Readers are encouraged to print this article so as to be able to spend some time to assess the various candidates objectively as we go towards the election date in Zambia to ensure they vote with their heads and not hearts
By Kalima Nkonde
Qualities of a President for Zambia
There are a lot of voters who currently lie in the undecided and independent column and are torn apart as to who they should vote for in the August 11,2016 election. Zambia has become a polarized society and this category of voters may well determine the winner of the election. This article, therefore, is primarily targeted at the undecided and independent voters who should ideally be rational in their decision making. It is not for partisan voters who are normally not objective as they vote for their candidates regardless of the candidates’ weaknesses because of Party loyalty.
In order to assist the undecided voters make a relatively objective decision, it would be helpful to outline what could be considered as some of the critical qualities that voters should be looking for in a President for Zambia at this critical time in our history. It should be noted that although anybody can grow up to be a President, not everybody is cut out to be a great, inspirational and transformational President.
The President of a country should have a combination of certain attributes to a varying degree although he or she cannot have them all in the same measure. It takes a special kind of person to be a President. They have to be someone decisive, tough, smart, talented and with sober character to hold the pressures of the job. The Presidency is the most difficult and complex job in the world requiring multi skills and it is a mistake to choose a President on the a basis of one positive and simplistic attribute like: “ He is humble,” or “He is an economic manager.” Or “ He is a Christian”.
This article is intended to have some serious fun with candidates selection and highlights ten qualities which are by no means exhaustive but are critical in Zambia’s circumstances. It is suggested that undecided and independent voters should either give a score between 1 to 10 to each candidate for each of qualities outlined and add up marks. One should be lowest score and ten is the highest. The total marks is 100. Alternatively, to make it simple for some voters, they just need to indicate pass or fail for each attribute. The candidate that gets the highest mark is the one they should give their vote.
The top five Presidential candidates to be assessed for the August 11 elections who are : Candidate Winter Kabimba, Candidate Tilyenji Kaunda, Candidate Edgar Lungu, Candidate Hakainde Hichilema and Candidate Edith Nawakwi.
The following are the ten qualities that Zambians should be looking for in a President: integrity, visionary, disciplinarian, compassionate, constitutionalist, humble, nationalist, competent, independent and healthy.
1. Integrity
Zambia needs a President who is a man or woman of honor. He should be an honest person with strong moral character who walks the talk, keeps his promises and is not a liar, hypocrite or pretender. He should not have a record of proven untrustworthiness or corruption or theft. The character of a President should be beyond reproach. Zambians should be able to trust him or her and have confidence that he is not going to steal the country’s resources and will always put the country’s interests first. The President should be at a higher end of Psychologist Abraham Maslow’s hierarchy of needs so as not to be motivated by money and other material things for vying for the office of President.
2. Visionary
The President of Zambia should clearly have a personal vision for Zambia and be committed and determined to realize that vision. He or she must be clear as to where he wants to take the country and how. A great leader is a role model of hard work to his people. He should have a passion to serve the public not be driven by money or fame but for the common good so as to make a difference in people’s lives. The President should also be inspirational through his words and actions.
3. Humble
The public wants a President who accepts that he is human and admits his mistakes and weaknesses. He should not be a show off who exhibits arrogant tendencies and looks down on others. He should be approachable, a good listener and respects the views of other people rather than exhibit a know it all attitude. A President has to be accountable and take responsibility when things go wrong and not pass the buck. He should not just take credit when things are going right and refuse to take responsibility when things go wrong.
Ted Turner, the billionaire Founder of CNN in his biography, “ Call me Ted “, said this about humility: “ Whether you are talking about a person or a country, its okay to be rich and it’s okay to be powerful, just as long as you’re humble and cooperative. But if you combine being rich and powerful with being arrogant and uncooperative, people won’t cut you much slack.”
4. Constitutionalist
Zambia like never before needs a President who believes in the rule of law. The country needs a leader who will uphold and respect the constitution, abide by the laws of the country, respect civil liberties like freedom of assembly, press freedom, and honor the decisions of the judiciary. According to the highest legal authority on the matter, the non partisan, Law Association of Zambia (LAZ), Law and order has broken down to some extent in Zambia as evidenced by political violence and the arbitrary behavior of the Police Service and abuse of public order act.
The politicization of democratic institutions is a clear sign that we are on the wrong governance trajectory. The full restoration of the separation of powers and the independence of important good governance institutions like Judiciary, Parliament, Anti Corruption Commission, Zambia Revenue Authority, Drug Enforcement Commission etc is critical. For any one who is old enough to have lived under the one Party State of KK’s UNIP dictatorship, they would agree that our hard won democracy is on the line and we can ill afford to lose the gains made in last twenty five years.
5. Disciplinarian
The President needs to be a proven disciplinarian in his past dealings including how he or she has maintained discipline in his or her own Party. They should be able to instill discipline in their administration and the country at large. Indiscipline is currently rampant in Zambia hence the violence, lawlessness etc. Zambians work better with leaders who are firm , disciplined and those that they fear to some extent.
The likes of Presidents Kenneth Kaunda, Levy Mwanawasa and Michael Sata were able to have things done and achieve their goals because subordinates feared being fired if they did not perform or if they were caught to be engaged in any misdemeanors. Zambia needs a President who is courageous enough be able to make decisions which are unpopular but are in the long term interests of the country even if it is not good for him and his Party. The President should be able to fight for what is right for the country. Zambia needs a strong leader – in the realm of John Pompe “ Bulldozer” Magufuli of Tanzania who can even fire friends – and not a weak one.
6. Compassionate
The majority of our people are suffering and wallowing in poverty. Zambia needs a President who understands what people are going through. We need a President who will empathize with the poorest of the poor of our people by word and deed and not just by mere political rhetoric. He should demonstrate how he will uplift the people who are suffering from misery and pain and demonstrate selfless love for the people including those that do not support him.
7. Competent
In the light of the economic problems that we are in, we need a President who is interested and has a working understanding how the economy works. He should be ideally a competent and an accomplished manager of the economy and the country. He or she should be a hands on and proactive President rather than a reactive one. He has to be organized and be able to assemble a high quality economic and governance team.
People look forward to a leader during a period of uncertainty to get reassurance and security. Our country seems to worship mediocrity and does not celebrate excellence. As a nation, we are jealous of achievers and celebrate failures. We need a President with a track record of accomplishments. If for Job interviews we review candidates’ resumes, why should we not do the same for the most difficult job in the country. We should review what candidates have achieved in the past which should be a rough indicator of the chance of their future success. In this way, we will minimize the risk of having a failed Presidency.
8. Nationalistic
In the light of Zambia being made up of so many tribes, the country needs a President who is a nationalist in word and deed and not a regionalist. He should promote unity among his people rather than causing them to be divided and have meaningless conflicts. The Zambian President should not pander to any tribal prejudices whatsoever.
The President should also put Zambians’ interest first and have a vision to empower Zambians in a broad based manner with jobs, education, skills, share ownership, finance, joint ventures with foreigners and business linkages with big businesses. This is only way to reduce poverty.
9. Independent
Zambia needs a President who is his/her own man or woman and not a puppet or pawn in the economic and political power game. He should be one who is not indebted to any sponsors. He should not be subject to manipulation by special interests who are thirsty for power and the wealth of the nation. He should be able to make brave decisions and stand up to powerful interests whether local or foreign. The President needs to portray and project a confident demeanor. He should have a self belief, be knowledgeable and not appear to be insecure and exhibit apparent inferiority complex.
10. Healthy
The job of a President is a demanding job. In view of the economic problems that the country faces, Zambia needs a President than ever before whose health is beyond question. The nature of the job can make one’s little ailments deteriorate at a faster rate than normal and thereby incapacitate him in performing well and possibly lead to premature death.
In the light of the country’s recent experience, Zambia can ill afford a President whose health is in question. The country needs a President who is a hard worker, analytical, sober minded and can endure the long hours of work that the job demands, Zambia needs a workaholic for a President at the moment.
CONCLUSION
This article is a non partisan one and not personal one and covers five Presidential candidates. If there a weaknesses or strengthens that coincide with any candidate, it sheer coincidence and not targeted at all. The intention is to help the undecided, independents and disaffected to choose the best Presidential candidate who is the best for Zambia.
It is suggested that the undecided voters should do a bit of research on the Presidential candidates, observe them on the campaign trail and give marks to each one of them and see who gets the highest mark out of 100. They can then form an informed opinion on the various candidates so that come election time, they can decide on who to vote for on basis of the marks. In this way, they will be voting with a Head and not the Heart as they will have some objective basis.
It should be noted that each candidate has strengths and weaknesses and they may earn a higher score on one attribute and a lower score on another! The best candidate is one whose strengths over compensates for his or her weaknesses and by choosing such a candidate, then we are reducing the country’s risk of having a President who will turn the wheels of Zambia’s economic and political progress backwards. It is the sum total that will matter.
It is also hoped that the above mentioned qualities can be a basis for civilized debate in clubs, kitchen tables, dinner table, bars by the respective rational supporters of the various parties with regard to the weaknesses and strengths of the respective candidates.. The Independents and the Youth should learn from the BREXIT vote in the UK where most people voted with their hearts instead of their heads and are now regretting the way they voted as the consequences are daring. Zambian voters in general are well advised to vote with their conscience and base their votes on whether they will be well off or worse off by the choice they make.
This advice goes to my Tonga brothers and sisters. Don’t vote a stone cos you hate ECL. HH is indebted to the cartel. This guy’s will bring on earth to Zambia. ECL can stand his ground unlike HH.
This is good advice in theory given that all the candidates mentioned where presented to the electorate after questionable conventions with some having none at all. In Zambia like most things it is a case of getting what is there and in this case the criteria is minimising risks by choosing the least rotten of the pack.
Zambia politics has never been about policies .Try this formula on a poor uneducated undecided zambian and see what the response will be. For starters l suggest KMB in kitwe, main masala in Ndola and kamwala bus station Goodluck!
Lungu is a convicted fraudster.
@MJ Banda!
People who have failed resort to non-existent excuses like the “Cartel”! So we shud vote for ECL because he is not indebted to the cartel? Bwana, we vote for a president to deliver economically for us! Unfortunately ECL has lamentably failed on that score. He cannot even articulate a coherent vision (or I forgot: he has no vision!).
HH has given you his manifesto, reduced to the 10 point plan, on which we can judge him. We cannot “sontapo” forever! We will not eat these expensive roads. If PF had invested part of the US$10Billion in reviving industries, I wud have thot of voting for them. Can anyone see Infrastructure worth US$10Billion in Zambia? It took KK 27years to get a debt of US$7.5Billion, but it is plain to see Kaunda’s Infrastruture! PF kuwayawaya fye!
THIS IS VERY POWERFUL. AND THIS DOCUMENT SHOULD NOT END HERE ONLINE. LET EACH ONE OF THE FIVE PROSPECTIVE PRESIDENTS HAVE A HARD COPY AND READ THE CONTENTS SO THAT THERE AFTER EACH ONE CAN HAVE TIME TO INTROSPECT! OUT OF THESE FIVE, EDGAR LUNGU IS THE CURRENT SERVING PERSON AS PRESIDENT OF ZAMBIA,AND SHAME ON LUNGU BECAUSE HE DOES NOT HAVE ANY OF THE TEN VIRTUES HERE OUTLINED. LUNGU IS MEDIOCRE, ONLY PRESIDENT BY NAME, YET EMPTY, WITH NOTHING WITH HIM TO OFFER THE ZAMBIAN PEOPLE. I TELL YOU LUNGU IS VERY VERY LOW GRADE. LUNGU IS UNGRADED! IF ALL VOTERS WOULD INDEED USE REASONING WHEN VOTING IN AUGUST, THEN AUTOMATICALLY HH SHOULD BE OUR NEXT PRESIDENT. VIVA HH VIVA! VIVA UPND VIVA!
BaBanda keep ur wakoniwako to yourself.
Ba pepo just vote a stone
A good criteria for electing a President of Zambia. Based on this criteria out of a 100 marks and comparing the main 2 candidates overall I score as follows:
1.ECL- 30%
2.HH-70%
HH is sober,experienced farmer,businessman, a senior SDA, healthy and hardworking, respectable, believes in rule of law,good governance,accountability etc.
ECL is a Chakolwa, a thief, lazy bum, frail and unhealthy,thuggish, violent person with no respect of rule of law, bad governance etc.
Zambians have no choice but to elect HH,GBM & UPND and get rid of ECL and his PF visionless,tribalists, regionalists and looters.
No @HaMwansa
You got it wrong
1. ECL = 90%
2. hh = 10%
Zambians will show you on 11th August 2016 that insults do not win elections.
God Bless you personally
“CONCLUSION – This article is a non partisan one and not personal one and covers five Presidential candidates. If there a weaknesses or strengthens that coincide with any candidate, it sheer coincidence…”
Hahahahah!
Every item points out the categories where ECL FAILS! Or is that just a coincidence???????
ECL has failed the test
Yes. ECL has failed on this scorecard. Below average.
ECL fails all the benchmarks. Which shows it was an accident or mistake in the first place to have Lungu as a President. After being convicted of stealing a client’s money held in trust and then being de registered as a Lawyer by LAZ Lungu should have been disqualified to stand becoz he has a criminal record. Having stolen a client’s money and allowed to get away with it Lungu wasted no time and started stealing money from govt coffers and is now USD2.7million filthy rich together with the likes Alex Chikwanda, the current i?legal Minister of Finance. ECL should not have been President of Zambia at all. Forward with HH,GBM and UPND.
LAZ does not de-register and he wasn’t de-registered. Check your facts. At least he doesn’t lie like #HH who says on Zambezi Magic that he us fearful of his life daily. Really? Trying to paint a picture like this country is full of people that would want to kill him. Don’t worry nature will take its course after 11th Aug.
…Kalima, we are not voting for a CEO of a company…we are voting for a politician in an African state…where would you find an African president who is genuinely humble, compassionate, independent, nationalist,constitutionist ….its almost impossible to get one these days…either they have passed on or are not yet born…persons like the Mandela…how do I know that this person is health..??..just by looking..??…or you are suggesting mandatory medical tests for candidates..??…people pretend to be humble when they need a vote from you…they substitute discipline with authoritarian…
Who the fu.ck is kalima nkonde
Where are the PF kaponya bloggers Kudos, HH techilem, Senior citizen and the rest of them to walk us through the talk about lungus suitability on those benchmarks ????
@ Spaka like lilo
You used my words in your question above. Indeed we could add Peter et al and ECL 2016. Their silence is deafening and their service to walk us through Kalima Nkonde’s thesis is eagerly awaited.
THE ONE WHO WROTE THIS ARTICLE IS A MYOPIC TRIBALIST SYCOPHANT …FULL OF IDIOCY ..CONTINUE TO DREAM ON…CERTAIN SEATS IN LUSAKA FOR UPND IN LUSAKA TOWN ,CHAWAMA, KANYAMA ,MATRO AND LUSAKA YOU ***** NKONDE
Good advice. it shall be duly applied.
Lungu misearably fails in all categories, he cannot descipline his own cadres and as a PF cadre you can get away with any crime. Kanene, Dandy crazy are roaming the streets like they didnt violate our laws.
And your VP to be GBV…If HH was a disciplinarian he would not have chosen GBV over Dr. Banda.
Good advice. I would only add that the evaluation must be made on empirical evidence (facts). Not hearsay (kachepa), innuendos, etc. An objective evaluation will recognise the good and bad in each candidate because it is unlikely that any one of them is completely bad or completely good.
Excellent article!
THIS IS VERY POWERFUL. AND THIS DOCUMENT SHOULD NOT END HERE ONLINE. LET EACH ONE OF THE FIVE PROSPECTIVE PRESIDENTS HAVE A HARD COPY AND READ THE CONTENTS SO THAT THERE AFTER EACH ONE CAN HAVE TIME TO INTROSPECT! OUT OF THESE FIVE, EDGAR LUNGU IS THE CURRENT SERVING PERSON AS PRESIDENT OF ZAMBIA,AND SHAME ON LUNGU BECAUSE HE DOES NOT HAVE ANY OF THE TEN VIRTUES HERE OUTLINED. LUNGU IS MEDIOCRE, ONLY PRESIDENT BY NAME, YET EMPTY, WITH NOTHING WITH HIM TO OFFER THE ZAMBIAN PEOPLE. I TELL YOU LUNGU IS VERY VERY LOW GRADE. LUNGU IS UNGRADED! IF ALL VOTERS WOULD INDEED USE REASONING WHEN VOTING IN AUGUST, THEN AUTOMATICALLY HH SHOULD BE OUR NEXT PRESIDENT. VIVA HH VIVA! VIVA UPND VIVA!
What a country! My Country! Anything reasonable is insulted, ridiculed and called sorts of bad names. This is a great article written quite well. If some candidate seem to fail the criteria, it is not about the criteria but the person. So, it is up to the person to try and develop him/herself to meet the criteria. We need to walk the talk and not what Kalusha Bwalya says… “walking the walk and talking the talk”. Its non-sense.
AT THIS POINT IT SERVES NO PURPOSE TO TRY AND CONVINCE VOTERS WHICH CANDIDATE THEY SHOULD VOTE FOR. THE PENDULUM HAD ALREADY SWUNG. ITS ALL IN THE TURN OUT.
ECL EN HH PS TK WK
Integrity 6 6 7 8 8 4
Visionary 7 6 7 7 4 6
Humble 8 5 4 7 8 5
Constitutio 8 5 6 6 7 6
Discipline 4 6 6 6 5 6
Compassio 8 6 4 6 6 5
Competenc 7 5 6 7 5 6
Nationalist 8 6 4 7 7 5
Indepen 6 5 6 7 6 5
Total Score 62 50 50 61 56 48
Interesting we currently have a very approachable leader, who dispite the external factors and tempral challenages has walked the talk. Many promises he made during his previous campaigns he has implimented. Another strength i admire is that he is a team player. Despite having inhetited most of his subordinates from the late president MCS (mhsrip) the president has proved that he can still do it. Many of his inherited staff have in so many way tried to subotage what he. Is doing to take the country forward. His reign has been filled with so many external factors that have negatively affected the national economy. However, he has fought and reduced most of these. Ie electricity issues.. looking at the visions of the other aspiring cadidates, their plans are what ECL’s government has…
Cont….
However, he has fought and reduced most of these. Ie electricity issues.. looking at the visions of the other aspiring cadidates, their plans are what ECL’s government has implimented or still in the pipe line. With this in mind, no change is needed as whatever was promised we can see & point!!!! Above all he has begged that he doesnt want blood to be shed for him to be in state house, he is a nationalist.
It is a good article but let the will of God prevail. God appoints Leaders, he is the only one who can read man’s thoughts. Men see the outside but God sees the inside, good example is King David in the bible.
I propose the reduction of the 10 points to just 3. Although well written, cute, and grammatically excellent in many ways the article is conceptually shallow, woven in redundant, repetitive and contradictory assumptions. Please refer to the glossary of synonyms in my conclusion:
1. Integrity
2. Visionary
3. Humble,
4. Disciplinarian
5. Compassionate.
Humble, Disciplinarian and Compassionate should be removed from the list as essential qualities because they can be mutually exclusive. For example, a humble person cannot be a disciplinarian at the same time. Neither can a disciplinarian be expected to be compassionate. The three should instead be taken as situational predispositions for counselling the winner on the type of attitude they should have in different situations once they…
… are in power. A person cannot be all 3 at once at the same time. There is a time for a President to be one of the 3 wisdom is knowing when to put on that quality.
6. Competent is redundant as no specific skill set has been proposed to be prescriptive as best fit for President of Zambia. Competence for the President cannot be evaluated unless you have been a president before. In this case only ECL can be evaluated albeit for 18 months only.
7. Independent
8. Nationalistic
9. Healthy
10. Constitutionalist
Healthy, Nationalist and Constitutionalist are redundant as none of the candidates has an incapacitating illness or has proposed to overthrow the constitution of Zambia or append the Republic to the interests of another country.
In substance this Ten-point scorecard should be reduced to 3 points only, in this case.
1. Integrity
2. Visionary
9. Independence of Mind
Glossary of Synonyms:
1. Integrity is synonymous with: Honesty, Truth Truthfulness, Honor, and Veracity
2. Visionary is synonymous with: Unrealistic, Impracticable, Quixotic, Fanciful, and Unworkable
3. Humble is synonymous with: Modest, Unassuming, Retiring Meek, and Self-effacing,
4. Disciplinarian is synonymous with: Tyrant, Despot, Authoritarian, Stickler and Martinet. (5)
5. Compassionate is synonymous with Sympathetic Empathetic Feeling Concerned and Kind. (6)
6. Competent is synonymous with: Capable, Able, Knowledgeable Experienced and Skilled. (7)
7. Independent is synonymous with: Self-governing, Sovereign, Autonomous,…
Self-determining, and Self-regulating. (9)
8. Nationalistic is synonymous with: Patriotic, Jingoistic, Chauvinistic, Xenophobic and Internationalist. (8)
9. Healthy is synonymous with: Fit, Well, Strong, Vigorous, and In good physical shape. (10)
10. Constitutionalist is a person who believes that a government should be based on a constitution. (4)
variables. For example, why would the nation need integrity in their leader that their own people do not put out as a priority?
Thirdly, in the absence of empirically testable variables the article is self-contradictory in the sense that although it calls for voters to be rational; the application of the suggested qualities involves emotional pre-judgement of the candidates for President. My point is that the mind vs heart dichotomy even beyond this article is such an unnatural way of any form of human decision making. Humans base decisions on both heart and mind. The level of information they possess at hand determines the kind of options they would be predisposed to select. In social learning theory, decisions are influenced by both personal factors and environmental pressures…
It should not be under-emphasized that Kalima Nkonde has written a very educative article. I find it to be very constructive and helpful. However, I also continue to find a few more deficiencies with this Nkonde scorecard of voting mind over heart in the upcoming Presidential bids:
First, although it articulates the context of Zambia well it does not point out the measurable variables that make Zambia unique in circumstance to warrant its particular application. This deficiency makes the application of the principles suggested to be arbitrary and subjective.
Secondly, although the article points out the problems and purpose of the counsel, it fails to draw upon any known leadership or social learning theory that assisted in the generation of the suggested empirically testable…
variables. For example, why would the nation need integrity in their leader that their own people do not put out as a priority?
Thirdly, in the absence of empirically testable variables the article is self-contradictory in the sense that although it calls for voters to be rational; the application of the suggested qualities involves emotional pre-judgement of the candidates for President. My point is that the mind vs heart dichotomy even beyond this article is such an unnatural way of any form of human decision making. Humans base decisions on both heart and mind. The level of information they possess at hand determines the kind of options they would be predisposed to select. In social learning theory, decisions are influenced by both personal factors and
environmental pressures. Therefore, whoever makes a good case that can resonate with the majority of the people’s felt personal needs and environment pressures wins both the people’s minds and hearts, as to be evidenced the elections results.
Fourth, the quality “humble” should not be included as is it neither empirically observable nor testable. For example, a very rich man trying to become a President of a very poor country and abandon his business exploits can be taken as observably humble. But a lean, sick looking and boring conversationalist can also be observably humble. In most of today’s discourse the root for the word humble is the Bible. The evaluated should normally not qualify as humble using biblical standards. This becomes immeasurable. You cannot measure biblical humility…
on the scale of 1-10, in the Scriptures the measurement criteria are not even a human prerogative. Kalima Nkode is unintentionally asking voters to take the place of God who perceives “humble” accurately and can therefore measure it. In fact, in one text it would be easier for a Carmel to pass through the head of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God. Similarly, the believers are counselled in the Scriptures to be wary of wolves in sheep’s skin. Clearly, a dig on those with appearance humility or those originating from impoverished backgrounds. On the balance of the merits the Bible captures humble as a game of heart; a domain that no man is capable of accurately evaluating in another. No one can really know what is in another man’s heart. Therefore, humble is not…
…neither appropriately testable nor observable to warrant any rewards.
e l is and will always be best humble,simple,loving,wise,generous,God fearing,down to earth u have called him the waist but he beat all the so called best for u balange mudala fipelwa na lesa