By Speedwell Mupuchi
IF WE don’t do correct things, I can tell you even five years will be too long to stay in government, Andrew Banda has cautioned.
The UPND member of national management committee said Zambians now know they have the power and “can do unto us what they have done unto the PF if we don’t do it correct”.
He said Zambians have changed government through the 1964, 1991, 2011 and now 2021 revolutions.
Andrew said Dr Kenneth Kaunda conceded defeat and handed over to Frederick Chiluba peacefully. He said his father did the same in 2011, handing over to Michael Sata peacefully.
He said he was his father’s only son who escorted him to Michael Sata’s inauguration and to hand over the instruments of power.
“Outside State House there some young people who wanted the big man out from there. I saw policemen melting from State House going to the other side, running away from him. I said my father, I am going with you to the High Court ceremony. When we arrived at the court, all the Independence Avenue as filled with people, they were wild. When we got pa court pala, we just waved to the crowd and the temperature just died down,” Andrew recalls.
He said his father handed over power peacefully.
Andrew said Chiluba after serving two terms tried to push for a third term but Zambians resisted him.
“The third term for Mr Lungu is one of the factors that made him lose the elections because people wanted to show him that they are more powerful than the ConCourt, himself and the PF,” he said.
Andrew said the revolution that ushered UPND into government was by the people.
“The PF must ask themselves, they are the only political party that has served 10 years, nayo yo lwisha, 2015, 2016, Zambians had already made up their minds and they manipulated that election,” Andrew said.
He said things that made it worse for PF were the extremely high cost of goods, lack of jobs, failure to deliver on its more money in your pockets and lower taxes promises.
“And also the level of corruption was too much. You can’t steal like that from the public. The Zambian public got to know that it is their money that was being used at the expense of development. We saw little boys from the streets become billionaires. We saw some of the candidates for PF having a motorcade of 12 vehicles, belonging to one young man, a candidate in the east, so the public begun asking.”
Andrew said with all the scandals in the ministries came the third term for President Lungu.
He said a small class – the executive, the police, the judiciary and the Electoral Commission of Zambia -wanted to destroy Zambia’s democracy.
He noted that courts were mostly ruling in favour of PF.
Andrew said if there were no interventions from president Banda, Zambia would have been in a worse situation.
“For me as a political leader for my party, I say thank you to the Almighty God for having a father like him who could sense danger and quickly intervene at the appropriate time. It was not easy to put Lungu and HH together. I thank president Jakaya Kikwete and former president of Serra Leone and other presidents who were involved,” he said.
Andrew noted that expectations on the UPND in government were very high.
“We already have a problem in the bus stations,” he said while urging President Hichilema to sort out the problem.
He feared that the same boys, if not quickly accommodated, would “rise against us”.
Andrew cautioned those that want to get into government leadership to be careful to put service first and not embarrass the party.
“If we don’t do correct things, I can tell you, even five years will be too long to stay there, minimum five years, these guys can get us out. This is where this country has reached. They know that they have the power, you play games, you are out!” Andrew said. “It starts with what kind of cabinet HE [His Excellency] chooses and that cabinet must be representative of all the regions. We have enough manpower within our national management where he can tap ministers from but they must be based on merit, otherwise it can be a disaster.”
Andrew said Zambians, majority of them educated and jobless youths, were watching.
“So they can do unto us what they have done unto the PF if we don’t do it correct. So to my colleagues who may have the privilege of getting into government, please don’t get excited; how we conduct ourselves in public, we must just humble ourselves,” Andrew cautioned. “We must be servants. Those chosen into cabinet are not masters of the people, it’s the other way round.”
Andrew also thanked the founding members of UPND who had persevered to this end.
He said there was no political party in the country that had been in opposition for 23 years like UPND.
“But credit must be to Hakainde Hichilema himself, to be in opposition for 15 years. It was not easy,” he said.
Andrew said members cannot persevere for 23 years to destroy it in a short time in power.
“Please, let’s be careful. No violence, no arrogance, the Zambian people have shown that they are not interested in tribalism. Zambians are not tribalists, it was just a few individuals. And here I would not hide, just imagine what Edith Nawakwi is going through now! Look at what is going on with GBM, Kambwili, Lungu himself, how does he feel, he kept quiet, he was enjoying it when people were beaten,” he said.
However, Andrew praised Lungu for realising quickly that he had to handover power.
He said like UPND founder Anderson Mazoka, his relationship with President Hichilem was sparked in a strange way.
“Mazoka sent Sakwiba Sikota some years back to look for me in Eastern Province. He found my current wife who was working for Barclays Bank and said we are looking for Andrew Banda. He came to the farm, picked up and from the time Mr Mazoka met me, he never looked back. I became his son. We went all over the country and there were no plane that time,” Andrew said. “The story of HH, I had just come from the diplomatic service. He sent a gentleman called Chuzu to the farm. He found me shelling maize, unbelievable because this is like history repeating itself. Chuzui said I have some money here, HH has sent me saying please put gas in your car he wants to talk to you. I met Hakainde for the first time eight years ago and I have never looked back.”
Asked if he was expecting to be appointed, Andrew said he was not in politics for the “self”.
He said if politics was for self, he could have drifted to the PF a long time ago or UNIP in 1991.
“For me it’s up to President Hichilema to decide whether I am worthy being in his cabinet. If there are better people than me, so be it. But I obviously offer myself to him. I am loyal, have vast experience in diplomacy, governance, I am humble,” he said.
Andrew said the most striking characteristics of President Hichilema was his resilience, tenacity, intelligence, focus, humbleness and soberness.
“He is a forgiving guy with what he has gone through. He is extraordinary to hold a political party in opposition for these years. With the support, he can hold this country, I truly believe. It’s those who will be in his government that have to portray this image. If they misbehave then they will cause him a problem. But he is a clear brain eh. And I am glad he took this long to be where he is. It was a process of knowing and understanding him better,” said Andrew.