There was no booing in Heroes Stadium; where’s the UPND media team?

This weekend, President Hakainde Hichilema was at Heroes Stadium to officiate at the ABSA cup final tournament between Red Arrows and Kabwe Warriors. Red Arrows walked away with the trophy, of course.

Whenever a mammoth crowd has gathered at a stadium to watch a tournament of such magnitude, you don’t expect them to behave as if they are taking holy communion in a Cathedral whereby everything is expected to be smooth and orderly. You’re likely to encounter ecstatic and boisterous crowds shouting their lungs out to demonstrate their support, catcalling or even ruptures of spirited chanting as they attempt to drive a point home!

Not surprisingly, the opposition and their surrogates, of course have gone into overdrive on Social media trying to create a fake narrative that the President was booed at the stadium. Nothing of that sort transpired! We put the blame on the UPND media team as it seems to still be on a vacation instead of being alert 24/7!

You see, politics is all about perception. In its desperation to gain political mileage, the opposition will always try hard to use whatever means at its disposal to paint a misleading picture the ruling party has lost tremendous support on the ground. In other words, the opposition is psyching the masses to believe this particular government has lamentably failed and hence, must therefore be booed at every given opportunity.

For instance, a Patriotic Front (PF) aligned Social media page, The Smart Eagles hinted at their ulterior motives by asking the following question, “If they have the audacity to boo mu Stadium, then what is happening mu Komboni?” whereas another opposition mouthpiece, Zambian Post claimed that, “A 60,000 full capacity stadium “Booed” President HICHILEMA at Heroes Stadium today shouting kuya bebele.’

Nashalaneka party leader, Sean Tembo couldn’t obviously miss an opportunity to spew out his usual rantings he’s notorious for. This was his view point, “Apa vintu pamene vafika, the only place Bally would not be booed is in his bedroom.”

Those that have always had a bone to chew with HH such as Socialist Party leader, Fred M’membe couldn’t hide their excitement to know, “What happened ku Heroes Stadium?”

Meanwhile, local comedian, Thomas Sipalo observed that, “When we say pali njala pa ground,we are called bitter…Mpaka now, kwayamba ma booing,” while PF faction leader, Miles Sampa who claims to be currently out of Lusaka on duty equally wanted to know the truth about what transpired both during and off the 90 minutes game play.

As expected, Richard Sakala’s tabloid, The Daily Nation has this morning carried a screaming headline – HH BOOING CONDEMNED whereby it’s purportedly quoting one Brebner Changala as advising citizens to contain their anger and resist the temptation of booing and embarrassing President Hichilema even as they face hard economic times.

Don’t think we are that dumb to figure out what’s at play here. This is a well-orchestrated scheme to make it appear as if “things have fallen apart” in the nation as Chinua Achebe would put it, hence the the so called booing from a dissatisfied public. Expect a pattern of individuals excitedly clapping and cheering Edgar Lungu whenever he turns up in public to continue.

We can’t claim to have been in Heroes Stadium yesterday, but after critically analysing several independent footages, we are convinced nothing such as booing took place. As popular vlogger, Simon Mwewa Lane puts it, “If you’re sitting in a section at Heroes Stadium and you record yourself along with a few of your friends booing, then you post the video on social media, and you add the caption “HH booed” It’s very easy to create a false narrative. But the truth is, HH received a thunderous welcome today!” We couldn’t agree more with him.

All in all, those few individuals who misbehaved in the Stadium by booing were obviously ‘planted’ in there by a desperate opposition eager to settle scores. Ba UPND media team naimwe ba National Secretariat, you better wake-up and start handling politics with a ‘fire brigade approach’ otherwise it will be too late!

Kwamana…… period!

Prince Bill M. Kaping’a
Political/Social Analyst