It is time to contemplate the qualities that presidential candidates must have towards the August elections.
As much as political parties have their manifestos and collective personalities, the presidential candidate always is the flag-bearer and the face of the whole apparatus. By virtue of that position, that aspirant is exposed and vulnerable to all kinds of fair and unfair scrutiny.
Voters cast ballots because every election places two major interests at stake: the interests of political clubs and their sponsors against the interests of ordinary citizens.
Every presidential aspirant represents either the interests of the political establishment and therefore not the wishes of the electorate; or the aspirations of the electorate.
This last consideration has seen the ongoing US presidential primaries, namely in the Republican and Democratic parties, produce two aspirants widely described as ‘outsiders.’
These are Donald Trump, heading the Republican pack; and Bernie Sanders, hot on the heels of Hillary Clinton who currently dominates the Democrats’ process.
The ‘outsiders’ are seen to genuinely represent voter interests and concerns while ‘establishment candidates’ like Jeb Bush (who dropped out of the Republican tussle several weeks ago) and Hillary herself are seen to represent corporate interests—fears being that should such a person become head of state and government, he or she would obey corporate kingmakers and do their will.
The electorate would as a consequence suffer more years of complete oblivion.
Presidential hopefuls cannot successfully conceal whatever negatives they stand for: if they stand for big business, it will show. If they stand for political covens whose goals will be achieved only by trampling on the dreams of the common man and woman, it will show.
The longest-serving parliamentary speaker in the Commonwealth, Dr Robinson Nabulyato, said in his 2008 book, African Realities: A Memoir, “When a country has a Parliament, it is natural for its enlightened citizens to aspire to become Members of Parliament to protect the interests of the people as a whole. But tyrannical rulers will normally endeavour to have a Parliament of their own liking.”
He further said it is almost impossible to find any black African who can be regarded as a capitalist or a rich person outside government circles.
The challenge for presidential candidates this year is to show they do stand for change; for a departure from the old way of governing.
TRUTH
The first quality all presidential, parliamentary, councillorship and mayoral candidates should have, though this discussion focuses on the top office, is truthfulness.
Voters do not forget what candidates say in the heat of the campaign.
They continually evaluate candidates for what they have said. In past presidential election onslaughts, some presidential candidates have been repeatedly and inconveniently assailed by what they stated many years ago.
For candidates campaigning from State House as incumbents, their statements in office are weighed against what has been accomplished or not accomplished. This is what the incumbent faces in 2016.
In the face of all that, sincerity or insincerity can be sensed even if voters may not have complete access to the finer details of an aspirant’s life. Ideas can only be practicable or impracticable; feasible or unfeasible; viable or unviable.
And when failure takes place or mistakes are made, voters expect a truthful (ruling party or opposition) leader to openly confess and admit such failure or blunder.
In our part of the world, the citizenry have taken three discernible positions around truth and politics. One group does not vote because of a belief that politicians lie and do not work with truth. Another group believes everything that politicians say and is unselective inits view of its preferred candidates. A third group tries to believe that the bad and dark side is not too bad and too dark; and that the world cannot be perfect.
Divergent perceptions of politics and truth explain to good measure why urbanites and rural dwellers vote differently on our continent.
Ruling parties tend to displease urban voters and to immensely impress rural populations.
Complexities of truth in the political realm have spurred all kinds of nice and not-so-nice comments.
How profound an observation; this should spur politicians and people at large to speak the truth always. Herbert Sebastian Agar (1897-1980) lamented, “The truth which makes men free is for the most part the truth which men prefer not to hear.”
In France, Charles de Gaulle (1890-1970) said, “Since a politician never believes what he says, he is quite surprised to be taken at his word.”
In America, Franklin P. Adams (1881-1960) said, “The trouble with this country is that there are too many politicians who believe, with a conviction based on experience, that you can fool all of the people all of the time.”
In the Soviet Union, Nikita Krushchev (1984-1971) said, “Politicians are the same everywhere. They promise to build a bridge even where there is no river.”
In Greece, Georges Pompidou (1911-1974) said, “A statesman is a politician who places himself at the service of a nation. A politician is a statesman who places the nation at his service.”
In America, Texas Guinan (1884-1933) said, “A politician is a fellow who will lay down your life for his country.”
IDEAS
But presidential aspirants should show that they believe that Zambia is self-sufficient in natural resources, and that those bounties need new ideas to exploit.
Our entry into the country’s next 50 years should invoke new and fresh thinking about the people of Zambia, their land and their resources.
One crucial quality of the presidential candidate is that he and she should inspire new ideas. Old ideas about development and running the nation have ruined many aspects of national life.
For instance, since 1964, greed for political advantage has permitted ill-informed party cadres to allocate land to whomsoever they will, thus nullifying town and country planning and suffocating local government.
Greed for public money has seen resources diverted to personal interests, enriching some public servants way beyond their income base and thus crippling development.
That is stating the obvious. The less obvious is how since 1964 some ruling party politicians have used their high office to strangle successful private business initiatives, impoverishing indigenous employers and their employees; and advantaging foreign investors.
Examples of brilliant but frustrated initiatives are all around us, if we dare to look. It is old and outdated thinking that workable ideas should be frustrated merely because people we do not like are beginning to look good, which makes us look bad.
Emile-Auguste Chartier Alain (1868-1951) warned: “Nothing is more dangerous than an idea, when you only have one idea.” To the contrary,
Ed Koch said, “Nothing is more powerful than an idea whose time has come.”
Ideas that will gel with the ideas of the young generation will spark fires of creativity and transform society. Ideas should mark the presidential candidate.
Voters frequently cry for issues, when they get fed up of politicians trading insults, because ideas matter more than party names—in some sections of the electorate at least.
In 2008, ‘Yes We Can’ was an idea whose time had come,  nd it captured the imagination way beyond the borders of America. In 2016, one Republican party presidential hopeful Ted Cruz has now coined ‘Yes We Will.’
For marketing effect, global manufacturers in the sciences and in information and communication technologies use keywords like ‘invent,’ ‘innovate,’ or ‘imagine.’ That is the mindset presidential candidates should demonstrate in 2016.
It is all about fresh ideas that come across in catchphrases that work.
INCLUSIVE
Presidential candidates should show that they are inclusive for this one miserable reason: Politicians are responsible for rekindling tribal sentiment. Not voters, but politicians who try to ascend to power by exciting tribal feelings.
Voters are not on record to have expressed a desire for representatives with whom they share ethnic roots: politicians of different shades are on record for doing so.
In a land where mixed marriages have succeeded and children now bear names from two tribes, courtesy of mum and dad’s ethnic diversity, it is old and barren politics to speak tribalism.
It is as disgraceful as speaking racism.
Look at two contrary notes on racism which is the same as tribalism.
Adolf Hitler (1889-1945) argued, “Whoever is not racially pure in this world is chaff.”
A man far greater than Hitler, Nelson Mandela (1918-2012) stood in the dock in the Rivonia trial of 1964 and declared: “I have fought against white domination, and I have fought against black domination. I have cherished the ideal of a democratic and free society in which all persons will live together in harmony and with equal opportunities. It is an ideal which I hope to live for and achieve. But, if needs be, it is an ideal for which I am prepared to die.”
On his triumphant exit from prison in 1995, he spoke the selfsame words.
That is the language of a presidential candidate with a sense of inclusion, and a soaring sense of destiny.
INFORMED
There is school education, which is an essential; then there is a broader and deeper informal education that enables presidential candidates to know and comprehend the visible and the hidden (as opposed to invisible) world.
This kind of education comes by much diverse exposure and much interest in reading and following through issues beyond mere and basic survival.
International affairs, transactions and agreements are entered into with the unspoken and therefore hidden agenda, and in this day and age every presidential candidate should be mindful of that.
China has accelerated its scramble for a share of Africa, almost overtaking neocolonialists from America and Europe. Nothing is ever offered to Africa for nothing, and the Zambian  presidential candidate has to be conscious and aware of that.
International aid is always tied to a condition, and that condition of late comes in the form of endless new vaccines for conditions unknown in Zambia. What is elephantiasis on our soil?
And how could it be that until 2012 Zambia had no national mining policy? How could it be that there remains total silence on the exploitation or non-exploitation of ore bodies present in this country—uranium, platinum and other highly sought after minerals that are universally invaluable in nuclear development?
In 2013, American mineral resource scientists realized that what had long been considered toxic waste from gold mining actually contained 15 rare earth elements that could save the tottering economy.
Does that not remind you of the Kitwe’s black mountain, valuable only to Jerabos even if it has long been acknowledged that amounts of gold and silver have been traced there?
Tracie Cone of Associated Press reported on July 21 in 2013 that, “The 15 rare earth elements were discovered long after the gold rush began to wane, but demand for them only took off over the past 10 years as electronics became smaller and more sophisticated.  They begin with number 57 Lanthanum and end with 71 Lutetium, a group of metallic chemical elements that are not rare as much as they are just difficult to mine because they occur in tiny amounts and are often stuck to each other.”
Mining for such minerals, which can make magnets lighter, bring balanced hues to fluorescent lighting, add colour to touch screens of smart phones, is seen to be tedious since no known good agent is there to effectively extract them. Cerium oxide used to polish telescope lenses and other glass.
The scientists have established that known minerals actually occur in clusters with other lesser known though immensely vital ones. Copper has been proved to occur with indium, another critical rare earth metal which like silver is used in photovoltaic cells for solar panels.
Some delicate metals are important for manufacture of cell phone components, computer components and so on. Since Zambia has gold, those rare earth metals are in abundance, and this is where presidential candidates need to radiate their ideas.
All this is evidence that African development does not depend on foreigners, lest the language of foreign direct investment begins to convince us that there is no possibility of a truly indigenous national budget without the foreign (Western) component.
Presidential candidates should show that they believe Zambia is well resourced and able to stand on her own feet with informed governance.
RESPECT
One of the commonest trends in politics is that many politicians show open disrespect for voters. They speak with pride and contempt towards them; pouring their frustrations and disappointment on voters who long for a better life and better living conditions.
They lie publicly and believe their lies have been swallowed whole and not chewed through. Those are acts of disrespect, apart from being untruthful, and falsehood hurts like disrespect.
Francis Bacon (1561-1626) noted, “But it is not the lie that passed through the mind, but the lie that sinketh in, and settleth in it, that doth the hurt.”
GOD
It is best for every presidential candidate to be mindful of God the Creator.
Daniel in the Old Testament served under two Babylonian kings and two Medo-Persian kings, meaning four administrations. Only rare, divinely endowed qualities could have kept Daniel in such high responsibility for such a long time.
He said in Daniel 2:20-22, “Blessed be the name of God forever and ever, for wisdom and might are His. And He changes the times and the seasons; He removes kings and raises up kings; He gives wisdom to the wise and knowledge to those who have understanding. He reveals deep and secret things; He knows what is in the darkness, and light dwells with Him.”
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