Edgar Lungu Is A Phenomenon Edgar Lungu is simply a political phenomenon. Check the facts: - Before the death of President Sata, Edgar Lungu was nowhere among those regarded as heirs- apparent.- Kabimba, GBM, Lubinda, Kabwili; etc. He never even held himself as such and was far removed from internal party fights. - When he was appointed SG and Minister of Justice after Kabimba was relieved of his duties, nobody, not even in the party recognised him as a possible heir. We all took that as a temporary arrangement while the President looked for others to take those positions. Even though we all knew by then that the Presidents health was failing, Edgar Lungu never crossed our mind as a possible successor because he was not among those fighting for that.. - Then the President left Zambia for London. We all knew that Edgar Lungu had been left to act as President, the usual thing we all had come familiar with whenever the President left the country. But there were two significant things we outside Cabinet and close family did not know; (i) the President had gone to Chelston Parish to accept Ichisubo chaba lwele, a catholic rite done only at ones lifes end. He did not do that at his usual church-St. Ignatius, Rhodes Park; and (ii) he had refused to leave Zambia until Edgar Lungu was brought back from Angola to assume the position of Acting President. - All these appointments- Minister of Justice in addition to Minister of Defence, SG of the Party and Acting President really meant nothing to all of us. We never took them to mean that in case of death, Edgar Lungu will be the successor. Even when the Presidents death was announced Edgar Lungu never assumed the role of a successor in the minds of many! - Cabinet took away his position as Acting President and soon after Dr Guy Scoot fired him as SG of the Party. Then the phenomenon that Edgar Lungu has become was unleashed on the country. Sooner after that both his removal as Acting President and SG were questioned. - Then the psyche of nation was pricked into reflection. Suddenly, people noticed Edgar Lungu, not as a dispossessed Acting President and fired SG of the Party but as the successor. Where those who disliked him called him names , the people saw a President. Where those who disliked him saw him as unfit for the office of President, the people saw in him the most suitable person for that office. The hitherto largely unnoticed Minister in the PF Govt has become the most wanted by the people, both members and non members of the party. A phenomenon was born. -Then he faced internal party strife from those who thought of him as less worthy. But when he went to the Kabwe Congress, PF members were ready to vote for him and the ordinary people all over Zambia were voting for him in spirit. He triumphed against all odds. - UPND and other parties tried to exploit the internal strife in PF and had a false start. But soon they felt the tremors unleashed by the Edgar Lungu candidacy. The rest is history and in the next few hours, 21/1/2015 or 22/1/2015, Edgar Lungu will become Zambias 6th President. - A friend of mine who is steeped into deep religious reflections, told me that there is nothing surprising about Edgar Lungus rise from the succession obscurity to torch bearer. He pointed out that all those who thought they would succeed Mr Sata ended up being weeded out on their own for a purpose. Then he really rubbed it in- God always fell on the unnoticed to take his people over the cliff. And in most of those cases the ones chosen seemed to question themselves if really the task ahead was for them to accomplished. I could see this hesitation in Edgar Lungu. Gladly he quickly overcame it and is now gone. I cannot help but declare that in terms of political uprising, Edgar Lungu is simply a phenomenon. RT: Newton Nguni
Posted on: Sun, 18 Jan 2015 20:28:17 +0000
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