Edgar Lungu’s insistence on having a third term of office will bring him a lot of problems. It’s dangerous and not worth it.

Edgar shouldn’t deceive himself that the winning of by-elections is approval for his rule to continue until 2026.
The MMD under Fredrick Chiluba was winning by-elections but the Zambian people, including his own ministers and friends, rejected his attempt to have a third term of office.

Edgar says he wants to stay in office until 2026 to accomplish development initiatives that the ruling Patriotic Front is implementing. He believes that without him, the Patriotic Front will lose the 2021 elections.
“Me, I don’t want to go back. I want to finish 2021, 2026 elo nkaye. So that naine nkaleshimika nati kwena twalibomba,” says Edgar.
This is very similar to what Chiluba used to think and say. But Levy Mwanawasa who replaced him did far better than Chiluba in all areas of our nation’s life.
Some Patriotic Front founder members were right in advising Edgar to step aside and allow another person to contest the 2021 presidential election. And it will be wise for Edgar to heed their advice.
There’s really nothing special or positively unique about his leadership. If Fidel Castro and Nelson Mandela could be replaced, what about Edgar? What special or unique skills, leadership attributes does Edgar possess?
These Patriotic Front founder members are also correct in describing Edgar as “a selfish person who is afraid of the unknown”. But what Edgar is afraid of is known, it is not unknown: he is dead scared to leave power and be made to answer for the corruption and abuses of his regime. Edgar has also found power, State House too sweet for him to leave.

Mubanga Chileshe says Edgar is not the only one in the Patriotic Front for him to say that he wants to govern up to 2026 so that he could continue the development projects the party had embarked on.

“We just want to advise our President that we don’t think it is a good idea for him to wish to continue after 2021 general elections. We feel he has done enough and for him to say he wants to continue with Patriotic Front developmental projects…the party is too big. He is not the only one. Even when we started, late president Michael Sata only worked for a year and the following year, he got sick. But we continued with another president and we will soon be clocking 10 years in power by 2021. So, it’s not an issue of a one man show. The party is too big and developmental programmes can still continue with another person,” says Chileshe.

“We are saying this because this party was predominantly Bemba as Mr Sata himself formed this party. When Mr Sata died, we didn’t cry foul to say we replace him with another Bemba, no! We were open to say, ‘Let’s bring in our traditional cousin Mr Lungu to take over from him.’ We were not selfish. So, Mr. Lungu has done enough in the seven years that he will be in power. We just want to preserve the party because we don’t want to go into an election again with contentions the way we did when Mr Sata was being replaced. There was so much acrimony, this one comes in to be a candidate…there was disunity in the party until we settled on Mr Lungu. We would also like to say there are a lot of members who have not benefitted, who are crying…there is a mass movement in the party of people who have not benefitted and others feel had Mr Sata been alive, they would have benefitted. The combination of President Lungu and former president Rupiah Banda has given a way to show that Easterners are the ones who have benefitted in this Patriotic Front government and that is what we don’t want to support because it’s three years of former president Banda and seven years of President Lungu, which is 10 years of Eastern Province. So, we feel that should be enough. Even us Bembas, we are not ashamed to say that we would have loved someone who is Bemba to take over from where Mr Sata left because Mr Sata started this party but didn’t live long to serve the people. We feel Mr Sata didn’t do enough despite working hard for the party. We are not ashamed to say that as Bembas, we would love to see a Bemba presidential candidate in 2021. That one, we will not hide from President Lungu. For him to say he wants to finish developmental projects, this thing is not a one man’s show. Leadership, even in politics…there must be handing over and taking over. You cannot be clinging to power like this. We also want to say there is already an outcry that MMD has taken over Patriotic Front. Not necessarily to say MMD, but Rupiah Banda’s team has taken over Patriotic Front. There is that cry from Patriotic Front members saying they have not benefitted much from the party.”

Clearly, there are more problems with Edgar’s third term bid than just getting a favourable ruling from the Constitutional Court that he has openly threatened, intimidated and manipulated.
It be wise for Edgar to mull over things and consider the feelings of the Zambian people and those of his dissenting friends within the Patriotic Front.

The Mast