HOW CHAKOLWA WAS DUPED BY EMMANUEL MWAMBA THAT PROF. LUMUMBA HAD ENDORSED HIM
Fellow Citizens,
This morning, I came across the latest remarks from Kenyan’s renowned constitutional lawyer and Pan Africanist, Professor Patrick Loche Lumumba concerning Zambia’s political leadership which caught my attention.
Speaking in Kenya yesterday at a radio show focusing on “democracy in Africa” as monitored by News24, the Kenyan distinguished lawyer said “everyone can now see that former Zambian President Edgar Chagwa Lungu was a democrat and that Hichilema is a dictator”. Remember, this is Prof. Lumumba who was very critical of my leadership everywhere, praised President Hichilema in opposition and my administration even blocked him from entering Zambia between 2018 and 2020.
I have read that he was expressing his latest views on recent developments in our country where Zambia Police has been blocking public rallies for the opposition parties since 2021 as well as chasing non UPND political leaders from attending church services including the brutal invasion of the Catholic Church office in Kabwe where armed police went to search for me like a criminal. “It is very clear that Hichilema was all the time pretending to be a democrat”, Prof. Lumumba concluded.
From an honest comparison, I am happy to hear from Professor Lumumba that my efforts to promote and safeguard democracy in our motherland which were undermined then are now deemed to have been far much better when mirrored with HH’s UPND regime. When foreign scholars who at some point criticized you begin to appreciate your efforts on democracy promotion against the person they once deemed better, then it means that their feedback is morally noble and politically sincere.
In September, 2020, I remember Prof. Lumumba saying “President Edgar Lungu is intolerant, paranoid and a demagogue”. Today, I am happy to hear that the same Kenyan lawyer and Pan Africanist is saying “everyone can now see that former Zambian President Edgar Chagwa Lungu was a democrat and that Hichilema is a full fledged dictator”. This gives me a sigh of relief as I am being vindicated for warning everyone that “you will appreciate me when I leave office”.
Therefore, I agree in totality with Professor Lumumba when he argues Zambians to find ways of terminating the mandate of Hichilema in 2026 because “he poses a danger to Zambia’s peace and Africa at large”. Remember, it is the first time since independence that under my successor, a brotherly nation, our own neighboring Zimbabwe now feels so insecure about Zambia because of wrong political leadership and foreign policies in Lusaka. 2026 should be marked as “a year to restore democracy and good neighborliness”.
When a person who praised you as ‘the hope and light of Zambia’ begins to describe you as “the worst dictator since Zambia’s independence”, then wisdom demands that you pose, listen and take a deep self reflection at once. President Hichilema must listen to “his former allies” like Dr. Sishuwa Sishuwa, Bflow, Laura Miti, Brebner Changala, Archbishop Telesphore Mpundu and Professor Patrick Lumumba himself and tone down on his authoritarian and law-fare politics. He is speedily losing stakeholders trust and public confidence both at home and abroad!
And if President Hichilema is to start walking democratic values, he will do better to stay away from political vengeance, bitterness, tribalism, regionalism, selective justice, weaponizing state agencies, suffocating free speech as well as start allowing opposition parties to freely conduct politics in public spaces. It is not by coincidence that Professor Patrick Lumumba, Dr Sishuwa Sishuwa, Brebner Changala, Archbishop Telesphore Mpundu, Bflow or his Laura Miti are all complaining that “he is a dictator and a threat to national peace”.
Once more, I am happy to learn that many stakeholders at home and abroad now appreciating the fact that I was by far a democratic leader who meant well for Zambia than President HH who repeatedly promised to rule democratically better than me but has delivered and shown “the worst despotic politics so far”.
Edgar Chagwa Lungu
Sixth President of Zambia
Patriotic Front President