Unbridled ambition

Mon, 05 Jun 2017 13:02:54 +0000

CHISHIMBA Kambwili’s style of guerrilla politics over President Edgar Lungu’s eligibility to stand as the ruling party’s sole candidate at the 2020 Patriotic Front convention, will only diminish any little respect left for him as a politician and credible force in PF.

First and foremost he must learn to appreciate the importance of incumbency in a presidential election.

Mr Kambwili’s knack for offending his best friends and those from whom he is supposed to seek favour and support is astonishing. The PF Roan Member of Parliament is behaving like a bull in a china shop – smashing all the protocols and leaving himself politically naked.

The other day he was throwing punches at Luanshya mayor Nathan Chanda, his favourite punch bag, and today he has turned his venomous tongue on Copperbelt PF provincial chairman Stephen Kainga, calling him a fool for advising the former Information minister to cool off over the Edgar Lungu eligibility debate.

It boggles the mind that someone with ambition to challenge President Lungu in 2020 as PF candidate can be so arrogant as to insult the Copperbelt party strongman from whom he is supposed to kneel down and beg for support should PF allow him to stand against President Lungu in the party presidential election.

We wonder who he is going to insult next.

We accept that Mr Kambwili is a founding PF member who has served in the party’s central committee longer than many of his peers in the PF. However, he is wrong in the manner he is going about his PF presidential ambitions. He must listen to people like Mr Kainga who want to educate him on the issue.

If he is not aware, it is clear that the ruling party wants President Lungu to be the sole candidate in the 2020 party elections so that the party can emerge stronger to face the opposition in the 2021 general elections, using the power and momentum of incumbency to propel the party to triumph. They want all loyal party members to create space for President Lungu to emerge a strong candidate that can lead the party into the general elections.

Mr Kambwili must heed the veiled directive of PF secretary general Davies Mwila that President Lungu is the party’s candidate for 2020, and no-one else. Period. Mr Mwila is the party’s supremo and anyone who dares cross his path is asking for trouble.

That is why senior members like Home Affairs minister and national youth chairperson Stephen Kampyongo and Mr Kainga have supported Mr Mwila amid the rising chorus of support by the party rank and file. It means this is a done deal as far as PF is concerned and for Mr Kambwili to oppose it is playing with the tail of the tiger.

The Roan parliamentarian maybe a democrat who helped draft the PF constitution and he understands it very well. But this is Africa and many political organisations have fashioned their own ‘‘democratic’’ institutions to suit their models, time and needs.

If Mr Kambwili wants to participate in the 2020 PF convention he must learn to be humble, respectful and loyal to the ideals of the party. More importantly, he must listen to his fellow party members who tell him that he must reign in his presidential dash and allow President Lungu to stand this time.

There is always a next time in elections. It would be unheard of and political suicide for PF to side line an incumbent and field an outsider in the 2021 elections. It never happens in Africa, certainly it has not happened even in the United States of America.

If Mr Kambwili continues on his anti-Lungu for 2021 path and offend everyone with his violent tongue, we shall not be surprised that even the founder membership of PF that he is fond of waving in front of everyone will be taken away from him.

It is Nelson Mandela who said those who want to lead must first accept to be led. Unbridled ambition does not pay.