ACKSON Sejani believes President Edgar Lungu has been isolated from reality and the people by a certain clique.
He argues that President Lungu is absent and far removed from reality at the time the country is fighting various crises.
“This is an example of a leader who is far removed from reality. The Cabinet as we know it is just in name only because the real power rests with the clique we are talking about. So these ministers who are complaining are right. They are not ministers but zombies,” Sejani says.
He says reports of a simmering rebellion against President Lungu by some of his ministers are not coming as a surprise to “some of us”.
The former local government minister in the Frederick Chiluba administration recalled that a few months ago he stated that “there is civil war brewing in PF which will eventually consume the party”.
“This war is between the original Sata-ist true green and some nomadic turncoats from outside PF led by the gang from defeated MMD. This group is a motley of politically vulgar characters who did much to damage former president RB [Rupiah Banda] re-election bid in 2011. It was their insensitive, irresponsible and unpolished political antics and statements that contributed so much to the downfall of Mr Banda,” he said. “We all remember how they took turns in insulting the late president Michael Sata while he was in the opposition. Upon destroying their party and once Mr Sata was no more these nomads migrated to PF, the party founded and popularised by the very man they despised so much including declaring that he would never ever be president of Zambia.”
Sejani said, in PF, they were warmly received with open arms by “one Mr Edgar Chagwa Lungu”. “Nothing wrong with this gesture on the face of it, but there is everything wrong when it is done to squeeze out original members who toiled to bring up the party and helped you get where you are,” he said. “We call this betrayal! There is no other name for it. Once this clique settled in PF it proceeded to isolate President Lungu from reality and the people. Effectively quarantined! That is why the country will jump from one crisis to another and the man they elected to run their affairs is nowhere to be seen or heard. He is AWOL (absent without official leave) as they would say in military parlance. The Commander-In-Chief is AWOL when the nation is fighting various crises. He is kept that way by the clique running the affairs of the country now. When they release him once in a blue moon to starve off public pressure he makes disjointed statements that sometimes confound logic.”
Sejani said even the thought of setting up of a commission of inquiry to investigate the gassing incidences “when his government says they know who is behind them is one case in point”.
“This is an example of a leader who is far removed from reality. The Cabinet as we know it is just in name only because the real power rests with the clique we are talking about. So these ministers who are complaining are right. They are not ministers but zombies,” said Sejani. “With the elective conference approaching these sidelined ministers and members of the Sata-ist true greens have decided to fight back and reclaim their party. This will be an interesting fight!”