EDGAR LUNGU IS JUST A CELEBRITY-CORNELIUS MWEETWA
UPND is naïve, Lungu and M’membe will shock them
News Diggers Opinion
HONOURABLE Cornelius Mweetwa, the UPND spokesperson says the ruling party doesn’t get moved by the kind of reception given to former president Edgar Lungu wherever he goes because government understands that he is a celebrity. He was reacting to an incident where residents in Kapiri Mposhi surrounded the former president when he stopped over to buy some commodities on his way from the Copperbelt. Some Zambians have been arguing that Mr Lungu is still popular and could pull a surprise if he challenged President Hakainde Hichilema for the top job in 2026. Honourable Mweetwa who is also Southern Province Minister says this is impossible and does not give sleepless nights to the party in power.
Honourable Cornelius MWEETWA: “Political popularity is not measured by the cheers you receive. Political popularity is only measurable through the ballot. Cheers alone can’t give us statistics of popularity. As a party in government, we’re not moved by the reception that president Lungu gets wherever he goes. President Lungu is a celebrity at various levels. He’s a celebrity because he was president of this country. And when he was president of this country, he did a lot of strange things that include dancing like no other Zambian president has danced before. That sets him apart from the rest as a celebrity. So this issue of president Lungu, how can we be scared of someone we defeated when he was in government? If he wants to come back, he should not be measured against us the UPND. It’s his democratic right. The problem with politics is that sometimes people will cheat you and you won’t know. By the time you discover, it’s too late”.
The sarcasm about Mr Lungu being a celebrity is well crafted. This is actually one thing we like about Honourable Mweetwa. He has political wit befitting of a government communication specialist. You don’t always have to fight and fight even what doesn’t deserve to be fought. Identifying a pissing contest and staying out of it is good political strategy, and we feel this is what Honourable Mweetwa is doing. The only problem is that his confidence is too much for the prevailing state of affairs in the country.
It’s dangerous for the UPND to downplay public sentiments about the continuously increasing cost of living. It’s dangerous for them to ignore the prevailing public discontent. It’s even more dangerous for them to underrate any machinations and maneuverers being assembled by their political opponents. What the UPND and Honourable Mweetwa must understand is that this celebrity status they are bestowing on Mr Lungu is so real to some of our citizens. To them, this might all be a joke; they may see Lungu as a political clown jumping from one spot to another looking for attention. It will be wise for them to realise that this clown is actually a more experienced politician.
Honourable Mweetwa says “the problem with politics is that sometimes people will cheat you and you won’t know, by the time you discover, it’s too late”. There is no better advice that anyone can give to the UPND beyond this statement. We know that a lot of people are lying to the UPND now by telling them that Lungu is not a factor and that it’s impossible for the ruling party to lose power within five years, given the margin by which it won the 2021 elections. Unfortunately for the UPND, Zambian voters now understand the powers they wield and are demanding that the ruling party honours its promises. By the time the UPND will realise that people were lying to them, it will be too late.
We don’t think Mr Lungu made a good president for this country. We don’t think he should ever be given a chance to rule Zambia again. In fact, it will be very sad if he and his family will succeed to escape criminal charges. We know that many Zambians feel the same way but this is different from saying that his come-back is impossible. Although he is not wanted by well-meaning Zambians, he has the potential to come back in many different ways.
The UPND doesn’t need to reinvent their own political lessons. If they look back into recent history, they will see that what might happen to them already happened before. When Michael Sata kicked out Rupiah Banda, the defeated politicians found a way of bounding back into power without actually being on the ballot. All Rupiah had to do was pick his horse and bet all his earnings. We believe it is now public knowledge that Rupiah cut a three tier deal before throwing his weight behind Mr Lungu. The conditions were that if Lungu’s PF wins, he would be let off the hook in court, his fugitive son Henry would be allowed back into the country and The Post newspaper would be closed. This was very important to Rupiah, but we don’t have enough space to explain.
We don’t need to remind our readers that these three conditions were met within the first few months of Mr Lungu being elected president. He was elected in January 2015, in February of the same year, police arrested and detained the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) Mutembo Nchito, in July Rupiah was acquitted of corruption charges, and by June 2016, The Post was close and liquidated later that year. In the meantime, Rupiah was busy appointing ministers and running State House through Lungu. That’s what politicians can do.
The UPND think-tank, if they have any, should be very worried when they see Socialist Party president Dr Fred M’membe sharing a light moment with Mr Lungu during a time of need. These are two politicians whom no one would imagine peacefully looking into each other’s eyes, let alone joking and laughing. This is politics. The UPND cannot afford to ignore Lungu and underrate Dr M’membe at the same time. That’s political naivety. Dr M’membe is a very experienced politician who learnt and achieved a lot while controlling the country’s political narratives for over 25 years. Him offering solidarity to a man who killed his media empire cannot happen by accident. They know what they are doing, and if the UPND doesn’t get the message, it will be too late for them – as Honourable Mweetwa put it.
To us, if the M’membe and Lungu alliance comes to fruition – which is a high possibility, it will be a good thing because it will keep the UPND on their toes. Listening to them, we get the feeling that they are too comfortable. They are still fantasising over the 2.8 million votes. They can’t even see that Dr M’membe has been swallowing the PF. They are still doing nichali bobu nichali chibotu nichali bobu….!