IS UNITED KWACHA ALLIANCE-UKA BREAKING?
What UKA must learn from music, football, business, church & animals: 12 Reasons Why PF must be so angry about ECL 2026 Candidature
Dr. Chris Zumani Zimba
1. In football, we have world class players whose skills and performance on the pitch such as Messi, Mbaphe, Cristiano Ronaldo, Jude Bellingham, Erling Haaland, Neymar, Vinicius Junior or Lamine Yamah make them to be competitively priced above U$100 million dollars if any club was to buy them. To the contrary, most players in Zambian football are valued at less than U$2 million dollars-so embarrassingly cheap, but they are also footballers!
2. Leo Messi accepting to greet and chart with James Chamanga at Heroes Stadium should never make Chamanga to think he is also a world class player when he has never won any CAF or FIFA individual awards. That is why it will be an absolute insult for Leo Messi, Ronaldo or Mbaphe to be invited to play for CHIPOLOPOLO and be told that he cannot be given his preferred jersey number 9 or 10 because other “equal strikers” like Mbesuma, Chamanga, Mayuka, Daka or Mulenga also want the same number.
3. How can a lay pastor at Rhema Bible College or a mere church usher at Misisi Fire Church demand to be treated equal with Bishop Joe Imakando, Prophet TB Joshua, Bishop David Oyodepo, Pastor William Kumuyi, the Pope or Apostle Johnson Sulemani simply because he or she was graciously allowed to eat with one of them for a special lunch? Carrying a Bible for any of these world class Men of God of Higher Universal Calling cannot make one to become their peer or equivalent. That thinking is total nonsense!
4. In music, names like Justin Bieber, Davido, Rihana, Diamond Platinum, Beyoncé, P Square, Chris Brown, Koffi Olomide, Fally Ipupa, Mafikizolo or Innos B are world class performers whose shows cost an elephant foot in dollar terms. In July 2024, India’s richest person, Makeshi Ambani worth of about $124 billion dollars hired Justin Bieber and Rihana for his private family marriage event at more than U$10 million dollars each.
5. This must give you a clear idea that these top notch world class musicians are by far globally renowned, musically better and so distinguished special as well as respected worldwide above the rest. Davido, Justin Bieber, Chris Brown or Rihana are surely not at the same level with Zambia’s Abatali, Y-Celeb, The Third, Red Linso, Shantel, Black Munthu, Oga Family or General Ozzy or Mike Tholo. There is no Zambian dancer or singer known to India’s Makeshi Ambani to be hired any day.
6. But PF has allowed UKA to normalize a moral insult on how the alliance treat the only former president in Zambia in Edgar Lungu. PF for God’s sake has allowed UKA to subject their top notch world class political leader in ECL (their only Leo Messi, Davido or Justin Bieber) to be valued and treated so ordinary equal to UKA’s Batalali, The Third, John Ka Dancer or Mphande the Southern voice. How can a former President be treated the same with ordinary opposition leaders in any alliance?
7. In the jungle, impalas, rabits, birds and monkeys all give way to lions and elephants whenever they see them approaching. In the animal kingdom, the lion is the king and monkeys, rabits and impalas have eternally accepted this defined order of things. It is only in UKA that we hear they want to change such divine leadership order and hierarchy. PF must not be smiling to see their only lion being reduced to an Impala by other political animals of the lower classes. Unless PF has become an accomplice too!
8. PF knows that Lungu’s popularity is increasingly overwhelming and becoming hugely unbearable and embarrassing for HH and everyone in UPND. On June, 2024, both Lungu and HH had press briefings at the time in the afternoon. While Lungu had more than 6 thousand online followers, the sitting President, HH himself only had less than 400 viewers at the same time. Then why is PF allowing UKA to treat their top notch Justin Bieber, MJ or Davido so politically trash as Batalali, Mashombe band or Oga Family?
9. In this life, your social status today will differentiate how and where you will be buried after leaving this world. Even the type of tombstone you see in any capital city graveyard, they speak of different social status among the dead. In Lusaka, many poor residents are buried in Leopard Hill Ordinary Cemetery or Chingwele Cemetery while the rich find themselves buried in Memorial Park or Mutumba Cemetery. This is the natural order of life!
10. In UKA, there is need for honest reflections about “equal status” among themselves. PF must remind UKA that there are only two Zambians today (Lungu and HH) will be buried at Embassy Park with KK, FTJ Chiluba, Levy Mwanawasa, Micheal Sata and Rupiah Banda. The rest in UKA and all of us will be buried wherever our families will decide when that times comes.
11. PF must remind UKA that, when James Chamanga or Sate Sate is allowed to train with Leo Messi or Mbaphe, that does not mean that any of them has instantly become equal to Messi or Mbaphe in terms of value, skills and social status in football. At many shopping malls, ShopRite is the anchor shop-it is the one most visible and pulls crowds to the mall for other smaller shops. Any shopping mall without an anchor shop like ShopRite or Pick and Pay is practically dead. Lungu is the ShopRite in UKA-he pulls new members and stakeholders into the alliance.
12. In fact, there is non in UKA who can attract thousands of people on any street of Lusaka for a thunderous greeting apart from the former president. Therefore, PF must insist that Lungu is merely crowned UKA alliance candidate for 2026 immediately by existing UKA Presidents ( NEC). In any alliance, when a sitting or former president declares interest, there no sensible politician who can cough of any bogus or unchurched convention. Alliances don’t elect leaders by convention, the anchor party and leader merely takes over coalition leadership. And this is rightful place of PF and ECL in UKA.
Dr Chris ZUMANI Zimba is a Political Scientist, Researcher, Author & Consultant specialized in Comparative Global Governance and Democratic Theories. He holds a PhD, MA, BA and Cert in Political Science. Zimba was President Lungu’s Political Advisor from December 2019 to August 2021. By philosophical approach, Dr. Zimba is a Pan Africanist as well as Afro-Christian by religion.
Email: chriszumaniZimba.cz@gmail.com