ZUMANI HAS LOST IT, ECL MUST STOP HIM BEFORE HE BREAKS THE UNITY IN UKA

KBN TV EDITORIAL: ZUMANI HAS LOST IT, ECL MUST STOP HIM BEFORE HE BREAKS THE UNITY IN UKA

As a media house, we play in the domain of information and it’s our role to offer unbiased positions in the interest of promoting democracy, national unity and plural politics.

We have seen and read a very long and misplaced political argument from Chris Zumani Zimba, who in our view is expected to know better the fast changing political dynamics in our country including the synergy and power of regional blocks.

We call his article misplaced because it is injurious to the collective wisdom and intelligence of the UKA Council of Presidents who have laid aside their party interests to galvanize Zambians into a formidable force that can face the UPND in 2026.

Zambians will recall that Zumani was a fierce critic of ECL but in a grand chess master move, ECL appointed him as his Political Advisor, turning a foe into a friend.

It was a very unexpected turn of events that turned the Zumani world around. To date, he still doesn’t know how to pay back the gratitude of being appointed to such a lofty position as political advisor to the President. He would do anything to promote ECL even at the expense of national interest!

While Zumani may mean well, but his personal ambition to walk the corridors of power once again is blinding his political judgement which in turn is putting ECL in an awkward position.

First of all, everyone knows that Zumani is regarded as ECL’s boy and he can’t write something so close to the heart of his former boss without seeking prior approval.

There in lies a very huge and complex problem because ECL has made it abundantly clear that he is not going to seek re-election in 2026 unless of course he is playing politics of double standards.

But at this stage, we can not fault ECL who has told his UKA colleagues of his desire to play a unifying role to ensure political parties involved in the Alliance, may at an appropriate time, choose one among them to represent the will of the people in the next poll.

While ECL is doing a commendable job as a father figure and king maker of the next President, Zumani like a few MPs and some members of the PF Central Committee are trying to force ECL back into the ring and lobbying for him to ditch UKA out of their personal selfish ambitions.

We regard the sentiments by Zumani as being selfish because they smell of unfounded fear that without ECL on the ballot, he and a few of his colleagues might not walk back into the corridors of power. So let’s be very clear here, this is not about ECL, it’s about selfish individuals who are posturing their relevance to the power of the ECL brand.

We may not entirely blame Zumani and the clique he is representing. We must blame the UKA leadership for slowly turning itself into a talking shop when the nation is expecting them to provide leadership that will begin to see members of PF, CF, FDD, ULP, GP and NDC as one family.

The UKA leadership may have a good strategy about how they intend to assimilate and absorb all party structures of member political parties countrywide to form an unstoppable electoral force. However, instead of embarking on a countrywide sensitisation tour as we recently saw in the statement leased by their Communication Chairperson, Jackson Silavwe, UKA is busy sharing photos of their meetings, which photos are not helping anyone when the biggest opposition PF is pushing a contrary agenda to theirs.

To succeed, UKA needs PF and if the Alliance is going to be meaningful, PF too needs the rest of the other parties. Perhaps what PF doesn’t realize is that they are the number one target by the ruling UPND to dismantle before the 2026 elections. UPND is totally resolved to ensure PF is dissimated and reduced to a shadow of itself before 2026.

For the record, no one can dispute the popularity of ECL. He remains so popular that even if elections were to be called today, he would win if the environment was free, fair and transparent.

But as long as Miles Sampa remains a UPND project and the case of legitimacy still in the courts of law, PF can hire all the lawyers in the country, that case will still remain where it is as long as the judiciary, Parliament and the Police Command remains under the remote control of UPND led executive.

It appears that PF doesn’t want to learn lessons from the 2026 rehearsal that happened in Kwacha, Kabushi and most recently in Ndola and Kitwe where every trick was unleashed for UPND aligned councillors to win.

PF must also realize that the debate has moved from the argument around eligibility of ECL to stand. We hear unconfirmed reports that the presidential nomination form may now ask candidates to state if they have been sworn in more than once as a precondition for participating in the 2026 elections.

If this information is true, it doesn’t require rocket science to figure out who they are targeting. Therefore, Zumani and a few MPs as well as some MCC who are opposed to any other person running on the UKA ticket must vacate their positions and start mobilizing for UKA so they can be adopted as they remain an important integral part of the 2026 push.

Instead of insulting the intelligence of ECL and UKA by casting aspersions on Mulusa, Zumani must know that UKA needs Northwestern and Western Province. You don’t need a party, you need an entire region!

KBN