Things Hichilema needs to address urgently heading into 2026 

By Daily Revelation Editor

President Hakainde Hichilema should not follow the advise from empty heads telling him that 2026 general election will be plain sailing. In fact, he must distance himself as far as possible from those telling him that there is no opposition in the country right now to threaten his hold on power, because clearly they are not telling him the truth.

In Zambia, the elections are mostly not driven by the strongest opposition leader. The election in this country is mainly determined by the Zambian masses themselves, who choose a better alternative among the opposition leaders available to punish the  incumbent president and ruling party with.

In 1991, the masses rose and demanded for the return of multipartism against a feared Dr Kenneth Kaunda then, and credit to him he graciously conceded, not just to the return of democracy but also the subsequent electoral loss he suffered after the reintroduction of multipartism.

In 2001, the Frederick Chiluba whom Zambians had elected just over 10 years ago with a landslide 80 percent victory, was not spared when the masses again rose to deny him aspirations to change the constitution to extend his term of office.

In the 2011 general elections, the Rupiah Banda who was presiding over a booming economy at the time was voted out, partly because of people fatigue with the MMD which had been in power for 20 years, but also because he faced among the rarest political geniuses this country has ever produced in Michael Sata. Banda’s administration did also not endear itself to Zambians over the real or perceived corruption under his administration when the people were already fatigued with his party.

In the 2021 general elections, many, we are sure even Hichilema himself, did not anticipate that he was going to wallop incumbent Edgar Lungu and his PF to the extent where even Lungu’s strongholds crumbled right under his feet.

This should provide ample lessons for Hichilema as he heads into the 2026 general elections, because the same Zambians who have determined the fate of his many predecessors will determine his fate come 2026. And he simply can’t easily predict what the outcome will be as if he controls the thought processes of all Zambians.

While he has scored several successes during the almost five years he’s been in office, human nature doesn’t usually focus on the good someone has done. People are mostly judged on the good they failed to do. While many will remember the free education, meal allowances, the partial withdraws, among the successes Hichilema has scored, however, those issues are rarely talked about. Even just surfing through social media, the dominant topic right now is the worst loadshedding that has crippled the country for the past two years.

Hchilema has a huge task before his hands to right this ‘headache’, and he must find solutions now as any improvement that will come about in the period prior to the general elections will be viewed as election gimmikry. There is the the ever high cost of living right now, the high fuel prices, and farmers who have not been paid for their yields in a long time. These are things people are talking about daily.

There are also attempts right now to rape the constitution by the ruling party in order to put itself in an advantageous position heading into 2026. All these issues are raising public discontent.

We therefore, urge Hichilema, than rather than sitting on his laurels and listening to the praises of mindless praise singers, he will do well to address matters which are causing so much irritation in people’s homes.