What you are seeing in opposition are just opening salvos, watch the space!

By Daily Revelation Editor

Mwenya Musenge says Zambia is not ripe for political alliances, saying leaders that go into alliances lack some sincerity.

“Political alliances are not a new phenomenon in Zambia. But the problem with political pacts or alliances, as it were, is that leaders of political parties that go in these alliances tend not to be sincere… they lack some sincerity. And that is why these political alliances do not succeed, but end up in failed projects. You also need to understand the agenda of a political alliance. If the objective is just to remove President Hakainde Hichilema from power. After that, then what? For me, Zambia is not mature enough to form successful alliances or a pact,” he said.

Mwenya’s observations deserve serious reflection. One doesn’t even need to critically analyse the problems that have beset alliances that have come on the scene and gone. Some have disintegrated before they could even reach Election Day, as happened with the pact involving PF and UPND over arguments on who was going to lead the pact.

The ill-fated United Democratic Alliance, which came earlier than the PF-UPND pact, involving UPND, FDD and UNIP was another vivid example of the many problems that have beset alliances in this country. Leaders in that alliance went into the 2006 general elections quarreling over several issues including the alliance leadership, especially following the death of Anderson Mazoka. They paid dearly for that as the alliance which should have seen its numbers increase following UPND’s sole second place finish in the 2001 elections, actually witnessed a dwindling in vote share and the number of parliamentary seats, while being relegated to third position by the MMD and the PF in the 2006 general elections.

Then came the UPND alliance which had also issues, as from the same alliance followed the serious splits that characterised Chishimba Kambwili’s once promising NDC which was showing a lot of promise at the time.

Today, we are witnessing arguments in the opposition group. They started out on a promising note, having joint meetings and press briefings, but when it came to the formation of the alliance some were left out on account of various reasons which have already been talked about openly. Clearly there are serious issues currently going on in the opposition group, and information we have indicates that it is centering around the role of former president Edgar Lungu will play.

There are a lot of reasons why alliances fail in this country, chief among them a lack of sincerity among the participants as self-seeking usually dominates everything else.

There is also the role ruling parties play as when they feel threatened they resort to buying the ones they view to be playing a key role in alliances but carrying the most baggage they can use against them to buy them off and ruin the alliances. We are well aware that the ruling party is working around the clock right now to spread their tentacles in the UKA alliance and opposition in general to strike against them.

Therefore we can only describe the very sharp back and forth we are seeing already as just the opening salvo in the many clashes we are going to witness. Just stay tuned and watch this space.