Veteran journalist and MakanDay managing partner, John Mukela, writes that politicians fail to relinquish their positions after losing power because political parties are often seen as personal properties, with the leader assuming the role of the 'undisputed champion'.
The medieval habit of national political leaders clinging on to power “at all cost” needs to end sooner, rather than later, if Zambia is to fully profit from the opportunities of its democratic dividend.
After his massive loss in August 2021, Edgar Chagwa Lungu (ECL), Zambia’s sixth Republican President, ought to have promptly resigned from the leadership of his Patriotic Front (PF).
He ought to have actively assisted the party by paving the way for the election of a fresh leader to guide the PF into its new future.
Instead, he did the opposite, and the repercussions are plainly evident, plaguing the PF into an abyss from which it can never re-emerge intact.
Political parties will do well to emulate the good practice elsewhere which morally mandates a party leader to step down voluntarily, once his or her leadership comes unstuck – such as when elections are lost.
Resigning demonstrates accountability, has symbolic significance and fosters transition.
But one of the difficulties in Zambia is that political parties are largely seen as personal properties, with the leader assuming the role of “undisputed champion.”
It is not. But if politics were a sport – say a boxing title fight for example, the rules are that the trainer and his assistants in the fighter’s corner will throw in the towel when their fighter shows signs he is being punished, and despite all his best efforts, he is definitely losing.
To save him further harm and possible life-long injury, his corner throws in the towel, the ref takes over and waves the fight done, the fighters embrace and shake hands like all good sportsmen, and a new champ is crowned.
Flashback to founding leader Kenneth Kaunda, undoubtedly the most sporty of all Zambia’s Presidents – with an impressive golf handicap of 11 or 12.
Most are agreed that Kaunda certainly knew a thing or two about good sportsmanship, and KK-11, Zambia’s national soccer team back then, is part of that legacy.
Staring political defeat in the face after his landslide loss to Frederick Chiluba in Zambia’s 1991 watershed polls, he mused pensively when asked how he felt, “…You win some. You lose some!”
For an African political giant on a continent brimming with dictator “Life Presidents”, the admission was priceless, unprecedented, shoot-from-the-hip political realism at its best and will be hard to beat for many years to come.
It was good sportsmanship par excellence, with none of the usual theatrics common today – crying foul and throwing political tantrums.
The caveat being as long as the polling process is free and transparent.
Due largely to its depth and widespread influence upon citizens, political power bestows a sense of immense invincibility and it is safer to practice it with refrain, at arms’ length while avoiding its pitfalls – getting sucked into its numerous trappings.
But that is easier said than done, as anyone who has tasted its nectar will confess.
In that regard, ECL was not alone, as like many of his colleagues in similar dilemmas, he could have opted for the hard decision of letting go, thereby saving himself much grief and heartache.
Political events in 2024 and prior, reveal a common thread that suggests as unpleasant as it might initially seem, accepting that power is not eternal but transient, leads to salvation, while denying it leads to damnation.
Canada
This could perhaps explain why most recently in Canada, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau gifted Canadians with a surprise New Year present by announcing his resignation as leader of the ruling Liberal Party.
“I intend to resign as party leader, as prime minister, after the party selects its new leader,” the 53-year-old told reporters at a press conference in Ottawa on Monday 6th January.
“As you all know, I am a fighter, and I am not someone who backs away from a fight, particularly when a fight is as important as this one is. But I have always been driven by my love for Canada, by my desire to serve Canadians and by what is in the best interest of Canadians and Canadians deserve a real choice in the next election. And it has become obvious to me — with the internal battles — that I cannot be the one to carry the Liberal standard into the next election,” Trudeau later added.
Botswana
In Botswana, despite 58 years of Botswana Democratic Party (BDP) government, the power shift was unexpectedly swift, fostering widespread disbelief given the propensity of liberation political party entitlement.
Voting was on Thursday, 30th October 2024.
Two days later, on Friday 1st November, with preliminary results indicating a landslide victory for the opposition Umbrella for Democratic Change (UDC), Mokgweetsi Masisi did not prolong the agony, sticking around and kicking up a tantrum. Instead, he did the unexpected and conceded.
Defeated after almost six decades in power, Masisi was magnanimous and unequivocal in his acceptance: “The evidence is overwhelming. We lost this election massively,” he told a packed press conference soon after conceding defeat.
“…and we need to come to terms with it!…and make space for the newly-elected leaders, respect them, and support them, so that they can succeed because it’s Botswana’s success that is most important. ”
Mozambique
Mozambique was the exact opposite of Botswana.
Polls on 9th October unleashed a deadly trail of death and destruction. The vote counting and verification process was characteristically machiavelian, lasting unnecessarily long with results withheld. The electoral commission’s confirmation of Frelimo as the victors was on October 24, over two weeks after polling.
Mozambique’s leading opposition Partido Otimista pelo Desenvolvimento de Moçambique (Podemos) fielded Venancio Mondlane as its Presidential candidate.
But on 18th October, Elvino Dias, a Mondlane advisor who was also affiliated to PODEMOS, together with party spokesperson Paulo Guambe, were gunned down in their car by unidentified gunmen in downtown Maputo.
At the time of his death, Dias was preparing to submit a case to the constitutional council contesting the result of the 9th October elections.
On 23rd December, Mozambicans were handed an early Christmas gift when the country’s top court, the constitutional council, upheld Frelimo’s electoral victory, triggering a fresh wave of post election riots and looting in the capital Maputo. Over 300 have died and countless injured in the disturbances that erupted following the poll results.
Mauritius
Like Botswana, Mauritius was equally progressive.
Its opposition Alliance for Change coalition won the country’s 12th election by a landslide, taking all seats in the country’s parliament in a major rejection of Prime Minister Pravind Jugnauth’s Militant Socialist Movement coalition.
Conceding defeat to Pravin Ramgoolam’s Alliance coalition, then Prime Minister Pravind Jagnauth said before all results were announced that his Militant Socialist Movement coalition was headed for a huge defeat as it became clear that the opposition was winning in all of the country’s 21 constituencies.
New Zealand
East of Mauritius across the Indian Ocean two years earlier, Jacinda Ardern, the 40th Prime Minister of New Zealand and leader of the Labour Party, cited occupational burnout as the primary reason for her stepping down.
“I just didn’t have enough in the tank,” to go on as leader, she told a shocked audience.
Ardern was the youngest leader of government in the world when she was elected in 2017, just 37 years old at the time, later becoming a “global icon” for “progressive politics,” noted the BBC on her resignation in January 2023.
Scotland
Soon after the New Zealand shocker in March 2023, Nicola Sturgeon, Scottish First Minister and leader of the Scottish National Party (SNP) announced she was quitting the Scottish Premiership.
In 2016 she was ranked by Forbes as the second most powerful woman in the United Kingdom, after Queen Elizabeth II.
Her quitting seemed to mirror that of her Ozzie colleague Jacinda Ardern.
Having spent just over eight years in the role, she was Scotland’s longest-serving First Minister and as she put it, “giving absolutely everything of yourself to this job is the only way to do it. The country deserves nothing less. But in truth that can only be done, by anyone, for so long.”
“A first minister is never off duty,” she said, pointing out that in this era there is “virtually no privacy”.
She said going for a coffee with friends or for a walk on her own was difficult and that there was an increased “brutality” to life as a politician.
Ireland
In Ireland, Leo Varadkar said he had “no regrets” about standing down as he officially resigned as Taoiseach (Irish Prime Minister).
Varadkar’s decision to step down, after making history as Ireland’s youngest taoiseach at the age of 38 in 2017, was so surprising that, according to reports, not even colleagues from his centre-right party, Fine Gael, saw it coming.
With his party floundering in the polls, the 45-year-old said that another leader – and therefore another Prime Minister – would be “better placed” to tackle the next Irish general election, which must be held no later than March 2025.
“I believe this government can be re-elected,” he said. “I believe a new taoiseach will be better placed than me to achieve that – to renew and strengthen the top team, to refocus our message and policies, and to drive implementation. After seven years in office, I am no longer the best person for that job.”
Britain
In recent years, Britain has seen several Prime Ministers come and go before their time was up, thanks to its vibrant and cut-throat political culture.
David Cameron
David Cameron’s opposition to Brexit is what cost him the premiership. He campaigned for Britain to remain in the EU but citizens voted to leave.
He said upon resigning: “In my view, the circumstances of my resignation as Prime Minister and the realities of modern politics make it very difficult to continue on the backbenches without the risk of becoming a diversion to the important decisions that lie ahead for my successor in Downing Street and the government.”
Theresa May
Speaking in Downing Street upon her resignation following her failure to implement the Brexit process to everyone’s satisfaction, May said it had been “the honour of my life” to serve as Britain’s second female prime minister. Her voice breaking, she said she would leave “with no ill will, but with enormous and enduring gratitude to have had the opportunity to serve the country I love”.
Boris Johnson
For Boris Johnson, his undoing was what came to be dubbed “partygate,” referring to the COVID-19 breaches that allowed parties and booze at 10 Downing Street, his official residence, during the nationwide lockdown.
Specifically, he was sanctioned by the parliamentary Privileges Committee for having misled parliament over the scandal, but Johnson defiantly dubbed the proceedings against him as a “kangaroo court.”
Liz Truss
Serving as Prime Minister for only 45 days, Truss broke the record as Britain’s shortest-serving Prime Minister.
Tax cuts in her “mini budget” reduced the value of the pound, sending the financial markets into a panic and prompting her resignation after a revolt by senior Conservative party members.
“I recognise that, given the situation, I cannot deliver the mandate on which I was elected by the Conservative party. I have therefore spoken to His Majesty the King to notify him that I am resigning as leader of the Conservative party,” she said.
Rishi Sunak
And finally, after 14 years of Conservative government, Rishi Sunak led the party into its worst defeat in history, following Keir Starmer’s Labour party landslide.
“To the country I would like to say first and foremost, I am sorry.
I have given this job my all, but you have sent a clear signal that the government of the United Kingdom must change. And yours is the only judgment that matters.
I have heard your anger, your disappointment, and I take responsibility for this loss,” Sunak said in a speech to voters outside the Prime Minister’s office in Downing Street.
Discover more from MAKANDAY
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
