By Jeff
Every time we listen to politicians, as youths we, tend to analyze their impact on us. What is it that they instill in us as future leaders? Without bigotry and cruelty, we observe and analyze our politicians carefully especially the opposition as we believe these are the people who can make the government work by offering checks and balances. I write this article as an individual but I believe every moral youth will settle with me that most of our opposition leaders are useless.
Over the past twelve months, I have taken very keen interest in following politics, and in listing the most effective parties, PF, MMD, UPND, NAREP and FDD have appeared to be political parties that participate more in our affairs, and by this I do not connote that they are all effective, instead I mean, they are seen to be front-runners among all political parties.
Elias C. Chipimo
However, I have a million reasons to believe that Mumba of MMD and HH of UPND will never rule Zambia not in this life time while Chipimo and Nawakwi can, especially now that the boat is in despair.
Mumba has an interesting political career in as much as we know. While some Christian groups believe that politics should never be mixed with Christianity some people like Mumba believe that the dual go together. This issue in itself is a complex topic that requires meticulous exploration but I believe there is nothing wrong to mix the two, especially if the intents of the participants are in route with the Christian doctrine. While Mumba has the vast experience compared to our top four opposition leaders, Mumba was once the Zambian VP who was sacked, by Mwanawasa who never tolerated nonsense, because of disruptive.
We also know that Mumba had a church and political party that have both collapsed. In developed countries, no voter would assign such a person with the duty to manage a motherland if they can’t cope-up with a small church and political party; we call this failure.
Mumba surfaced after RB was whitewashed by Sata, this time we thought, the “Pastor” was here to serve the pugnacious MMD but No!, things are getting more and worse with significant MMD players leaving, being expelled or passing Votes of No confidence against Mumba. In leadership management, Mumba is a liability leader and incapable. A leader does not fix perceived competitors, a leader learns from such persons in order to be better than them. At the helm of Mumba, MMD has further deteriorated and coming to the major reason why Mumba can neither rule nor save Zambia, the perceived MMD hijacker is does nothing to hold the PF accountable. All we see is Mumba in cell because he broke the law stole money or has expelled Kachingwe. Mumba has been on the top of demanding Kabimba to step down as Justice Minister because of allegations of corruption, why can’t he step down as well for stealing money from tax payers while in Canada?
Nevers Mumba
HH on the other hand has had his own share of failure and we strongly feel the UPND leader is not fit to be in politics. In proving this, the Post editor Fred M’membe in his editorial comment titled “UPND’s declining political fortunes” the editor argued that “Hakainde and the UPND have been experiencing declining political fortunes over the last 10 years. In the 2001 general elections, Levy Mwanawasa of the MMD won the election with 28.69 per cent and behind him was Anderson Mazoka of UPND with 26.76 per cent (a difference of 1.93 per cent).
UPND and Andy were new to Zambian politics and had only been campaigning for three years. Levy and the MMD were not new, they had been in power since 1991. And Levy was a former vice-president of the Republic and the MMD itself. But he only managed to defeat Andy by only 1.93 per cent. Levy had polled 506,694 votes while Andy had 472,697.
In this election Michael Sata, who had registered his political party less than six months before the elections, got 3.35 per cent of the votes cast.
In the 2006 general elections, Levy won with 42.98 per cent with Michael now in the second place with 29.37 per cent. In third position was Hakainde Hichilema representing UDA, an alliance of UNIP, FDD and the UPND itself.
In the 2008 presidential by-election that followed the death of Levy, Rupiah Banda of the MMD won with 40.09 per cent, with Michael obtaining 38.13 per cent (a difference of 1.96 per cent). In third place was Hakainde, now under the exclusive ticket of UPND, with 19.70 per cent (a drop of 5.62 per cent from his 2006 performance). And in the 2011 general elections, Michael won with 41.98 per cent, with Rupiah scoring 35.42 per cent while Hakainde dropped further to 18.17 per cent.
UPND president Hakainde Hichilema
These are statistics we have come to confirm with the relevant authorities and from the early specs, UPND continues to dwindle. Our major concerns are more in the management ability in our leaders. HH claims to be very successful with money and we wonder how he acquired his wealth when he lacks proper management skills. We smell a rat, assuming that wealth might have been acquired through criminal ways. Again, in developed countries, HH would be made to account for his wealth and tell the jobless youths how to make money so that they stop suffering from unemployment and poverty. HH claims he has the, know-how of making money, why can’t he organize several small business management trainings for the youths and teach them how to be wealth like Mr. Hakainde? HH does not only need to be at state house before he can show us that he can work!
Every time we see Mumba and his friend HH in the media is when there are at the police or courts, mostly because of their careless mouths or corruption allegations. A youth along Alick Nkhata road is not interested to hear that you slept in police cells last night; they are interested in what you can do for them today before you even get to plot one. The dual felons are at the peak of triggering by-elections together with their counterpart vision-less Patriotic Front.
Nawakwi
In comparison, each time we hear Chipimo and Nawakwi speak is either they are proposing a solution to the government. Chipimo is the only leader who has shown that he is concerned with jobless youths and in addressing this, Elias proposed to the government to set aside 10% of its public supply contracts for SME’s run by youths and women.
If this advice was adopted by PF, it would count a lot. While Mumba and HH are concerned about defeating the PF, Nawakwi seem to be not pleased with the costly By-elections as such she spoke and continues to do so, about the lack of medical equipment in hospitals whenever there are By-election, reaching to an extent where our dear mother vows to decamping political prostitutes who continue to defect from the opposition.
There are a million reasons why Mumba and HH can never rule Zambia and in my next commentary, I will outline the first reason why the dual will never rule Zambia
Gupta you are wrong on all points.
1. NAREP is not a pressure group its a party in its own right, its membership is growing all the time. Both at home and abroad with branches in Europe/UK, soon to be opened in USA & South Africa
2. Regarding its vision, NAREP has a very clear vision for mother Zambia full details on their website’s http://WWW.newzambia.org
3.Finally Chipimo has talked about so many issues that affect all Zambians e.g youth unemployment, the constitution, corruption…not just mealie meal shortages…..he will also be talking about energy issues soon
Gupta….you are wrong Chipimo does not just talk about mealie meal, he has recently talked about the constitution, corruption and there are many more issues he will be talking about in the next few weeks….regarding your comment about the lack of vision for NAREP, you are wrong again, NAREP has a clear vision for Zambia you can find FULL details of their website http://www.newzambia.org
In ‘politics of the belly’ practised in Zambia it very unlikely that that the MMD will get a chance to form government in Zambia again,there is always a feeling in the populace that ‘they have had there chance to eat’ Why give them another go? The MMD is a divided party, the leadership has been crippled by internal fighting and there is NO ideological reason for it’s existence..Their leader seems to have lost his evangelical zeal..maybe to many diplomatic lunches/cocktails have gone to his head! made him soft…he seems to have lost his charisma. So I am afraid the MMD will die a natural death similar to UNIP before it.
The UPND is the only viable opposition that we have in terms of experience and resources, they also have the organisational structures, a fairly dominant leader with deep pockets and almost maniacal desire to be president ( remember Sata tried and tried before he became president). But the UPND needs a drastic change of strategy, they need to widen their base and REMOVE the ‘tribal party’ perception that has been hanging around them like a bad smell!
NAREP and others are not even worth mentioning as they are not really national parties .They are ONE man pressure groups that have their place in our society but cannot be taken seriously as potential parties of government.I personally like NAREP, their manifesto is sensible and their leader seems like a reasonable chap but they will never form a government soon.By the way, I recently enjoyed Chipimo slapping down young Chella (PF propaganda chief) when the youngster issued ignorant press statements.But NAREP, ADD, FDD, DAFT, FART FODEP or whatever are at best pressure groups and at worst vanity vehicles for deluded politicians obsessed with the tag ‘president’,before their names!
Not for me to be overly critical of young Jeff ‘s rather rambling incoherent article…I can only assume that he is a young man fresh out of secondary….he points out that he has only taken an interest in politics over the last 12 months!Well young man, a bit of advice…it is always useful to master your subject before you begin to share your thought..your ‘analysis’ lacks intellectual vigour…I am not persuaded by your piss-poor and poorly researched arguments..I will not bother make my point on the subject matter as I tend to avoid conversations with empty cans !…I refer you to Fwaka’s
response..
Zambia is in trouble if people are going to ‘cut and paste’ a section from a waste disposal article as a response when challenged to come up with answers.
Conventional wisdom dictates that, if you were asked to explain why you think X is related to why Y, you talk about the relationship between the two. What you can not do is go to wikipedia and cut and paste a random section as your answer.
Don’t hurry in accusing me of a being a political cadre of any group coz am not. Any human being without moral decay will agree with me that for a single party to impact on people, it does not neccesarily need to win presidence or big. Take HH for example, how many times has HH told us that he is the richest guy? A hundred time! Let’s take an environment for instance, there is so much filth in our communities most of it washed to drainages and hidden there, blocking the drainages causing slaggish dampen that bring about many infections.how much death this is causing no one knws and yet we knw that from the hip of filth many recycling businesses can come alive to create jobs! We also knw that through trash sorting bio-degradable materials can be fermented to produce gas goods for domestic and industrial appliances. We also know that the slugish from such processing becomes fertiliser useful in agriculture and if this filth was manure, the government would spend less on fertiliser. Now take 3 big opposition parties putting together resources with the help of private sector to driving such an idea.even embarking on its awareness is unquantifiable service.MMD ,UPND and other political parties need not fight with PF to show that they can serv better. They js need to put PF in a position wjhere they should look unuseful.D a
@Fwaka. Thanks. I remember what B.Obama said sometime last.year during the run-up to Elections. “People will criticize me and say bad things about me. And it is my duty to defend their right to do so”
The sad thing is that Here in Zambia, the current govt will do everything possible to twist, castigate, intimidate or even block any dissenting view. Jeff observes that whenever he hears or sees HH and Mumba in the media is when they are at the police or courts, mostly because of their careless mouths or corruption allegations. Has he ever paused to ask himself why?
One thing that Jeff must keep in mind is that, just like in movies and cartoons, “The good guys will always win in the end, no matter strong, rough or huge the chief villain may appear”
Ba Tata and GUPTA, thanks for your insights.
I bollocked this article when it first came out. The author responded as you can see in his highly emotionally charged response below. My worry is his response is not only devoid of sound arguments but it also tries to twist facts; Pretends that the size of a political party is ‘useless’.
One thing to note though is that he does not deny being paid up to concoct the story.
Jeff: Either you are a NAREP/FDD cadre or you sadly rely only on The the PFost Newspaper for political nourishment. Your analysis is too shallow and biased. Chipimo and Nawakwi are both PF croonies. When Chipimo says something, he is not harassed. When Its HH who says the same thing, PF (Sakeni, Lungu, Shamenda etc) will immediately react. The PFolice will arrest HH or Mumba even on imagined cases.
BATATA CHIPIMO IS NOT HARASSED OR ARRESTED BECAUSE HE DOES NOT BREAK THE LAW TO DO PETTY POLITICS LIKE OTHER POLITICIANS…HE ONLY DOES ISSUE BASED POLITICS, YOU CAN NOT ARREST SOMEONE IF THEY HAVE NOT BROKEN THE LAW.
BOLLOCKS.CHIPIMOS PARTY IS MORE LIKE A PRESSURE GROUP THAN AN OPPOSITION.NAREP AND FDD WILL NEVER RULE ZAMBIA DUE TO LUCK OF VISION.CHIPIMO’S PARTY HAS NO AGENDA OR PLANS FOR THE FUTURE ALL HE TALKS ABOUT IS THE PRICE OF MEALI MEAL.
GUPTA YOU ARE WRONG ON ALL YOUR POINTS, NAREP IS NOT A PRESSURE GROUP ITS A POLITICAL PARTY IN ITS OWN RIGHTS, MEMBERSHIP IS INCREASING ON A DAILY BASIS, THEY HAVE A BRANCH IN UK, SOON TO OPEN IN USA, AND SOUTH AFRICA. REGARDING THE LACK OF VISION YOU ARE WRONG AGAIN, THEY HAVE A CLEAR VISION AND VALUES FOR ZAMBIA FULL DETAILS CAN BE FOUND ON THEIR WEBSITE http://WWW.NEWZAMBIA.ORG….CHIPIMO DOES NOT ONLY TALK ABOUT MEALIE MEAL HE RECENTLY TALKED ABOUT CORRUPTION, THE CONSTITUTION, YOUTH UNEMPLOYMENT PLUS MANY MORE…..CHECK YOU FACTS
GUPTA YOU ARE WRONG ON ALL YOUR POINTS .1 NAREP IS NOT A PRESSURE GROUP ITS A PARTY IN ITS OWN RIGHT MEMBERSHIP IS GROWING ON A DAILY BASIS, NAREP NOW EVEN HAS A BRANCH IN UK/EUROPE, SOON TO OPEN IN USA AND SOUTH AFRICA.
2. LACK OF VISION, NAREP HAS A CLEAR VISION FOR MOTHER ZAMBIA, THEY HAVE A WELL THOUGHT THROUGH AGENDA FULL DETAIL CAN BE FOUND ON THEIR WEBSITE http://WWW.NEWZAMBIA.ORG
3. CHIPIMO ONLY TALKS ABOUT MEALIE MEAL, WRONG AGAIN, HE RECENTLY ISSUED STATEMENTS AND TALKED AT LENGTHY ABOUT THE CONSTITUTION, CORRUPTION, YOUTH UNEMPLOYMENT JUST TO MENTION A FEW…PLEASE CHECK YOUR FACTS
Jeff, contrary to your assertions the relevance of a political party in a democracy is directly related to its size. Not good news to you, I know, but just a fact. The bigger the representation the more relevant the party, full stop.
‘MMD and UPND are useless’, as measured by who? You?
And what are your units for ‘relevance’?
@Fwak….m. The relevance of a politcal party is not determined by its size in terms of national assembly representatives or having presidence. While we agree MMD and UPND are bigest opposition paerties, what matters the most is their relevance to our people. What purpose they serve and the impact on voters.its pointless and foolish to think that that to make meaning a single party need to be big. Undoubtably, MMD and UPND are useless.
Would the PF publicity secretary write anything different from this?
The real issue here is that MMD and UPND are the biggest opposition parties which are a threat to PF, thats how every other non-entity party president is suppose to be better than Nevers and HH’.
Money is making people allow their minds to be so corrupted to produce such cheap pseudo-analytic pieces.
HH and Mumba cant rule zambia because HH thinks hes too intelligent meanwhile dull and foolish he has no future plans Mumba is arrogant and a blind follower very corrupt fellows..UKO TIYE UKO..
YES YES ONLY SPECIAL BEMBAS CAN RULE THIS COUNTY YOU ARE RIGHT