PF SECRETARIATE IS DEAD
The Candidates’ Comment
We have seen calls by Pf member Chanoda Frackson Ngwira for Nickson Chilangwa to be replaced as Secretary General. While we differ with Chanoda on who should be their party President, we agree with him on the position of the Secretary General. We actually think there is no need for pf to rush into these petty presidential contests, more than there is need for them to sort out their dysfunctional secretariat. If either of those elements who want to be President is elected, what will they be Presidenting when the party is total in disarray?
One of the biggest challenges for any party that lost power is to keep its structures intact. It is those structures across the country which are integral in the magic to winning an election. That is why, while we have many good and very well-known leaders like Dr Fred M’membe, his performance in the August 2021 was so poor. Those zeros which Fred was getting are not a result of any of his personal weakness and lack of sufficient publicity to the voters. Those Zeros reflects the weakness and maybe lack of structures for the Socialist Party to get better results.
At the moment, the forming ruling party, the PF is undergoing a process where their structures will begin to break. There are two important reasons to this likelihood.
First, there is likelihood that Kelvin Fube Bwalya – KBF will most likely tap into these structures for his Zambia Must Prosper party. This is so because KBF has identification with many members of PF. There is no one who doesn’t know Kelvin in PF. If Kelvin fails to tap into the Pf, Fred will tap into the former ruling party.
The likelihood of both these two leaders or either of them tapping into the PF is premised on the fact that, the Pf secretariat has become defunct and nonfunctional. This is the second important reason why the structures of the PF are likely to break.
Of course there are people in PF who still argue that their secretariat is functional simply because Nickson Chilangwa is acting in that position. But when one looks at Nickson very well, there is completely nothing new he has brought in PF as Secretary General which is different from what we saw under Davis Mwila, his immediate predecessor.
The concentration of any sensible Secretary General for a party that lost power must be less issuing out blank press statements and singing useless songs that call UPND cows. Nickson must focus on fixing structures to ensure that they are intact. By now, we should have seen a sensible person going round the country ensuring that there is proper head count of members on structures. Has Nickson done this? Of course not.
No matter how Nickson may appear ideal, he lacks the necessary creativity and drive to keep the structures intact. He conveys no impact and influence among the people in his party. It is our considered view that for PF to survive the imminent exodus of defections of its members to other parties, they need to hastily ensure that the right person occupies that position of Secretary General. We may not determine who is better placed to be on that position but clearly, Nickson is not doing anything sensible.
We have heard names flaunted like Raphael Nakacinda by many youths within the party. We do not know the actual prowess of Raphael in this regard but if we have to judge him based on his energy and stamina politically, we contend- and we know we are not the only ones that – Raphael appears to have the necessary energy for that position. This is not to suggest he must be made SG. If there is any credible person to occupy that position, the pf can put that person as long as that individual is effective unlike this Nickson.