ADD President Charles Milupi Gives Sound Advice to Sata

24 May 2011

editorial

ALLIANCE for Democracy and Development (ADD) president Charles Milupi has dispensed sound advice to Mr Michael Sata which the self-styled all-knowing opposition leader will ignore at a huge cost to his career.

The Patriotic Front head should reflect on the false hopes he derived from what some political commentators made him believe was a large following he had prior to the 2006 and 2008 presidential polls and yet he failed to make the grade of becoming Zambia’s leader.

Mr Sata got carried away by the huge crowds which he saw when he went out on his hustings and he seems headed for a similar snare, urged on by some excited media houses and political allies who are more eager to be rewarded than to tell him the reality on the ground.

Mr Milupi, who has called Mr Sata’s leadership credentials into question, has rightly said the people surrounding the PF leader have failed to inform him that not all those who appear at his rallies are supporters of his political views.

From where Mr Milupi stands, those rallies could simply be an opportunity for some people to pass time and listen to the PF leader’s comedy.

The important point to consider is that Zambians are only ready to follow political leaders who have clear programmes to sell.

There will be no need for Mr Sata to cry his voice hoarse when he loses this year’s elections when he has the time to listen to such sound advice as Mr Milupi’s – that he is simply being hypnotised into believing that he is popular when he is not.

No amount of speaking ill of the people in power could substitute a solid manifesto with a clear road map that the citizens could relate to.

There are also other yardsticks that the PF leader and his supporters have either deliberately ignored or have tended to wish away.

Mr Sata has never passed the test of intra-party democracy as the PF has not provided any window for the members to vote for him.

What compounds the comedy in the PF is the fact that the party has never sought to prove genuine membership by way of registering and making followers possess cards.

That way, it is possible for any passers-by to stop and listen to Mr Sata even if there was no way of knowing their true political leanings.

AllAfrica – All the Time