Tantameni syndrome – why HH and UPND in purest form are a reincarnation of ECL and his PF
By Special Correspondent(The Vital)
It is official: President Hakainde Hichilema’s hubris is a matter of legendary status now. His sustained uncontrolled and unhinged conviction that he’s possibly the greatest politician ever to walk on this country’s soil has been his greatest undoing.
Today, the man we all loved and admired so much is in dire distress. Extremely desperate position. He probably dreads at the sight of an ordinary calendar. His watch is no doubt ticking too fast towards August. But how did he squander the goodwill of the Zambian people?
If there is one thing you can trust the UPND to do in their quest to sustain their volatile political mirage, it is their kneejerk reaction to every manner of criticism that comes their way.
It does not matter the source – it sends every single of their motor-mouthed yet unsystematic and sycophantic spokespersons into fits of poorly concealed social media anger.
Little wonder others have labelled them as the M23 in likeness to the bullet scattering militia known for among other atrocities forcibly recruiting, targeting schools in Goma for child soldiers and abducting people from hospitals, often for combat or execution!
So astounding are these panic fits that sometimes they end up glorifying the very act they so publicly abhor.
Take the case of a self-praising President Hakainde Hichilema gleefully proclaiming to the UPND members in Choma that he they directly be receiving cash from him with immediate effect.
Of course, President Hichilema’s hubris is a matter of legendary status now as he possibly believes he is the greatest politician ever to walk on Zambian political space.
“Going forward, every MP will receive cash from this candidate here! Going forward, every mayor will receive cash from HH. Going forward, every council chair will receive cash from HH, every week from HH, going forward, each councilor will receive cash from HH,” boomed President Hichilema to thousands of thundering supporters.
Is this not a manifestation of the same ‘tantameni syndrome’ that the UPND so much loathed to develop into an anti-PF slogan? Has the UPND not been deriding their predecessors of having become masters of tantameni? How is this UPND tantameni different from the PF one?
The UPND perfected their anti-PF tantameni rhetoric enough to alienate the former ruling party from the electorates. So, today, how then does the UPND embrace that which they loathed for many years? The more discerning members of the public have since concluded that the UPND were quietly the PF’s biggest admirers.
Without any shame or even feeble attempts at pretending, the UPND of today parrots the PF modus operandi so well that they have also bred a red army of blood thirsty cadres that have become common place in the communities.
What you saw in Mazabuka where ‘dumpsite thrust’ Gary Nkombo was publicly attacked by some ‘state house-domiciled angels’ is just a reflection of what ordinary Zambians are now going through at markets and bus stations.
But then again, this could be the UPND answer to the street parlance that their penguin hands tendencies hardly give elections season vibes. Others that have been there before have urged caution as the so called cash may not be as grand as the braggadocio being touted on the political pedestal by a candidate sensing possible political defeat behind the curtains.