Opinion / Columnist
The death of an African President: Advocate Edgar Lungu!
3 hrs ago | Views
The philosophy of Ubuntu will not allow me to talk about former President Edgar Lungu using outdoor language. Africa is rid of a ruler that destroyed the image of the African continent; we are yet to recover from the mess Lungu left behind. A sober response to his death, Edgar Lungu was everything wrong about African leadership. Using the words of Kwesi Prett jr. from Ghana; how did the irony escape us to have Edgar Lungu right inside the corridors of power. Did Zambians vote for him or were the voting processes according to standards we know RIGGING. How did he stay in power so long, Lungu finished his tenure of presidency. Lungu was a clown, a caricature that displayed everything paltry and retched. However, he was not an isolated case; he was one of many leadership personalities that reduced Africa to a joke. Do we wonder still that Africans, globally, are not respected, children of lesser Gods. Judged by the unbecoming behaviour of some African leaders, they removed dignity in an African youth globally, including the President of Zambia; Edger Lungu.
Africa has Presidents cut from the same cloth of Edgar Lungu: Presidents who think that to be a ruler is to eat alone and the nearest family ties: the rest should wait for what remains from the dining tables of the ruling elite: Absent responsibility towards citizens they purport to serve. These rulers learnt nothing from colonialists. Take a good of example of former Prime Minister Ian Smith, how he developed southern Rhodesia economically. He used a French car to move around and never a Rolls Royce that Robert Mugabe used just to get the air of importance. Was President Lungu worse than what we have as President: Mnangagwa? Please discuss this and see if President Mnangagwa can beat in percentage % President Lungu in leadership performance and service delivery! My homework for you.
His presidency was marred by corruption unprecedented even by African standards. He was known to love shabeen where he would go and dance chikokoshi until one day he lost it, fell and was taken for medical review. He had diabetes mellitus high: diabetes and alcohol do not go together. Doctors surrounding the president should have advised. In a nutshell, the President loved life, and he lived to the full without compromising his wishes for a good night out in a closed drinking session. Lungu's corruption charges were massive. He made sure his children had enough money to last for decades to come. After he lost elections to HH, Lungu was under intensive investigation of abuse of office of the president. His salary alone surpassed that of former Chancellor Angel Merkel of Germany. Lungu was taking home a whooping US$45,000 a month. Imagine the economy of Zambia back then that would have afforded that high salary if Angela Merkel was taking home a merger $US10,000 a month. German has one the best economies in the world. African Presidents never cease to amaze me. There is something fundamentally wrong about us! Just saying.
Lungu was a ruler and not a leader with not even basic leadership qualities to make change in a copper rich country, to transform Zambia into a middle-income economy. Lungu failed dismally to take Zambia to another level, developing its economy for the betterment of the common man. (Said Keneth Kaunda) President Hakainde Hichilema and several opposition members of his party suffered the heavy-handedness of Lungu's rule. President Hichilema was humiliated on several occasions. HH was jailed for flimsy reasons, just to humiliate him and Lungu had his pleasure. Some methods of humiliations were medieval; HH was forced to sleep in a cell with open faeces: considering the length of time HH spent in such inhuman conditions in prison cells, normal persons would have broken down. HH is a remarkable man to survive what he had to endure under Lungu's repressive administration.
To the shock of Africa, Hakainde Hichilema won general elections in August 2021.
Following President Hichilema's administration carefully, he never wanted to punish Lungu per se. In retrospect, Hichilema forgave him: I remember he demonstratively forgave Lungu in the public to find peace in himself. However, Hichilema wanted national revenues that Lungu looted together with his children and his wives and mistresses be accounted back to the national coffers. HH is upright in demanding justice, setting precedence across Africa: Mr. Lunga faced charges of massive corruption during his administration. It was obvious to all why Lungu wanted to stand for elections once more: he was going to stop the charges of corruption against him and his children, one of whom is a member of parliament in Zambian parliament. Just to emphasize this point.
It is not a wonder that Edgar Lungu died in South Africa. If the social media is to be believed, Lungu stole the national revenues to invest in Eswatini where he was given vast lands by the King to invest. Reading carefully, it was not to be Lungu property alone, but together with a Zambian minister who facilitated the transactions. In South Africa Edger Lungu engaged in underground activities that undermined the Zambian government meant to trigger mayhem during the coming elections. These could be hidden fears that the Lungu family have, why they refused to repatriate the former President back to Zambia: his body should never be in Zambia: there are so many criminal activities that would have caused some members of the family to face arrest after the funeral. The Lungu family felt a trap in repatriating the remains of former President Lungu to homeland Zambia.
As a non-Zambian, it not possible to see through all proceedings leading to President Lungu be buried in South Africa. The preparations for a national funeral with 14 days of mourning gave a lot of reconciliatory spirit HH extended to the Lungu family. It is not possible to speak for HH fully. But in the larger scheme of things, HH meant well. He acted as a stateman and indisputably human. He extended the national mourning period twice; giving an olive brunch to the family that had lost a very important person in the continent of Africa, whether we love Lungu or not: a sixth President of the Republic of Zambia. Shenanigans after his death were uncalled for under such circumstances. Lungu family robbed and undermined the decency of an African President by refusing a national burial in Zambia where his remains belong: they reduced Lungu to a mere caricature even in death. Even if Lungu had said HH was never to chair his funeral or to be near his coffin, it was given that Lungu must be interred in Zambia and not in a foreign land. That he is buried in South Africa is a total embarrassment to all of us Africans, home and abroad. The African philosophy of UBUNTU was present in all HH's speeches. He put all differences he had with Lungu and family aside and mourned the son of African soil with the nation, the continent and all Africans in the Diaspora: at every moment, HH's handling of the Lungu situation was respectful, befitting and dignified.
Lungu family is ashamed and disgraced of the suffering and humiliation Hichilema had to endure under the Edger Lungu government. They must save face and refuse to send Lungu remains home: it's not even possible to musk themselves enough to cover the shame.
The African philosophy can be misleading if it is not adhered to by all of us. Africans seem to dwell on Ubuntu romantically and most of the time without substance, just a loss in meaning. We talk about a noble philosophy, but we are found wanting in the implementation. Africans must realize that we are part of this globe that has become a small village. We wonder still when THEY DON'T respect Africans. This inward looking of us is our undoing: nobody will take an African seriously if we don't give respect to ourselves Africans first and foremost. To his credit, President Hichilema sent a Minister to South Africa to clear all circumstances that could challenge Lungu's remains to come back home; and be interred at home in Zambia, a nation he once ruled, in retrospect for worse. The send-off of a person who impacted the nation of Zambia, SADC, and the African Union befitted a nation standing still: a moment of silence, remembering, because there is a lot of history and leadership to learn from his past, bad as he was, Lungu is ours, is us, the mirror of everything that went wrong: all the same: a national send-off, and Africa acknowledging the passing of the son of the soil, collectively, celebrating his life in diverse ways. #This must never happen again in Africa#.
Africa has Presidents cut from the same cloth of Edgar Lungu: Presidents who think that to be a ruler is to eat alone and the nearest family ties: the rest should wait for what remains from the dining tables of the ruling elite: Absent responsibility towards citizens they purport to serve. These rulers learnt nothing from colonialists. Take a good of example of former Prime Minister Ian Smith, how he developed southern Rhodesia economically. He used a French car to move around and never a Rolls Royce that Robert Mugabe used just to get the air of importance. Was President Lungu worse than what we have as President: Mnangagwa? Please discuss this and see if President Mnangagwa can beat in percentage % President Lungu in leadership performance and service delivery! My homework for you.
His presidency was marred by corruption unprecedented even by African standards. He was known to love shabeen where he would go and dance chikokoshi until one day he lost it, fell and was taken for medical review. He had diabetes mellitus high: diabetes and alcohol do not go together. Doctors surrounding the president should have advised. In a nutshell, the President loved life, and he lived to the full without compromising his wishes for a good night out in a closed drinking session. Lungu's corruption charges were massive. He made sure his children had enough money to last for decades to come. After he lost elections to HH, Lungu was under intensive investigation of abuse of office of the president. His salary alone surpassed that of former Chancellor Angel Merkel of Germany. Lungu was taking home a whooping US$45,000 a month. Imagine the economy of Zambia back then that would have afforded that high salary if Angela Merkel was taking home a merger $US10,000 a month. German has one the best economies in the world. African Presidents never cease to amaze me. There is something fundamentally wrong about us! Just saying.
Lungu was a ruler and not a leader with not even basic leadership qualities to make change in a copper rich country, to transform Zambia into a middle-income economy. Lungu failed dismally to take Zambia to another level, developing its economy for the betterment of the common man. (Said Keneth Kaunda) President Hakainde Hichilema and several opposition members of his party suffered the heavy-handedness of Lungu's rule. President Hichilema was humiliated on several occasions. HH was jailed for flimsy reasons, just to humiliate him and Lungu had his pleasure. Some methods of humiliations were medieval; HH was forced to sleep in a cell with open faeces: considering the length of time HH spent in such inhuman conditions in prison cells, normal persons would have broken down. HH is a remarkable man to survive what he had to endure under Lungu's repressive administration.
To the shock of Africa, Hakainde Hichilema won general elections in August 2021.
Following President Hichilema's administration carefully, he never wanted to punish Lungu per se. In retrospect, Hichilema forgave him: I remember he demonstratively forgave Lungu in the public to find peace in himself. However, Hichilema wanted national revenues that Lungu looted together with his children and his wives and mistresses be accounted back to the national coffers. HH is upright in demanding justice, setting precedence across Africa: Mr. Lunga faced charges of massive corruption during his administration. It was obvious to all why Lungu wanted to stand for elections once more: he was going to stop the charges of corruption against him and his children, one of whom is a member of parliament in Zambian parliament. Just to emphasize this point.
It is not a wonder that Edgar Lungu died in South Africa. If the social media is to be believed, Lungu stole the national revenues to invest in Eswatini where he was given vast lands by the King to invest. Reading carefully, it was not to be Lungu property alone, but together with a Zambian minister who facilitated the transactions. In South Africa Edger Lungu engaged in underground activities that undermined the Zambian government meant to trigger mayhem during the coming elections. These could be hidden fears that the Lungu family have, why they refused to repatriate the former President back to Zambia: his body should never be in Zambia: there are so many criminal activities that would have caused some members of the family to face arrest after the funeral. The Lungu family felt a trap in repatriating the remains of former President Lungu to homeland Zambia.
As a non-Zambian, it not possible to see through all proceedings leading to President Lungu be buried in South Africa. The preparations for a national funeral with 14 days of mourning gave a lot of reconciliatory spirit HH extended to the Lungu family. It is not possible to speak for HH fully. But in the larger scheme of things, HH meant well. He acted as a stateman and indisputably human. He extended the national mourning period twice; giving an olive brunch to the family that had lost a very important person in the continent of Africa, whether we love Lungu or not: a sixth President of the Republic of Zambia. Shenanigans after his death were uncalled for under such circumstances. Lungu family robbed and undermined the decency of an African President by refusing a national burial in Zambia where his remains belong: they reduced Lungu to a mere caricature even in death. Even if Lungu had said HH was never to chair his funeral or to be near his coffin, it was given that Lungu must be interred in Zambia and not in a foreign land. That he is buried in South Africa is a total embarrassment to all of us Africans, home and abroad. The African philosophy of UBUNTU was present in all HH's speeches. He put all differences he had with Lungu and family aside and mourned the son of African soil with the nation, the continent and all Africans in the Diaspora: at every moment, HH's handling of the Lungu situation was respectful, befitting and dignified.
Lungu family is ashamed and disgraced of the suffering and humiliation Hichilema had to endure under the Edger Lungu government. They must save face and refuse to send Lungu remains home: it's not even possible to musk themselves enough to cover the shame.
The African philosophy can be misleading if it is not adhered to by all of us. Africans seem to dwell on Ubuntu romantically and most of the time without substance, just a loss in meaning. We talk about a noble philosophy, but we are found wanting in the implementation. Africans must realize that we are part of this globe that has become a small village. We wonder still when THEY DON'T respect Africans. This inward looking of us is our undoing: nobody will take an African seriously if we don't give respect to ourselves Africans first and foremost. To his credit, President Hichilema sent a Minister to South Africa to clear all circumstances that could challenge Lungu's remains to come back home; and be interred at home in Zambia, a nation he once ruled, in retrospect for worse. The send-off of a person who impacted the nation of Zambia, SADC, and the African Union befitted a nation standing still: a moment of silence, remembering, because there is a lot of history and leadership to learn from his past, bad as he was, Lungu is ours, is us, the mirror of everything that went wrong: all the same: a national send-off, and Africa acknowledging the passing of the son of the soil, collectively, celebrating his life in diverse ways. #This must never happen again in Africa#.
Source - Nomazulu Thata
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