HH, Lungu dialogue 

By Daily Revelation Editor 

Former president Edgar Lungu responded to the proposed dialogue between himself and President Hakainde Hichilema by placing two demands which he said his successor must first address.

The former president argued that Hichilema must first stop financing the factions in the PF and undertake to ensure that the real office holders of the former ruling party were reinstated.

The response from Hichilema was predictable as he simply dismissed the arguments the former president had raised. 

The feelings the duo have about each other are understandable, and they have not actually hidden them.

However, no matter how much Lungu feels Hichilema is culpable about the happenings in the PF, and he has a right to feel that way if he has the details on the same, we are of the view that he should have allowed the dialogue to proceed.

And we feel all the issues he raised about Hichilema and should have been brought out face to face during that dialogue. The same also goes with Hichilema. At least, the dialogue mediated upon by the Church would have offered the two parties not only the chance to air their grievances, but the same would also have provided the Church with the opportunity to provide their own wise counsel to the two.

Even without an expected outcome coming from the same, at least the dialogue would have provided the two leaders the opportunity to at least meet in one formal set up to talk, as that is something that has never happened since they started competing against each other for the top office in the land in 2015, except in 2021 when late former president Rupiah Banda got the two to talk.

We are of the view that those making efforts to get the two to dialogue should never tire. And there should actually be personal effort from the two to actually make dialogue happen. Failure to work things out will result in a situation where there will be continued retribution involving the two, with the one who has the most power at any one particular time looking to exact maximum punishment on the other.

And as politics is generally conducted in this country, where loyalty to a leader has mainly turned into obsession, a tendency has developed over time to hate their leader’s opponent together with those who support them. In the process, the country has become divided across political lines, where even in instances where their leader is wrong, their followers fail to see the wrong and actually reinforce the same wrongs by supporting the wrongs their leaders engage in.

This is not good towards building a cohesive society that needs to bind together in order to make progress. Citizens of this country need to be brought to a level where they are free to love and praise whoever they support, while taking a deliberate effort in terms of being patriotic enough to holding their leader accountable to do right all the time. The ideal situation actually will be one where sympathisers of any one particular individual will come out to denounce the wrong they see their leader engage in.

There is one thing citizens must appreciate, that they are actually the real bosses as they have the power to fire and hire the people who lead them. Their duty once they have elected their leader into office is not to work over time defending that leader even when they are wrong, but holding them accountable towards doing right and fulfilling the promises they made.

There are so many wrong things Lungu did while in office that have left scars in many people and therefore hard feelings about him, just as there are a lot of wrong things that Hichilema has done which have hardened the feelings in others against him. But the two can actually help the nation a lot by putting in genuine effort to dialogue, and through that seek to find ways to heal the battered soul of the nation.