“Man’s carnal mind will be quick to defend itself with legal spectacles, ignoring the spiritual ones which can tell when transitional leadership expires.”
Lusaka, June 13 – In this updated article, dating back to 29th April in 2019, Mpandashalo Mwewa hosted Rev. Dr. Lackson Malombola to find a way to communicate to the Patriotic Front (PF), stating that President Edgar Lungu’s leadership was a transitional one which should not even have gone beyond 2016.
Rev. Dr. Malombola knew back then, spiritually, that the mantles of power had departed from President Edgar Lungu but man’s carnal mind is difficult to convince over issues of rulership.
After the loss of their great leader, the PF members needed a quick healing and comfort but that was thrown out through the window when MMD usurped the core values of the party.
Additionally, President Lungu’s transitional rule and his mantles of power took a shaky turn when he allowed the interpretation of the constitution on his tenure of office and when he allowed men around him to build a hedge of isolation.
It was the departure of his mantles of power and a repeat pattern of the mistakes made by other transitional presidents before him. It’s a disaster to be seen consolidating power, as a transitional leader, as opposed to focusing on raising men and women of valour to perpetuate the legacy you enherited to complete and handover.
In the midst of anyone coming with a call for correction to the king, the King must go into introspection and avoid any path of harm.
But man’s carnal mind will be quick to defend itself with legal spectacles, ignoring the spiritual ones which can tell when transitional leadership expires.
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◾Here, then, is the updated article:
Zambia’s presidency has revolved around a transitional type of leadership and mantles or sceptres of power tend to have always left the incumbent presidents way ahead of the elections and voting just becomes a fulfillment of an already departed mantle.
There are however patterns to this transitional leadership that presidents have avoided to grasp and seem to be the main indicators of the transfer of mantles.
This trajectory is still with us and still remains a far fetched reality because I still see a duplicity of the past patterns around the head of President Hichilema.
True to validate this pattern I too still see this transitional pattern amongst the current crop of almost 99 percent of the opposition leaders present.
Is it, however, wrong to tell an incumbent president that your time seems to be up and that it’s time to pass on the batton? Absolutely not. It should, in essence, push a leader for an accelerated mentorship program and probe why that question has come at that particular time.
Prophet Samuel was brave to tell Eli his mentor that mantles of power had shifted. In another case, noticing that the mantles were about to shift from Elijah, Elisha demanded a double portion of that mantle and in both instances the mentors only demanded for honesty.
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It’s disastrous to hold on to power beyond your transitional mandate. The Mushala rebellion and other coup attempts were tale tale signs on Dr. Kaunda’s presidency that the mantle had departed and his transitional rule outlived. Friends were sidelined who should have provided a pivotal role in the transition from colonial rule.
1991 provided another repeat of transitional errors. President Fredrick Chiluba’s transitional leadership was mishandled when the third term debate was allowed. This was the departure of his mantle of power and the eventual mistake of pushing away key friends who would have provided a balance in his transition, apparently, the same mistake KK made.
To sustain the power of the MMD, Levy Patrick Mwanawasa SC, turned against his predecessor by raising the standards against corruption. This move made the Zambian people ignore for a while the need for a departure of the mantles of power from the MMD.
Levy consolidated his power and I strongly believe he would have handed his mantle to a mentee who could have fit in his shoes. Levy was not a transitional leader but was a leader raised to reverse the disorder of past transitions.
President Banda, on the other hand, came purely as a short term transitional leader whose mandate was purely to pass on the batton to another leader and not hold on to power. After Mwanawasa’s full term was completed, posthumously, the mantle departed from him and it was naive to believe that money would come and win him an election in 2011.
Michael Chilufya Sata came in with the same mantles of power like Levy Patrick Mwanawasa that was to see Zambia transformed. Sata was not a transitional leader. I may not speculate on how he would have raised up the leadership had he come to his full term but like Levy, Micheal, too, would have been mandated to raise and hand over power with a full conscious for posterity.
In 2014 after the demise of Micheal Chilufya Sata, Dr. Guy Scott mishandled the transitional dynamics. Instead of acting as a father figure, he drew the lines of divisions and the country was held in the thicket of uncertainty until President Edgar Lungu was dully elected.
Like President Banda, President Lungu came in purely with the mantles of a transitional leader whose mandate was purely to complete Sata’s two terms and harmonise the PF and reduce every level of political tensions.
Harmonise friendships, have a pure open door policy and eliminate any form of a shield beaucracy.
After the loss of their great leader, the PF members needed a quick healing and comfort but that was thrown out through the window when MMD usurped the core values of PF.
Additionally, President Lungu’s transitional rule and his mantles of power took a shaky turn when he allowed the interpretation of the constitution on his tenure of office and when he allowed men around him to build a hedge of isolation.
It’s interesting to note however, that we don’t learn from history because of few gullible and shrewd men who surround the presidency and don’t see the dynamics of the nation from another lense. I say so because of the calls to wanting to bring back a transitional leader whose mandate is over back to rerun the course of unfinished transitional authority.
How ironical is that to fathom? Bring back a transitional leader like ECL or any past presidents as where is nothing but just a continuity of a false form of power of few crooked men who live misguided that only them have providence favoured to turn the wheels of this nation.
Hichilema, too, considers himself out of the cycle of this pattern of transitional leadership that has characterised our pattern of the transfer of power hence his self ego that he is the first one to under score a lot first successes (in his own words).
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It is a misquied phenomenon also borne from a few elements around the presidency that like in the past have made former presidents behave like they are there as the last epitome of leadership.
From my stand point, we are still far into the future to come and have a leader that will not really fall within this pattern of leadership. The current indicators are still ripe for transitional leadership because I can still see a validated leadership print that is cast in the concrete of posterity never to be shaken but to be told over and over.
It’s a disaster to be seen consolidating power, as a transitional leader, as opposed to focusing on raising men and women of valour to perpetuate the legacy you inherited to complete and handover.
In the midst of anyone coming with a call for correction to the king, the King must go into introspection and avoid any path of harm. But man’s carnal mind will be quick to defend itself with legal spectacles, ignoring the spiritual ones which can tell when transitional leadership expires.
Shalom!
About The Author: Rev. Dr. Lackson Malombola is a theologian, leadership analyst, Kingdom politician, CEO and founder of the Global Capstone Center For Leadership Development. He’s reachable via WhatsApp on +260 974 441773
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