Lungu deserves everybody’s support

By Daily Revelation Editor

Not many people in this country have fond memories of former president Edgar Lungu’s time in power, the more reason why he lost in such repudiating fashion by 1 million votes as an incumbent to Hakainde Hichilema.

There are so many things Zambians had come to hate about the manner Lungu went about governing the country, including a lot of questionable wealth accumulation by himself, leaders in his government, extending to the general party membership. The culture of caderism became so entrenched, almost institutionalised to the extent where the PF cadres became some of the most powerful and feared people in society.

Zambians were upset with how state institutions operated where they seemed to have become conveyor belts in doing the bidding of the president and the PF generally, especially in matters where the former president and his party had key interests. Zambians were also not happy at the economic trajectory the economy was moving at.

The dislike in most Zambians still lingers today, and that mindset may impede many from appreciating some of the injustices the former president is facing.

For instance, one does not need to agree or even like Lungu to see the very clear attempts by President Hakainde Hichilema using state institutions to undemocratically bar his opponent from participating in this country’s democratic activities simply for having the temerity to re-contest the presidency again. And we actually see no need why Hichilema should go to such lengths if he honestly believes that he has performed on the promises he made to Zambians.

This media organisation is on record as having firmly believed that Lungu was not eligible to contest the 2021 general elections and subsequent ones, as he was already sworn in twice into office as president and received the benefits as such. However, even as we believed in this position, we were alive to the fact that in the end he was going to get his wish, going by how state institutions operate in this country, where those appointed have mastered the art of being spineless wimps, instead of using their offices to advance just causes for society.

In the end, Lungu got his wish from the Constitutional Court and was subsequently allowed to participate in the 2021 elections and the ones which were to follow. However, a ruling was made, whether right or wrong, and therefore a legal precedent set, meaning that the matter could not be re-litigated upon again.

In saying so, we should all be alive to the fact that there are so many wrong decisions that have been made from the courts in this country but we still live with them. If the court dares go against its own precedence in the Lungu eligibility case, then those who have lived with a sense of injustice over their own court rulings which went against them have the liberty to recommence litigation of those court matters.

But this will be a destruction of jurisprudence in this country. Zambians were especially hopeful that once they elected Hichilema he would embark on a reformist agenda to revolutionise the manner state institutions, including the courts, operated in this country, in the furtherance of democracy and in the service of public aspirations. But instead of embarking on that noble path, Hichilema seems more determined to continue on the same path where he uses state institutions against his political opponents.

Those who have not seen mingalato in the suspension of those three ConCourt justices, barely 48 hours before the eligibility hearing were to start, must surely get their heads checked. It is either, partisanship has blinded them so much to the extent of getting their heads firmly buried in the sand, akin to the burying occurring at the many illegal mines. Their heads are firmly buried such that even the use of excavators will prove too inadequate to unbury them.

But should Hichilema be allowed to get away with the same abuses Zambians so heavily punished Lungu for? The answer is a categorical no! This fight against Lungu is not against Lungu per say. It is against all the people of Zambia in terms of battering their very democratic ideals, where a President can just rise up and decide who should or should not participate in the elections, and by implication democracy.

Zambians would have thought the wrongs that had been witnessed from the courts and other state institutions, would be addressed through wholesale reforms in the manner state institutions operated, as opposed to playing the usual politics of suspending the judges someone felt would be inconvenient to his sinister grand of schemes.