It was a picture worth a thousand words.
The two protagonists in the just ended Zambia general elections Edgar Chagwa Lungu and Hikainde Hichilema, the HH of Zambia’s politics, were in a jocular mood on Monday as they conversed after a meeting at the home of Zambia’s fourth President Rupiah Banda.
The duo had thrown mud at each other in the run up to the polls during the battle for the minds of the Zambians but all that was forgotten.
When Lungu was in charge, HH was jailed for treason after he was accused of disregarding a Presidential motorcade. The politician was released after the State withdrew charges.
That animosity that had existed between the pair vanished like dew on that Monday afternoon.
Lungu, who had bungled in the run up to the polls and had the temerity to declare the vote a nullity in some provinces, will exit the scene with his reputation intact after he conceded defeat and promised a peaceful transfer of power.
Across the Atlantic, the man who lost the November polls is still to concede, 10 months on.
The picture has some lessons. One lesson is that there is life after the elections.
Days before, Lungu had alleged rigging and was moving on as if nothing had happened.
For the supporters, they have to root for their preferred candidate in a lawful manner.
You can’t kill for a politician as it will come to haunt you. After the polls, the politician will dust his or herself up and life moves on.
On the continent and locally, there are cases of brother turning against brother all because they root for different candidates.
We have hundreds of most vocal supporters across the political spectrum who are being haunted by avenging spirits of those they would have killed in the name of a politician or a political cause. Elections have been turned into a zero sum game with politicians using every means at their disposal to retain or gain power.
They have inculcated in their supporters an aura of invincibility which has seen the hangers on using every trick for their candidates to win forgetting that win or lose; they go shopping after the polls, according to Imelda Marcos, wife of the late Filipino dictator Ferdinand Emmanuel Edralin Marcos.
Politicians have fuelled matters by telling lies which supporters take hook line and sinker. For the politicians lying and deceiving people is part of the game. They have learnt fast from Machiavelli’s The Prince which calls for one to use force and deception. They lie big and small, white and black. Lying and deception have always been considered perennials of politics (Robinson et al., 2018). After the lies, it’s business as usual.
Economist Thomas Sowell gives a clear definition of politicians. He argued that no one will really understand politics until they understand that politicians are not trying to solve our problems.
“They are trying to solve their own problems—of which getting elected and re-elected are No. 1 and No. 2. Whatever is No. 3 is far behind,” he said. As Zimbabwe goes to the polls in two years, the lessons from Zambia should guide the conduct of supporters.
