By SAMUEL NGOMA –
TO avoid an off-the-radar mentality after the just-ended Presidential poll, one had to take a midnight drive around Lusaka on January 24, 2015.
That is, to make a proper pre-2016 “reading of the tea leaves” soon after President Edgar Lungu was pronounced winner amid raucous crowds.
Regardless of who they voted for, every Lusaka resident should have driven, cycled or walked around their neighbourhood that night of annunciation.
That way, you don’t have your head in the clouds and are not out of touch with reality. It keeps away incredulity.
For, anytime you justify your condition, you give it licence to stay.
It also helps one to avoid eating dishes instead of the dinner, as some unprofessional media houses are in the habit of doing.
You don’t service a car that’s not working!

. President Lungu at a rally during election campaigns

But which Edgar Lungu and his crowds will show up in 2016? Will anything change much in 14 months’ time? Will “El Clasico” and his crowds ever fade so soon after enjoying their Indian summer?
A crowd that is mostly in their 20s, with lots of fuel still in their tank to vote for long years to come, the blood and soul of the electorate, will they surely turn their backs on “Edeegar”(their pronounciation).
To those still unschooled in Lusaka’s street culture, “El Clasico” is President Lungu’s pet name among PF’s passionate cadres, supposedly a punning of his “EL” initials.
It’s Spanish for “the classic one.”
A soccer-crazy nation that Zambians are, it is borrowed from the soccer duel of Real Madrid versus Barcelona.
Indeed, in footballing terms, the phlegmatic persona of Mr Lungu is also a look-alike of Zambia’s late soccer maestro, Samuel “Zoom” Ndhlovu.
Will President Lungu curse his own favour after ticking every box? Will there be a cruelly ironic twist in 2016?
They say everyone is as good as their last election but do voting patterns change ever so drastically in Zambia? If they did last month, it’s an exception to the rule, due largely to a stumbled giant, MMD, donating its votes either side of the divide.
Amid his immense popularity, it’s up to President Lungu to choose what gear he’ll play in at next year’s polls.
Nobody wins the Olympics by mistake. It’s always talents, guts and glory. Success is always intentional and Mr Lungu must now run after his destiny. Quality is to the exclusion of coincidence.
The hardships he faced to get to Plot One, the things mired in controversy that left him wincing in pain: the name-calling, the enemy within, the savage determination by some PF leaders to block his Presidency at all cost, through evil schemes and at first time of asking, dismissing him as PF Secretary-General. And through a counterfeit second elective conference, attempting a last-ditch disruptive belter, must all be an incubator to take him to the next level.
He will not look back to those hardships with any degree of fondness and yet through it all, God showed that when He opens a door, no one can shut.
A man can receive nothing, except it be given him from God. Mr Lungu’s script is a lesson to all 2016 aspirants that there are moments when you choose the place and moments when the place chooses you!
Unbelievable
The night of his victory, those were unbelievable scenes; such a happy throng!What was on view the night he was pronounced winner was an intense, social and psychological catharsis after almost a week of tension due to the uncertainty of election results. Anyone could have cracked under such strain. It was a heart-in-mouth moment with lots of to-ing and fro-ing around Electoral Commission of Zambia’s national results’ centre. A national bug of nerves was palpable. It was utterly forgettable.
The ECZ should never again subject Zambians to jumping through the same hoops of intense agony.
Finger nails were chewed to the very quick. It was a dog-fight up to the wire in what seemed an eternity before Acting Chief Justice Lombe Chibesakunda announced Mr Lungu as victor. “El Clasico” limped over the finishing line as HH blinked first, in what was still a delicious finish for the winner, having kept the best for last.
It explained the joyous outpouring on the streets of Lusaka by the crowds to celebrate Mr Lungu’s victory. An intrepid crowd that wouldn’t bow to reputation as they danced and leaped on anybody’s car roof and bonnet in great celebration.
Here, the answer will ask a question as to what would have happened to such huge crowds if he had lost. Would Lusaka and the Copperbelt have contained their pent-up rage if their “El Clasico” had lost or we would today be handling a bloody script?
Those celebratory numberless crowds of mostly youths, male and female, gave one a perspective of 2016. To those of us who were in the diaspora when Mr Lungu’s late mentor, Michael Sata won, the spontaneous celebrations of last month were in fact a prototype of 2011 when the late Head of State was pronounced winner.
Night had turned to day at that late hour of darkness.
The moment Mr Lungu was pronounced winner, the jubilant crowds choked the streets of Lusaka en masse. They blocked roads. There was no way for motorists on Great East Road.
No shortage of new compositions, either. As it was a nearly moment for HH, they mocked him in song saying “HH amwa doom” which when roughly translated simply means (HH has been put to a political sword). Indeed, one man’s sunshine is another man’s shade. At that midnight hour, some crowds even headed for the Heroes Stadium ahead of inauguration the following day.
They couldn’t wait.
State House was besieged by Chawama residents who walked all the way singing “TenzolilaSata, suyuLunguawela,”(With Lungu’s victory, we’ve been comforted after the death of Sata).
Had Mr Lungu driven around Lusaka incognito, behind tinted windows, he would have rubbed his eyes in disbelief, enthralled at the massive support from the people.
It’s an amazing front-seat to reality and some gauge as to whether 2016 will be a big ask for the opposition or whether the seemingly impossible is attainable.
Idea
Not just Mr Lungu should, once in a while; all politicians must drive around Lusaka incognito (it is rumoured Zambia’s First and Second Republican Presidents used to do so) in order to have even the foggiest idea of what is happening.
Visit friends, Godly Pastors for prayer, visit family, opposition leaders and respected political analysts in order to make a rain check on certain policies.
Taking a drive around the city is a necessary fact-finding errand to separate fact from fiction, truth from hearsay, reality from illusion, voice from echo, acceptance from denial and objectivity from subjectivity—as did some of us, the night of annunciation.
It gives you a measured view of 2016 which you cannot get when reading some media house news.
And when you do your own research drive as did some of us on the night of annunciation, it was a slam dunk for Mr Lungu. The rest is silence.
That is why, for now, until sometime next year, the nation needs rest from electioneering fatigue.
The rancid election campaigns took their toll and the ECZ, except for frequent parliamentary and council by-elections, must allow for an emotional rest-cure from electioneering.
Even those planning the ritual of going up and down the country to ‘thank’ their voters must hold their fire and just allow time for emotional healing and circumspection.
In fact, insisting on another campaign without soul-searching by anyone, could lead to implosion within their party rank and file.
It happens in the USA and UK; they allow for time to govern and to be governed until next election period. Not every year is election year if politicians are truly there to serve the people!
After all, the January 20 election was a by-election and not a general election for which huge swathes of land must be covered to ‘thank’ the voters.
It can only be a campaign gimmick for 2016.
Coupled with a marketing truism of Emotional Intelligence(EI), the Bible’s Micah 6:8 sums up what President Lungushould do to succeed beyond 2016: “He has shown you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God?”
Break that Scripture up by its comas and you have a rich package of advice for rulers: Do what is just (for it is just to provide what populations need around the country, and it is just to deal evenly with persons wrongly punished and those wrongly rewarded); show mercy; walk in humility; honour Jesus Christ as your God. Rulers who fail to do this have no excuse because, as the Scripture says, God has shown them what to do!
It’s all hands to the pump for Mr Lungu especially if he keeps his inauguration promise; “I never want at any one time the Zambian people to regret voting for me.” Success will quickly beckon if the promise is continually on his radar.