Statesman or father of Zambia – who?
By Dr Daniel Mvula Shimunza
The value of any presidency is the value, dignity, and worth of its people.
“Great leaders, raise other leaders, while weak leaders raise and maintain followers around them, and followers are the security of weak leaders.’’ People are the portrait of any President. The purpose of any government, is to make its people happy, that’s all, not fight them or their will (Shimunza, 2022).
The question of who qualifies to be a statesman or father of a nation, must be answered correctly.
A nation without accurate definition of things bound to be misled at the end. If we are precise
at the beginning, we can be sure of accuracy at the end. As a nation, we are neither a knowledge –
society, nor a truth- society. We are bankrupt of ideological politics, settling for ignorant cadreism.
Consequently, we are mostly pandering to ignorance, scandals, archaism, mediocrity, misrule
and false-relative national development. Our levels of ambition and vision, are too low. We are
satisfied easily by small things like cars, allowances, bribes, and an easy life. We compromise the eternal for the temporal, and major on minors and minor on majors, sadly. We are now fast becoming a post-truth society.
The death of now late president Rupiah Bwezani Banda has recently sparked a debate question
as to whether former president Dr Edgar Chagwa Lungu qualifies ‘automatically’ to be a
statesman or father of the nation of Zambia. However, statesmanship is earned, not imposed by
or on former presidents. Principally, not all former presidents qualify automatically to be statesmen or fathers of the nation.
Therefore, by definition, a statesman/woman, is “a skilled, experienced, and respected political
leader, as viewed from principles of the art of government and its business.” The respect factor,
is the objective test of statesmanship. Can people respect the prospective political figure? The
answer to this question, creates various objective tests of statesmanship. Statesmanship is
determined by how political leaders lived, led, and handed over governance, which determines
their earned place in the annals of statesmen.
Obviously, any former political leader who is unjust, immature, unwise, autocratic, deceptive, manipulates a partisan agenda, still participates in active politics – covertly or overtly, is divisive,
tribal, and corrupt, is automatically disqualified as a statesman. The respect a former leader has
engenders confidence in consequent generations to consult, seek advice, seek direction, seek wisdom, and lessons of governance and leadership of a nation state.
To be a father is not nominally a birthright, or a title, but a discernable function (Shimunza,
2022). There are credibility or legitimate objective tests, which make one qualify as a father, later
on a statesman of a nation. These include among others, the following tests: founders, principle,
source, sustaining unity and peace, provider, democracy credentials, human rights records,
constitutionalism, spiritual, transformative contribution, good governance, and human
development. Let us review these under specific headings:
1. Founders test. A father of a nation must be a founder of something politically in the
nation. This makes them ‘first’ in that national shift. Those who inherit organisations and
legacies of other leaders may not be fathers by virtue of continuity of what others founded. Every country is strong or weak based on its founder’s role in nation building and development models established from the beginning of statehood and nationhood. Consequently, only two late former leaders fit this profile thus far, in both first and second presidents Dr Kenneth David Kaunda, and Dr Frederick Jacob Titus Chiluba.
For South Africa, this rank is reserved for Nelson Mandela only, as first president of the black
people. The rest who carry on may be statesmen, but never fathers of South Africa. So, in Zambia, nominally and traditionally they maybe all fathers, but not by strict practice. Therefore, both men were founders of two significant political movements. The first president founded the United National Independence Party (UNIP), which later led to the
formation of a new nation called Zambia. It is a formation of two British protectorates
namely Barotseland and Northern Rhodesia, respectively. This contribution sets the man
apart as a father, albeit, he missed it fifteen years later after 1964.
The second president was a founder member of the Movement for Multiparty Democracy
(MMD), which later re-established pluralism or multi-party democracy, which we so much
enjoy today, a liberal market economy, and the declaration of Zambia as Christian nation.
The rest could be statesmen, yet not fathers of Zambia.
The next father of Zambia will be a fundamental movement that will shift us into a third
wave of national development, which must be a major one into real industrialisation and
first world Zambia from third world backwardness. It must not be a mere continuation or a mere improvement of national existence. But a radical transformation of the systems, structures, and strategies of state-crating and government for a first world nation.
Therefore, improved management is never transformation, if the form of something or a
nation remains principally and fundamentally the same. Transformation is a radical change, not relative or minimal change. Shifting from one party state to plurality, politically, was a fundamental shift. The economy, intelligence, and the military, are the three most important factors to state-crafting and national development.
Zambia needs a radical economic transformation, to become a first world nation, from the doldrums of third world mediocrity. The Movement for National Transformation (MNT) opposes everything third world as an ideology, politically. We can learn from it, but never to stay therein.
2. Principle test. It is important to understand the principles that drive any man, Mandela
said, “A man who changes his principles, depending on whoever he deals with, is not a man who can lead a nation.’’ This consequently buttresses the argument that principle-centered leadership is rare and vital for national development. Leadership requires a level of consistency, which the un-discerning perceive in their erroneous analysis, as being overly ‘opinionated’. Convictions, not convenience, drives great leaders. National fathers,
establish national principles, for generations after them, in their legacy.
3. Source test. “Never break the source of a river, so is a nation’s source,” (Shimunza). A national father is the source of national foundations, principles, and vision. The purpose of any nation is rooted in its founding fathers. If wrong, the nation develops wrongly. If right, the nation develops correctly.
Zambia in her foundation was birthed in internal betrayal, deception, and corruption of the Barotse people. This covenant breaking has affected us largely. Our founding fathers of Zambia sought to efface the Barotseland Agreement, sadly. How can one move forward when the brother you betrayed, is pulling you back spiritually? This will require great spiritual wisdom to address if any meaningful development will take place for Zambia.
4. Sustaining peace and unity test. A father of a nation is a peacemaker and sustainer of unity. He must not be a divider but a unifier. Security and peace are fundamental to sovereign existence by state and non-state actors. National development
is impossible in a state of no peace and security. Those who want to be fathers, yet divide
the nation, automatically cancel their legacy and statesmanship.
5. Provider test. If anybody claims to be a father of a nation yet cannot provide for his children, repudiates the fathering and statesmanship principle. Fathers never fail their children in a nation with all the necessary provisions of life, statehood, and governance. A nation fails for want of fathers and statesmen. We need less politicians, but must have more statesmen and fathers of nations. If you cannot provide what your people need the
most, you are not a father, or later on statesman.
6. Democratic redentials test. A true father is a democrat, not an autocratic leader of his people. The voice of everyone matters to a father. A father whose voice is only heard alone without children in a nation because of arrogance is a dictator. Autocratic
tendencies where we are not inclusive but exclusive of others, is not a qualification of a father of a nation or statesman.
The significant ‘otherness’ of those different from oneself, is the true test of fathering and
statesmanship. Any leader, who makes his country to lose democratic credentials, is neither
a statesman nor a father. Democracy, as an art requires that the will of the people thrives,
not that of a leader, or leaders by deception or manipulation of laws and otherwise
systems. Fathers and statesmen, upgrade the democratic credentials of their countries.
7. Human rights record test. The violation of human rights cancels fathering and statesmanship. When leaders can gas us and they remain quiet, suicides take place they are quite; ritual killings take place and they are quiet, it cancels the value of any human being. One person who dies even if it’s in Mozambique as a driver, must raise the entire nation’s consciousness to the rescue of one. All our people must enjoy the rights of being human. Abuse of human rights is detrimental to the concept of fathering a nation or statesmanship. Look at our prisons as a mirror of society and human rights. It is a sad reality. Abuse of the Pubic Order Act (POA) against political opponents, is abuse of human
rights. Undue use of force by the police against weak unarmed citizens, is abuse of human
rights. Child marriages and forced marriages are all forms of abuse of human rights. Domestic violence must end as a human rights abuse. Fathers and statesmen protect these
rights always for their people.
8. Constitutionalism test. Fathers and statesmen create for their nations by wider consultation, constitutions that are people driven; widely consultative, content and process reflective of the people’s aspirations, stand the test of time, and cost-effective systems of constitution making processes. All presidents swear oath, to protect and preserve the Constitution, as the social-contract between the governing and the governed from time to time. This is what constitutes the rule of law.
9. Spirituality test. The spirituality of a leader affects the nation. If leaders are God-fearing, so goes the nation. If they are cultic or consult mediums and practice witchcraft, so goes the nation. They may hide it but it will manifest somehow, and the discerning will know the source of such activities. We do not necessarily need perfect leaders, but surely those willing to honour God at most. Human fallibility is inevitable but possibilities exist.
To place statesmanship above honouring God is a failure with God. Abrahamic accords destroy or build God-fearing nations (Genesis 12: 1-4). As a Christian Nation, we must honour God how we even vote at the United Nations (UN) at any given time, lest we offend God. Those in power must be aware that nations that come against Israel will be judged by God as goat nations at the end. We must remain a sheep nation, which obeys covenants
of God with Abrahamic seed (Matthew 25).
10. Transformative leadership. Transactional, transitional, and transgressional leadership cannot be valued for statesmanship or fathering of a nation. It is weak to shift the nation into greatness. Both independence and multipartism were shifts of fundamental quality for Zambia. However, afterwards, we have failed to take the nation to greatness of first world nation status, sadly. This makes the first and second presidents fathers and
statesmen. They both changed the form of the country significantly.
11. Good governance test. Good governance, transparency, and accountability have
been described as acceptable measures of best democratic practices globally. If any
president claims to be a father or statesman, they must exude these dispositions, not
degenerate without them. African leaders, are mostly culprits of failure to promote these
traits of political leadership in their countries, Zambia sadly included. That is why
statesmen and fathers are fewer.
12. Human development test. It is sad to note that since post-independence, successive presidencies have failed the Zambian people with relative human development. The human development index has been very low compared to our counterparts in developed countries like Norway currently in the lead. People should matter most to transformative leaders. The high poverty levels, inequalities, illiteracy, under-development, shanty compounds,
lack of sanitation, all are indicative of the un-dignified life of our people; mostly in rural
and peri-urban communities, sadly. We need a new political will for radical social-economic transformation. Zambians cannot wait anymore by more promises since independence. Now is the time to deliver on the need for human development, if at all we have fathers and Statesmen.
Finally, if these said qualities are not evident in any man, then they fail the required objective tests of fathering a nation and the prospects of being a statesman. Who is a statesman and father of the nation? The one with the aforementioned objective tests qualifies as statesman or father of a nation.
The author is MNT founding president. Email: shimunzadaniel@gmail.com.