Edgar’s CBD walk

By Daily Revelation Editor

Former president Edgar Lungu yesterday decided to take what he described as a walk in the Central Business District of Lusaka, attracting huge crowds unto himself in the process.

And expectedly, police never to be left out came out with their own statement warning that they will not tolerate him proceeding on that path regardless his status as former head of state.

Of course Lungu has his own constitutionally provided rights of movement and freedom of association. There was nothing unlawful in whatever he did. 

We know that Edgar knew before hand that his walk alone in one of the most populated areas of the city was going to attract attention and huge crowds unto himself. Nothing wrong with that, except the inconvenience that may have carried in terms of the traffic and other movements in the area, especially to those who may not have wanted to have their movements inconvenienced.

We actually think it would have been a public relations win for the UPND administration if those in the police had just stayed quiet, given the many allegations of shrinking democratic space being levelled against President Hakainde Hichilema’s administration.

However, the UPND administration must be commended just for the fact that Lungu took a walk in the CBD incident free. We can confidently say that the same would not have been allowed with PF in office, with those unruly cadres they allowed to reign supreme in the streets, bus stations, markets and other publics spaces. There would have been kerfuffle in the CBD if that walk had been taken by an opposition leader during the time Edgar himself was in office.

We hope he is going to draw lessons from the same as he aspires to lead this country again, something that is now becoming clearly plain to everyone what he had been hiding all along.

As for Hakainde, he should take what Edgar did yesterday as a win in terms of ending unruly caderism in the country and seek to build on the same, rather than allowing the police to trample on his predecessor’s movements and association.

If Edgar or the other oppositions leaders want to take another walk in the same or other parts of the country, please just allow them to. There is actually no need to stress. Only those who are scared of their own shadows would actually want to ensure they put in all the necessary spanners to stop their opponents from freely mingling with citizens, even in such big setups as happened yesterday with the Lungu walk.

It’s unceccary for the police in Ndola for instance actually to be pursuing the mayor of that city Jones Kaliati and the other Church leaders who hosted Edgar during his recent visit to the Copperbelt.

Let the people be allowed to freely mingle and mobilise, either through walks as Edgar did or even though rallies.