Nevers Mumba says if the MMD’s discussion, for a possible alliance with the PF, takes a route that incorporates the plight for most Zambians then he is game for it.
“If the National Executive Committee decides that we go with the Patriotic Front or any other political party, that becomes our preference. But as I speak right now, we are going to make sure we debate it [and] look at how that decision will benefit the Zambian people, to come out of the challenges that we are facing as a nation,” says Nevers. “These are the issues that are going to be under discussion during our convention. I’m sure it will be a worthwhile venture for us and I think we’ll come out with the right decision and we are going to make the nation aware of the decision that we are going to make…. We have not met as a party to discuss the alliance with the Patriotic Front. That’s why it’s difficult for me to act like the champion of the Movement for Multiparty Democracy. But the moment we sit down and talk about it, we’ll let the nation know…. But yes, there have been some proposals that have come to us about the Patriotic Front and we have told our colleagues that that can only come on the table of the National Executive Committee and the convention, and not Nevers Mumba alone…. We can’t escape the discussion on alliances. It’s on everyone’s mouth; it’s in the UPND, NDC, ADD, Patriotic Front. I don’t know why people think it should not be in the Movement for Multiparty Democracy. I would do nothing as Nevers Mumba to selfishly serve my interests. I will never do it! I have had a lot of opportunities to get that done but I’m on the side of the Zambian people. I’m on the side of the tears of the suffering Zambian people. I’m on the side of the families that are broken down because they can’t pay their bills and put food on the table. So, if our discussion with our colleagues takes these issues into consideration, then I’m game. But at the moment we are going to the convention to choose a president who is also a presidential candidate. We are not afraid to go into an alliance with the Patriotic Front, as long as we line up the things that I have talked about. I’m very comfortable with the processes of the Movement for Multiparty Democracy to reach a decision as important as that of an alliance. What we’ll not do is to be like a bush party that does not have a system in which it can arrive at such an important decision.”
It is said when a man lifts you up, it’s definitely to the height of his hands! And the PF government has run its race and ‘lifted’ Zambia to its heights – socio-economic ruins! The chaos, economic doldrums, political violence and regionalism sums up the PF’s resume! Is this a party that Nevers’ MMD can even spend time on to discuss a possibility of an electoral alliance? Has it now come to the basics of – it doesn’t matter what colour the cat is as long as it catches mice? Clearly, there is nothing for Zambians in the PF basket that Nevers’ MMD can discuss with the ruling party.
We hope Nevers’ comments are just political talk to hype the MMD’s profile at a defining moment in the electoral calendar.
Or is it history repeating itself?
We say so because this would not be the first time Nevers has dissolved his party into the ruling group. He did it in 2002 when he accepted to become Republican vice-president. Levy Mwanawasa’s MMD then swallowed Nevers’ National Christian Coalition.
But we also recall that Nevers has rightly criticised rampant corruption in the current PF government. He has condemned electoral corruption, governance corruption, financial corruption, and so on and so forth. What has changed today for him to even think of entertaining an alliance with the current PF?
Besides, he was very categorical early this year that he will not back any candidate; that the MMD will participate as a single entity. Has he gauged his party’s fortunes and discovered that, unlike his Malawian colleague Lazarus Chakwera who led the former ruling party back to power, his cannot rise from its political limbo as a former ruling party? We may have so many questions to ask, but for now we leave it here. Time alone will tell!