means the beginning of the real fight against the machinations of the conceivers and promoters of the deceased bill.”
Sejani underscored that now was not the time to engage in prolonged celebrations on the fall of Bill 10 and drop the guard because: “if we did so, our achievements thus far will count for nothing.”
“Already some brazen and insidious manoeuvres are afoot to break our Constitution by a man who does not qualify to stand for presidency again,” he said. “Mr Lungu does not qualify to stand as President of Zambia under our Constitution and that was the reason for coming up with Bill 10. He was trying to circumvent the clear clauses that stop him from doing so in the Constitution.”
Sejani stressed that the failure of ‘President Lungu’s Bill 10’ to marshal two thirds in Parliament meant those clauses still remain.
“He is ineligible to stand! Article 106 (3) of the Constitution which he signed blind-folded in 2016 provides that ‘a person who has twice held office as president is not eligible for election as president.’ The English in this clause cannot be clearer or simpler,” he explained. “Elsewhere, among the documents a presidential aspirant must fill in, is an affidavit which demands that a candidate must swear that, inter alia, he or she has not TWICE been elected as president.”
Sejani further explained that Lungu first got elected as President in January 2015 and that he was again re-elected in August 2016, “making it twice.”
“We are waiting to see how he will take this oath and if the oath will be amended, we shall also see. It must also be borne in mind that when a person is filing in nomination as president, they do so as ordinary citizens and not as Republican President,” he said. “This distinction is useful because an ordinary citizen does not wear immunity that shields them from prosecution. So, at the time of filing his papers, Mr Edgar Chagwa Lungu will be an ordinary citizen and not President Lungu. Stand by, lawyers and prosecutors, because the law is about to be broken by an ordinary person.”
Sejani rallied Zambians to remember that President Lungu’s third term attempt at the presidency is a ‘fight” before them.
“It is a legal fight and our lawyers will fight to ensure that the sanctity of our Constitution is not violated willy-nilly by individuals whose disdain of law and order borders on subversion,” he noted. “We have tolerated this nonsense for far too long where our supreme law is being disregarded and broken at will. Although our lawyers will try to do their job and petition those who don’t qualify to stand, it is possible in today’s Zambia that our courts will rule that such an illegal nomination can only be subjected to an election petition.”
He believes such is very possible since: “our courts have already been warned to behave when handling cases involving Mr Lungu.”
“A petition after an election, especially if Mr Lungu wins, therefore becomes a mere academic exercise only,” Sejani said. “This scenario makes it imperative to engage in a dual struggle. While our legal brains will be slugging it out in our unpredictable courts, the rest of us must pick up the political fight.”
He also indicated that in that political fight, Zambians are not only fighting President Lungu’s third term.
“But we must also be fighting his toxic anachronism called the Patriotic Front. This party wants to drag us backwards to the days of the one party state,” Sejani noted. “As we stop Lungu’s third term, we must make it clear that we are done with PF even if they, again, wake up judges in the middle of the night to give us another national headache. We are done with this PF ubupuba (foolishness).”
He is optimistic that Zambians would triumph over President Lungu’s third term intention.
“We can do it and we shall do it. Zambians have always done it when they want to. We did it against the one party state and we did it against Chiluba’s third term,” recalled Sejani. “There is no reason why we cannot do it against Mr Lungu’s third term because, after all, today it is much easier to mobilise this resistance given the advancement in technology.”