By Chimwemwe Mwanza
Contaminate the economic and social discourse with raw sewer and create enough of a stink that causes all manner of distractions and diversions. It’s a political stratagem that the former ruling Patriotic Front (PF) successfully adopted and deployed over the years with maximum potency. This helped the party to maintain its stranglehold on power.
Scapegoating ridiculous poverty levels to a decades-old state-sanctioned privatisation program, the PF also exploited an ethnic polarised society much to their benefit. Their strategy – casting blame on their chief political opponent – whom they successfully projected to voters as the architect of their misery endured. The inference therein: HH privatised state-owned assets to enrich himself, try giving him levers of power, he will mortgage the country too, was another scaremongering pitch.
Unfortunately, lies have short legs and can barely sustain the weight of truth. Whilst unsustainable, it’s arguable that dividends of such gutter politics largely helped to keep the former ruling party in power but only for a period. And now in opposition, a wounded PF – still smarting from a humiliating defeat is even more cunning and dangerous. Enter Raphael Nakachinda – he of the binoculars fame has become the biggest thorn in the UPND flesh.
Thanks to this brand of politics, Nakachinda and the PF now own and direct Zambia’s socio-economic narrative with the UPND barely managing to keep its head above choppy waters. While true that the PF’s decade-old reign in power drove the economy to ground, HH as the incumbent owns this mess and it’s now his alone to fix. Tellingly, his honeymoon with the youth and unemployed masses that catapulted him to state house is fading fast. This much he acknowledged during his briefing. ‘While we understand your frustration, these things take time to fix,’ he assured.
The question remains though. Has he got the mettle to grasp and fix Zambia’s malaise?
The answer depends on one’s affiliation, yet Nakachinda and the opposition is brutally dismissive of the notion that the Zambian voter is better off now than he was prior to last year’s Presidential polls. Is he correct? On evidence, from the briefing on Monday, the opposition is proficiently succeeding in their quest to project the President as a bitter, vindictive, and petty politician that hasn’t a clue on how to steer the country out of the current economic morass.
Yet HH holds a different view. Validating his performance using economic jargons of tangibles and intangibles, one could tell the difficulty he faces in selling his successes thus far to the grassroot. Nonetheless, he has already embarked on a chest beating victory lap. But not so fast Mr President. Tamuna maniya mulimo boss, alimwi kwamba masimpe tamuna talika. The journey ahead is still tough and rough, nchito yeve yikalipo bwana.
The challenges ahead will require nothing but political tolerance, magnanimity, the courage to dispence with the corrupt and granting autonomy to prosecutorial institutions now ensconced at community house. But does the President have the courage of mind to align with these goals?
While his briefing was punctuated by repeated calls for unity, his demeanor, and consistent threats to dissent betrayed his sincerity. The fact that he devoted a portion of his briefing discussing Nakachinda – speaking derisively of the PF’s Information and Publicity strongman is telling of not only the President’s failings but the effectiveness of the PF’s stratagem. And just how Nakachinda has managed to ensnare him in this skullduggery boggles the mind.
Should he be wasting time unleashing cops on a hapless but loquacious politician? It’s his call but he needs to be reminded that history has a way of sanitising and cleansing rogues. And the poser for the UPND is that it’s becoming a gift that keeps giving – a danger to itself. HH ought to be reminding himself that he was the target of hate speech serving in the opposition trenches, therefore, click baiting by the opposition was bound to intensify now that he has assumed power.
Trouble is the ruling party is constantly falling in Nakachinda’s gameplan – which is to consistently provoke the establishment so his widely publicised incarcerations can grab the attention of both local and international media. The ultimate endgame is for Nakachinda to emerge as a political martyr of sorts. As the adage goes, a stint in jail often serves to embolden a jail bird – and truth is jail is now synonymous with the PF strongman.
At this stage, it’s easy to sence HH’s growing sence of paranoia. For argument’s sake, how does one reconcile the fact that the politician who barely eight months ago rode the wave of social media can now begin to demonise the very platforms that propelled him to statehouse? Isn’t the moniker Bally a creation of social media platforms which he is now demonising?
In the eyes of the opposition, HH seems like a leader who is both on a warpath and a mission to annihilate non-UPND sympathysers. And the sooner he develops a thick skin to criticism, the better. Luckily for him, he still has the sympathy and goodwill of many Zambians to change course. However, goodwill also has an expiry date.
Meanwhile, somebody free Nakachinda so he can keep zooming in on the UPND’s excesses.
About the Author: Mwanza enjoys reading Political History and Philosophy. The only thing he supports is Kabwe Warriors and Liverpool. For feedback, email [email protected]
Ignore him and he will disappear. USA can’t condemn the Nakachinda arrests because PF is Chinese inclined.
He who has ears, let him listen!
#1 Deja Vu is of course right: ignore him and after two weeks people won’t even remember his name. Big mistake of HH by even mentioning him in his press statement, Nakacinda will have been very happy being called a lunatic. Now he is a martyr! Much harder to kill off!
Zambia is ours to cherish.
I agree with most of the points raised in the article. His demeanour was defensive. He is in the hot seat now, if his policies bare fruit that could cushion his bum….lol.
But again, he is human and he’s probably watched the press and learned something. He should’ve sacrificed someone though. Even someone with no case to answer.
A foolish annalysis. Nakachinda has not yet accepted that PF lost the elections and he is biter for he only tasted ministerial post only for three months. He was wishing to stay longer as a minister so that he could be able to amass wealth like his colleagues in that cabinet but was cut off hence his biterness. And today his binoculars set is now defective. What a shame
Great article and well balanced. The political quagmire that we have found ourselves in and the narrative of tribalism seems to benefit the opposition in that, they feel that once their message reaches the masses, they will cause discontent and stir a revolution of some sorts that will lead to the destabilisation and eventually causing riots due to the high cost of living. The UPND should be smart and not fall into this trap. They promised to better the standard of living for the masses and this should echo in their minds. The president too should avoid discussing individuals as he has a higher moral ground to set an example of dealing with criticism. What we want is a better economy and let us focus on that.
Daring an African President who does not only have the power to grant immunity but also sign off on death sentences in a country that still have capital punishment on its statute books is tantamount to suicidal stupidity! Only time will tell but this whole episode will end up horribly for the appropriately named Nakacinda lunatic!
People will forget about him when he is in jail. Tribal talk has no place in Zambia
Tribal ranting is now genius! People you have too much idle time on your hands.
So, how Nakachinda genius in all this? – Genius = outstanding capacity in what? – megalomania behaviour- of insulting an ethnic group of people in a nation. Gifted with extraordinary mental thinking? really? – never heard Nakachinda in academic circles. In delusional, many have ended up in mental prisons. Nakachinda could be heading that way.
This piece of Human Excr3ment Raph@el Nak@t0mba is being detained for spreading tribal hatred & NOT goading H.H.
We all know lessons of Rwanda & problems with us humans is we fail to learn from the history & repeat the same mistakes.
If that Coward Nak@t0mba is NOT stopped in its wicked tracks, it will be too late when Zambia burns & H.H. & that ugly short piece of 2vi -Nak@t0mba have means of exiting Zambia & it’s the poor that are cheering & seeing nothing wrong with that Binoculars welding Pygmy belching Xenophobic sentiments who will roast & suffer should Zambia end up like Rwanda.
Zambians WATCH OUT for demagogues like Nak@t0mba, ka T4.yaLi & Bowman!
This piece 0f Human Excr3ment Raph@el Na.k@t0mba is being detained for spreading trib@l hatred & NOT goading H.H.
We all know lessons of Rwanda & problems with us humans is we fail to learn from the history & repeat the same mistakes.
If that Coward Na.k@t0mba is NOT stopped in its wicked tracks, it will be too late when Zambia burns & H.H. & that ugly short piece of 2vi -Nak@t0mba have means of exiting Zambia & it’s the poor that are now cheering & seeing nothing wrong with that Bin0culars weilding Pygmy belching Xen0phob1c sentiments who will roast & suffer, should Zambia end up like Rwanda.
Zambians WATCH OUT for demagogues like Na.k@t0mba, ka T4.yaLi & B0wm@n & “Lunat1c Hippo Ch1mbwili”
There is nothing genius about tribalism. This article is simply a hoax. I think we as a country can do better than this. Tribalism should be criminalized and harsh penalty meted on the offenders to deter the would be…
The PF idyots are encouraging and sacrificing Nkachinda to fight their from which he personally didn’t benefit anything therefrom. Therein lies his stupidity because he can easily die for nothing leaving and the PF thieves sharing the stolen loot.
The same thieves will forget about him on the same day that he gets buried – the chap is naive to play around with a clique of monkeys and thieves.
Cant we just unite on the basis that we are all black skinned once primitive creatures…and now trying to break loose from the forces of colonialism and neo-colonialism. For me personally nakacinda is a hole between the backside not a genius.
Chimwemwe Mwanza describes nakachinda an ***** and lunatic spreading tribalism as a ‘genius’, how can this young man think like that. This is a useless article lacking logic and sense. Like someone above said this Nakachinda can’t believe that the criminal and Gangster Pf lost power, that is why he suffers from the worst forms of suicidal stupidity. Chimwemwe I encourage you to visit Rwanda, you will never use the word ‘tribe or tribalism after that. In Zambia we like to glorify *****s and thieves and we never pay attention to facts. Nakachinda is a desperate lunatic who can set the country on fire. In South Africa they have clear laws that stops any individual especially politicians from spreading HATE.
Pushing the tribalism talk that is targeting only one ethnic grouping is driving a forever wedge that wont be easy to remove from the political scene and as a death of the “One Zambia One Nation” slogan. Calling it genius as an employed strategy is misapplication of genius on folly. Politicians in strategizing need to avoid what could birth irreparable consequences and employ smart tact. Appreciating Nakachinda’s approach is lauding the below average national intelligence of the citizens.
I like this analysis, well articulated and balanced. Verily, verily, I say unto you, UPND praise-singers, far from destroying him, the Bally government is actually building him up by unnecessarily unleashing cops on him . I can even visualise him smiling from ear with the publicity he is getting. What is forgotten is that Nakachinda is also a Tonga from Monze East. An impression is being created that he comes from another tribe.. If he is a Tonga, and it is true that he is a Tonga, how can a normal person champion the annihilation of his own tribe? It doesn’t make sense. The best way to deal with such loud mouths is to ignore them . Nakachinda is not supposed to be regarded as a martyr but the Bally government is turning him into one!
smiling from ear to ear